SPORT: FEATURE STORY
PICTON teenage gymnast Chelsea Palmer has dazzled at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi and returned with a mammoth five-medal haul.
The 17-year-old, who has an intellectual disability, was crowned second overall in level two artistic gymnastics, as well as picking up silver and bronze medals in vault, floor, beam and bars.
Mum Melissa Palmer said Chelsea, this week’s Macarthur Chronicle Local Sports Star Inspiration Award nominee, never expected to achieve so much success on an international stage.
“Chelsea went to a national Special Olympics Games when she was 12 or 13, but she was too young to go to the worlds,” she said.
“Her dream from then was to go to the next Special Olympics World Games and she actually got to experience her dream. She was just over the moon that she was actually chosen to go over. She was beside herself.”
Palmer, a Year 12 student at John Therry High School and gymnastics coach at PCYC Minto, braved a last minute injury scare to compete at the games.
“She actually hurt herself before she went overseas, a ligament in her shoulder and dislocated it,” Melissa Palmer said. “She just strapped herself up and off she went.”
Chelsea Palmer has now set her sights on the 2023 Special Olympics World Games in Germany.
b Local Sports Stars is proudly sponsored by Featherdale Wildlife Park and Bankstown Sports Club. Categories include Junior Sports Star, Team of Excellence, Inspiration Award and Service to Sport.
Author: Daniel McGookin