Caitlin Rooskrantz

Rooskrantz is a member of Johannesburg Gymnastics Centre,[1][2] and started gymnastics at the age of eight.[3] Between 2015 and 2017, Rooskrantz dislocated her fingers on five separate occasions.[2] In 2016, she came second in the junior all-around event at the African Artistic Gymnastics Championships.[4] At the 2016 Junior Commonwealth Games in Namibia, Rooskrantz came second in the vault event, third in the bars event, and second in the all-around event.[5] Rooskrantz made her senior debut at the 2017 Koper Challenge Cup, finishing fifth in the uneven bars event.[1] She was not selected for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, due to fitness concerns.[2] In 2018, she won the uneven bars event at the African Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and the all-around event at that year's South African National Championships.[1][6] As a result of her national championship win, Rooskrantz qualified for the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar.[6] That year, she also participated in a training camp in Frankfurt, Germany.[7]

In 2019, she won the uneven bars[8] Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Challenge event in Szombathely, Hungary.[2][3] She was the first South African to win a medal at an international gymnastics competition.[3][9] At the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Rooskrantz qualified for the all-around event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[10] She was the fourth South African artistic gymnast to qualify for the Olympics since South African re-introduction in 1992,[10] and was the first South African artistic gymnast to qualify for the Olympics since Zandre Labuschagne in 2004.[2] Rooskrantz was one of the first person of colour artistic gymnasts to represent South Africa,[2] along with Naveen Daries, who also competed at the Games.[11] As the 2020 Summer Olympics were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rooskrantz livestreamed the routine that she would have performed at the Games in August 2020.[12] She finished 61st in the qualifying stage of the event, and did not qualify for any apparatus final;[13] her score at the Games was a personal best.[11]

Rooskrantz won a gold medal on the uneven bars at the 2022 World Cup event in Cairo, Egypt.[14] She also won the uneven bars event at the 2022 African Artistic Gymnastics Championships.[15] She came third in the uneven bars event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[16] She also finished 9th in the final of the individual all-around event,[17] and 12th in qualification for the women's floor event, and did not qualify for the final.[18] She was also part of the South African team that finished fourth in the artistic team all-around event.[19]

Rooskrantz attended Parktown High School for Girls.[20] She comes from an athletic family: her father played football and her older brother was involved in field hockey and cricket.[2] Her father died when she was eight.[2] Her mother gave up working full-time as a nurse to support Rooskrantz's gymnastics career.[1] Rooskrantz had planned to have a gap year to focus on competing at the Olympics, though those plans were changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[21] Caitlin is the first South African gymnast to qualify for the Olympics through competition.

• Caitlin Rooskrantz at the International Gymnastics Federation