After reaching the podium with Australia at the Commonwealth Games, gymnast Georgia-Rose Brown will fulfill her long-awaited Olympic dream in Paris with the New Zealand Leopards.
Born in the Australian state of Queensland, in the eastern part of the country, Brown, who is based in Melbourne, will represent New Zealand in the all-around at the age of 29 after topping the uneven bars at the recent World Cup. Qualifying events.
Brown, who won three medals at the Commonwealth Games between 2014 and 2018, decided to switch links last year, with the approval of Gymnastics Australia and the International Olympic Committee in January.
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The change spurred new momentum for a gymnast who had long longed for an Olympic suit but never managed to qualify.
“Team New Zealand has welcomed me very well. I’ve had an incredible experience in the first four months of the year,” he told reporters on Thursday after being confirmed in the Olympic team.
“It was a whirlwind, but it was crazy, and it was really — probably to this day — the highlight of my career.”
Athletes from Australia and New Zealand once represented a single Australian team at the Olympics, until they competed under their own flags at the 1920 Games in Antwerp.
The trans-Tasman nations have long enjoyed their rivalry in international sport, particularly rugby and cricket, although they occasionally lament athletes representing the other side crossing the “gulf”.
However, Brown’s transition only created good vibes on both sides and some jokes from friends and colleagues.
“They say, ‘Where’s your accent? We want to hear it,'” Brown says with a laugh.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing in Spanish by Hector Espinosa)
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