The Secret Lives Of Sportswomen, Part 3: Danielle Prince

Female athletes are intriguing, inspiring, multidimensional women – it’s not all training and bulk-buy protein powder. We guarantee they are at least as interesting as those other #fitspo chicks you follow on Insta. So, in the lead-up to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games (April 4-15), we take a peek inside their lives and minds. Meet Olympic rhythmic gymnast Danielle Prince…

- Alice Ellis

How’s this for impressive? Danielle Prince trains for 30 hours a week to perform a 90-second recital during competition. “Not a lot of time to show all of that effort and all the work behind it, so the pressure is high,” she says. No kidding! “You put your heart and soul into your routines, you do all the gym training, strength training, pilates, gymnastics, ballet. And then when it comes to the competition, sometimes you get torn apart and they say, ‘That’s rubbish, you need to try harder.’ That’s challenging, particularly when you’re younger. And often in sports like gymnastics, we’re perfectionists – you’re always trying to obtain the unobtainable.”

But the big question? How does Prince bounce back? “I’ve taught myself over the years that it’s not personal. Everybody wants you to be the best gymnast you can possibly be. You have to be able to try to channel that frustration and disappointment into your next training session. I find it easier to look from training session to training session.”

Real life theatre

Gymnastics, particularly the rhythmic kind, isn’t a sport we see much of outside the big multisport events such as the Olympics and Comm Games. But, when we do see it, we lap it up. “The amount of people that I’ve had say to me, ‘Ooh, I’ve got tickets to the final,’ and I’m like, ‘I didn’t even know you knew what rhythmic gymnastics was!’”