Return to top level a triumph
The sport has been her passion for as long as she can remember and she is breaking down walls to help give back to the next generation.
Strickland started rhythmic gymnastics as a child in Australia and continued when her family moved to Nelson in 2012.
The 26-year-old was the national level eight and level nine champion in her final two years of school, in 2015 and 2016, before her coach retired, leaving Strickland to take a break as well.
Strickland, who is now at level 10, kept an eye on the sport, and when a position for an athlete adviser on the national rhythmic technical committee came up in 2021, she jumped at the chance to help.
It was after landing in Dunedin for her career as a union organiser for the New Zealand Nurses Organisation that Strickland competed in a masters competition and realised she still had what it took.
Returning to fulltime competition in 2023 had been hard after a nearly seven-year break, but had been worth it, Strickland said.
She qualified as part of a 14-strong team from New Zealand that competed in the Koop Cup in Canada earlier this year.
The event was combined with the aesthetic group gymnastics world cup — "that brought an extra energy to it" — where she placed seventh out of 27 gymnasts in ribbon.
The squad then headed to the Manitoba provincial championships, where she placed second overall, and she backed that up with fourth overall at an event in Christchurch.
"It feels really, really good that despite the fact that I'm now 26, I'm still improving and getting back better," she said.
"From my first year in 2023, placing last most of the time, I'm now up there and can actually hold my own."
Last month, she also won two trophies for being the level 10 Otago champion and earning the highest score in Otago at the Otago rhythmic gymnastics championships.
The sport helped Strickland fuel her creative side. She picked her own music and designed and decorated her own leotards, which her coach, Keita McComb, then sewed.
Strickland, who trains with Astra Gymnastics at the Caledonian, loved working with McComb, who is also the chairwoman of the national rhythmic technical committee.
Strickland described her as a pillar of the rhythmic community.
If there was one thing that drew her back to the floor, it was her love of the sport.
"I'm so incredibly passionate about rhythmic gymnastics," Strickland said.
"It just makes me really happy and I never wanted to stop competing — it was just circumstances."
Strickland — the oldest active competitive rhythmic gymnast in New Zealand — is giving back to the sport through the national technical committee, which introduced a restructure of the level system recently.
She is also the chairwoman of the national athletes council, which was created in the past few years to provide an avenue for athletes to provide feedback and inform decisions.
"Something I also feel personally passionate about is helping gymnasts stay in the sport for longer.
"I mean, it is hard when you're an adult ... for me, it's just so worth it."
Giving back had always been important to Strickland, to help change the landscape of the sport.
Through the years she had seen a lot of good in the sport, but there had been some "not so good" as well, and making sure young gymnasts were protected and had a positive experience was crucial.
"Historically, there is a reason why gymnasts retire so young and that's because their minds and bodies can't continue, but we've seen a really big shift from that over the past few years.
"Gymnastics New Zealand has done a really good job at helping move away from how things used to be.
"Making sure that gymnasts aren't pushed to do extreme moves, or aren't being coached in a way that is unhealthy for them mentally, makes an insanely big difference in people being able to continue."
Strickland, who is also a judge, loved the people in the sport and counted herself lucky to train at various clubs throughout the country when she was on the road for work.
kayla.hodge@odt.co.nz
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