Tanita's History

Started gymnastics at the tender age of 5 years, after my mom finally found a gym.

My mom was a very good gymnast, but did not get the right backing (from family and coaches) and opportunities (only did gym at school). She vowed that me and my sister would get all the support she and my dad could muster for whichever sport we tried. This has obviously benefitted me and my sister.

My mom was quite an athlete at school (some of her records still stand). She unfortunately gave up her sports to have me and my sister. She still does weight and fitness training.

My dad is also quite a sportsman. He did all sports at school (rugby, soccer, tennis, etc.) he also had the opportunity to go to England to play football, but declined for various reasons. He now races superbikes, click on the EmTek Racing button to see his web page.

My sister is Chanél Dominiqué Parsons - she is exceptionally good at gymnastics and part of the South African development program. When she reaches 16 we expect some great things from her at international level. Click on her button to the right and that will take you to her web page.

I got some great results at my first competitions and some people noticed (including my parents) that I may have some talent.

During 1999, I left Alberton Gymnastics Club to join Visions Academy of Gymnastics (as Alberton felt they could not advance Chanél enough due to her excessive talent and advised us to move her to Visions). I was quite sad having made good friends and liked my coach quite a bit.

Anyway, Glen at Visions had been after me since my very first competition (asking me to join his club) so off I went.

Since joining Visions I have had my ups and downs. Mostly through injuries, I have missed an entire year's competitions.

I now plan to just enjoy gymnastics and not worry too much about competition, which is very stressful.

CAREER
YEAR	LEVEL	CLUB	COACH
1997	Bronze	Alberton Gymnastics Club	Maryna
1998	Gold	Alberton Gymnastics Club	Maryna
1999	Level 4	Alberton Gymnastics Club	Maryna
2000	Level 5	Visions Academy of Gymnastics	Wendy
2001	Level 7	Visions Academy of Gymnastics	Glenn/Christa
2002	Level 7	Visions Academy of Gymnastics	Christa
2003	Level 8	Visions Academy of Gymnastics	Liezl
2004

INJURIES
YEAR	DETAILS
1997
1998	Osgood Schlaetters disease Elbow and Knee
1999	Broken ankle
2000
2001
2002	Tore all ligament in ankle and diagnose with scoliosis of the spine
2003	Finally found out that my entire back, neck and jaw were severely misalligned when I had a car accident in 1993 (jeezz I am getting old)..... this has caused many problems over the years.
2004