How a teen Olympic prospect lifted the lives of 500 Aussies and Kiwis during bleak COVID-19 crisis
How brilliant teen Olympic Games prospect Lidiia Iakovleva lifted the morale and skill level of more than 500 gymnastic peers across Australia and New Zealand during the COVID-19 health crisis.
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Brilliant Queensland Olympic prospect Lidiia Iakovleva has been lauded around the country and in New Zealand for an online training program that the lifted morale of fellow gymnasts during the bleak COVID-19 crisis.
As the COVID-19 black cloud approached in late March, the 16-year-old Manly West resident from Brisbane’s Aspire Gymnastics Academy emailed rhythmic gymnastic clubs around Australia and New Zealand, offering them free online training with her.
Iakovleva said she was amazed at an “overwhelming response’’ from the clubs wanting to participate.
More than 500 gymnastics from 18 clubs across five different time zones responded to Iakovleva’s offer, resulting in the Australian world championship representative pouring more than 90 hours into training online over the last two months.
“Lidiia’s commitment was to conduct online training classes for each of the clubs and gymnasts providing them with one class of 1.5 hours per week,’’ explained her father Ivor.
Training classes offered included warm-ups, strength and toning advice, strengthening exercises, floor ballet tips, a variety of exercises to improve the quality of body difficulties, ball warm-up sessions, ribbon handling, cardio and endurance exercises.
Lidiia said she wanted to help her sporting peers during a period of world doom and gloom.
She was initially disappointed to have the Tokyo Olympic Games postponed until 2021, but opted to turn a negative into a positive by helping others.
“So she decided she would try and keep all other young gymnasts motivated and focused with the sport that she love so much,’’ he said.
Ivor said her work was warmly received across Australia and New Zealand, with the following comments reflecting the community’s appreciation.
+ It has been extremely beneficial for our athletes and they have all really enjoyed your classes! It will be sad not to see you each Wednesday - Le Ray Gymnastics NSW
+ Thank you so very much for all of the time you gave up to teach us. We are so grateful, it was such a positive experience working with you - Mitcham Gymnasts SA
+Thank you so much for all your great classes with the Xtreme girls! They’ve definitely learned lots of new things - Xtreme NZ Gymnastics
+ Lidiia, I can’t thank you enough for your online classes, your classes have helped to keep our girls motivated and taught them some skills to make them push themselves too - Illusions Rhythmic Gymnastics QLD
+Thank you for your work with the girls, it has been greatly appreciated and I know they have enjoyed the sessions. It’s a shame we will not have training with you anymore. One more time, thank you! We have learned a lot from you, but the main thing- it was a real support for our gymnasts in this difficult time. You are an inspiration to girls - YMCA of Queanbeyan Gymnasts NSW
+ Thank you so much for the online classes. My gymnasts truly enjoyed it. You were absolutely amazing with them - Synergy Gymnastics Academy NSW
+ The girls have really enjoyed their time with you and we will continue to practice everything you have taught in our own lessons. We thank you for your generosity in offering these classes for free, and wish you all the best in your training and competitions -
GSSA Gymnastics Centre NSW
+ Thank you for your classes over the past few weeks. To give up your time and knowledge during this time was extremely selfless and very much appreciated - Shire Rhythmic Gymnastics NSW
+ It was very generous of you to take time out of your Sundays to share your knowledge and enthusiasm with our gymnasts. It is always hard to gage through a screen so you might not know, but the girls were excited and very inspired to be working with you - Glen Iris Gymnastics VIC
+ Thank you for the training sessions, the girls really enjoyed them. We wish you luck in the future with your gymnastics and again thank you for sharing your knowledge - Tanjule RG Club
+ Thank you so much for giving up your time to take the Strathcona gymnasts for the zoom classes. They really enjoyed the work they did with you and loved that it was different to anything they had done previously - Strathcona Gymnastics VIC
+ I want to thank you so much for your wonderful classes, our gymnasts enjoyed them so much and were really inspired by you - Allegro Rhythmic Gymnastics SA
+ I would like to thank you for your generous time in helping my students. They have thoroughly enjoyed it and you have pushed them a little to try new things and kept their love of RG going in this unprecedented time - Pymble Rhythmic Gymnastics NSW
Huge thanks Lidiia for the series of online masterclasses for our High Performance gymnasts.!
It was a great experience, we learned a lot and we really appreciated your efforts - Aelita Rhythmic Gymnastics SA
Iakovleva is one of the most outstanding young rhythmic gymnasts in the world who was the baby of the Australian team which competed at the 2019 world championship after representing Australia at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
Iakovleva said she was back in the gym training about 30 hours per week after initially being confined to her home garage gym.
“I have again turned my focus to targeting the Olympic Games that has been now postponed to July 2021 in Tokyo Japan,’’ the Moreton Bay College past student said.