In his final year of competitive gymnastics, Isaiah Wong is headed to nationals.
The 17-year-old Dynamyx Gymnastic Club athlete is one of eight young men to be representing Alberta at the Canadian Championships in Montreal, Quebec.
“It definitely feels like playing with the big kids now at nationals,” Wong said.
For Wong, this tournament will be his swan song. The upcoming Ross Sheppard High School graduate is in his final year of competitive gymnastics. The multi-sport athlete has been juggling high school, competitive gymnastics, as well as wushu, a competitive Chinese martial art, which he also competes at on a national level.
“Next year I’m going into engineering at the U of A and everyone tells me how hard that first year is, so I don’t expect to be able to train too much,” he said.
Wong has been a member of the St. Albert based Dynamyx Gymnastics Club since a young age. He’s been competing competitively since then, participating in provincial championships and three Western Canadian championships, winning a gold medal in vault in 2016.
“I probably started around four or five,” he said. “I started the pre-competitive program when I was pretty young, and then I started competing around when I was eight.”
Right now, however, training for the upcoming competition is his priority. Wong’s coach Kelly Baird said he’s been working extra hard to make an impact the nationals.
“Ever since we found out Isaiah had a shot to go to nationals, he’s been very driven,” said Baird. “He’s worked very hard to get the certain skills that I’ve required him to do.”
Team Alberta’s coaches thought the provincial team was lacking on the vault and rings events. Wong, through his experience, plans to provide the team with some stability where it’s needed.
Rather than personal performance, Baird and Wong have been working to help Alberta’s overall standing.
“I want him to be successful and contribute to Alberta’s overall finish,” she said. “He’s done really well in vault lately, so we’ve worked on that and a more difficult rings routine.”
Being a strong and well rounded athlete contributed in Wong’s qualification to nationals. The top four gymnasts in Alberta automatically qualify for nationals, with the final four going on coach’s recommendation. Wong, while not making one of the top four spots, was recommended because of his strength in all six events.
“Wong is an all around gymnast and he does compete on all six apparatus,” Baird said. “So that helped him qualify for the spot because they really needed someone who could perform on all pieces of equipment.”
Wong also shares the same ‘team first’ attitude that his coach has.
“Vault is my strongest for sure, you want to help out the team and the other guys, so I’m going to work my best on rings and vault.”
His personal expectations currently are conservative. He earned a silver medal most recently during provincials in Fort McMurray in April. He hopes to repeat his performance and finish strong on the national stage.
“I don’t expect to win much at all, it’s my first year at this level,” Wong said. “It definitely would be nice to place somewhere on vault, that’s my goal.”
For Baird, having Wong succeeding and performing at such a high level has been great for Dynamyx.
“He’s a terrific role model,” she said. “All the boys look up to him, they see what he has done with his career and they’re looking forward to their own careers and watching what he’s accomplished. It’s great having him here.”
