Artistic roller skater Caitlyn Peck is on the up and up.
The 18-year-old Logan local is the current Queensland champion in Figures and Solo Dance and is well on her way to becoming a global super-star as she sets her sights on the World Skate Cup Final in August.
This is part of the circuit leading to the World Championships in Argentina in October later this year.
Ms Peck began skating in 2012 and was competing at a national level by 2015.
The young gun won her first international gold medal in 2017 as part of the Australian team in the Oceania Championships held in Brisbane.
On top of training 20 hours or more each week, she’s a part-time worker and is studying a Bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology at the University of Queensland.
“I’m waking up at like, 4.30 in the morning, and then training in the morning, and then going to work and then uni, and then in the afternoon going back to skating, and then you know, not going to bed until 10 o’clock at night,” she said.
Ms Peck also credits hard work and dedication to being able to bounce back from a devastating knee injury in 2018.
“It made me stronger,” she said.
“I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and was off skates for a year, I did it playing basketball of all things.
“I was completely off for that 12 months, and I was going through, like recovery and off-skates work.
“And then in 2019 I came back and I went straight back into competitions and I won all the local competitions and state championships and nationals.”
In 2020 she had another setback; the first wave of Covid restrictions meant she had to sit out of competitions for another year.
“But we trained outside because all the venues were closed, so we had to do a lot of off-skates-work and outdoor court work,” she said.
“And that definitely made me stronger as well because those netball courts are made of different surfaces than what we usually compete and train on.”
Ms Peck’s parents Tammy and Greg have been involved in artistic roller skating since the 1980s and Caitlyn has been determined to follow in their footsteps, also crediting them as her biggest supporters.
“I have to give credit to my parents who are also my coaches,” she said.
“My dad used to coach back when I was first introduced to skating and I would chuck my skates on and just started skating around, and I just slowly built my skills up.
“I think that’s one of my main motivations in skating as well. Like when I compete, I always want to impress my parents and impress my coaches.”
Mr Peck says Caitlyn has what it takes to make it to the next level.
“She is very industrious, highly motivated and disciplined,” he said. “She truly is the best child and student anyone in our positions as parents and coaches could ask for.”
The World Championships are in Argentina in late October.
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