Danusia May Francis was born May 13th, 1994. She started gymnastics as a 5-year-old when she was enrolled in classes at Premier recreational gym club as a way for her to burn off some excess energy. A few months later she moved to nearby Coventry Olympic GC, a community-oriented club with limited resources, based at the compact Warwick University gym. Here she came under the wing of Gordon ‘Tex’ Coton. Danusia’s mum Wanda Tebby became a qualified coach at Coventry, and she helped with her daughter’s training. The youngster’s talent was such that, by the time she was 8, she was also travelling to Lilleshall National Sports Centre once or twice a week to train with master coaches Colin and Christine Still and their Park Wrekin elite squad. On top of this she had a weekly session with Karen Edwards at Coalville GC in Leicestershire.

Unfortunately the Coventry club closed in the summer of 2003, leaving Danusia without a home gym. A solution to this problem was provided by the partnership of St David’s School and the powerhouse Heathrow Gymnastics Club on the outskirts of London. Danusia was awarded a very valuable full gymnastics scholarship to board at St David’s, giving her access to top quality coaching and facilities at the Heathrow gym, as well as a top quality education. At Heathrow Danusia now trains around 20 hours a week under the guidance of head coach Vince Walduck and his team that includes former Soviet world champion Natalia Ilienko-Jarvis, Michele Walduck, Patsy Burrell and Mihaela Ford among others. She is currently the youngest member of Heathrow’s top squad, Senior Squad 1, and the youngest boarder at St David’s. It was a brave decision to move away from her home and family at the age of just 9, but despite occasional homesickness, Danusia has settled well into her new school and gym and made many friends. One of her new teammates and fellow boarders is another former Coventry girl, GB International Lamara Robb.

Danusia already has a remarkable competitive history. In addition to her national successes, she was all-around champion in the youngest category of the Heathrow Teddy Tournament for three years in a row, winning for the first time just after her 7th birthday! In 2002 she was crowned overall regional 8-year-old champion for the West Midlands, won the level 4 event at the Bugs Invitational, and led her West Midlands Metropolitan team to the John Reeves Inter-county title, posting the highest score of the day against gymnasts up to 3 years her senior. In 2003 she partnered Heathrow’s Jessica Hawkins to win the LGF twin piece comp by 5 clear marks, and placed 12th on floor at the prestigious Cumbernauld Classique where she was competing against many senior internationals. By the end of that year her floor routine was already scoring around 8.3 at full FIG Code level. Danusia was one of 10 top British age group gymnasts chosen to attend a World Class Start international training camp in Deva, Romania in 2004. She was also part of the St David’s School team that qualified to 2 national finals in Sports Acrobatics and Tumbling, achieving the highest score in the Under-16s!

Danusia enjoys the support of her family, including older brother Joe (16), sister Leah (11) and younger brother Yan (8). She has a pet cat, Cassie. In her spare time she likes swimming and playing out. Danusia is a big fan of pop band Busted and loves to watch her favourite TV shows, ‘Home & Away’ and ‘Casualty’. She enjoys pizza, pasta, curry “and every other food in the world except sprouts”, says her mum! Her favourite gymnasts are Becky Owen and former Coventry clubmate Laura Bateman, a British GMPD (disabilities) Champion. When she grows up, she hopes to become a physiotherapist.

It will be 2012 before Danusia is old enough to compete in an Olympic Games, but that is her ultimate ambition in the sport. Only time will tell whether she can make the transition from junior phenom to senior champ. Nevertheless, the youngster’s hard work, commitment and love for gymnastics, combined with help and support from various sources, have taken her a long way in a short space of time, and her future looks very bright.