After breaking or damaging nearly every part of her body except her for elbows, gymnast Cara Forster's main hope for the NZ Masters Games 2023 is to avoid injury.
The games – held from February 3-12 – is the largest multisport competition in the country.
Whanaganui is the host this year, with thousands of participants competing in more than 60 codes.
Among them will be gymnast Cara Forster, who is head coach at Argos Gymnastics Club. The 24-year-old last competed three years ago.
Getting back into the wild world of competition, Cara says: 'It's mixed emotions. I'm excited for it but also after the competition I'm always so sore and tired but I'm looking forward to getting back into it and seeing everyone again”.
Taking up gymnastics at the age of five, today Cara's main hope for Masters is to return unscathed. 'I have way too many injuries,” says Cara. 'The only body part I haven't injured doing gymnastics is my elbows, otherwise everything else has been injured.”
She will compete in the women's intermediate artistic category, showing her skills in beam, vault and floor. Cara says that ‘floor' is her top pick for competing in. 'You just get to dance around on the floor and do flips. It's so much fun.”
Cara will head to Masters with three fellow Argos gymnasts – NaNyce Johnson, Brad Foster and Katharina Kersten.
'We've been training gymnastics but we haven't had something to work towards in a while so we just kind of want to go out, have fun and enjoy competing again.”
Next year Cara plans to compete in the advanced category, saying she thrives off the way you have to push yourself in gymnastics. 'It's just the challenge, and coming across a skill or technique that you don't get quite straight away and just working hard and then finally overcoming it.”