Its been awhile since I've done an Most Important Gymnast. But now, I am doing one on the team who didn't get in the team finals in London. But I was tracking team Australia's progress over the years, and based on the current team, I had decided who the MIG is on this event. She was an amazing athlete and set history for her country, this gymnast is.............
Lauren Mitchell of Perth, Australia. As soon as Lauren stepped onto the senior scene in 2007, she won the Australian balance beam final. Also, she went to the 2007 Worlds, where she and her teammates worked their hearts out and finished in a devastating 11th place in team finals, despite an amazing performance by the Australians. But, she broke off from the team devastation and burrowed her way into the balance beam final, where she placed a very respectful fifth place, a new record for Australia. Lauren had so much fun at Worlds that she continued to go on to more International Competitions, Including the DTB Cup where she managed to medal silver on balance beam, and bronze on floor. She also competed on the Good Luck Beijing Event, an opener for the Olympics that would happen the next year. Where she won the silver on beam, with a super competitive field.
In 2008, Lauren helped her team get into the team finals. Sure, they didn't medal, but they tried as hard as they could, and placed in 6th.
Even after the thrill of the Olympic stage, the exhaustion, our friend Lauren wasn't done yet. She was back in 2009. Believe it or not, our beam and floor gymnast was a great all arounder, where she took first place at the Australian Nationals, grabbing her first National Title. At the same Nationals, she also won titles on uneven bars, her second to weakest event, beam, and floor. In October at the 2009 London World Championships, Mitchell finished fourth all-around by only 0.025, which was especially disappointing since she took a 0.1 deduction on floor for stepping out of bounds.She won two silver medals at the event, one in on the floor and one on balance beam.
At the 2010 Worlds, Lauren made history for Australia by winning the gold medal on floor exercise, before Lauren Australia had never gotten a World Title. Also, at the Delhi Cup, Lauren won the gold medal with her team
In 2011, Lauren competed at the American Cup, placing sixth in the all around final
In 2012, Lauren faced devastating along with the rest of the Australian Team, placed outside of the team competition. She was devastated because this was her last year of competition, and she wanted to make it into the finals. Lauren also got into the floor finals, where she missed out on the medals, missed out on making history for team Australia.
Even though Lauren lost out on team and floor finals in London, Lauren was the team leader of the Australian Squad, and she was the most experienced on the Australian Team. I was devastated when Lauren announced her retirement after the Olympic Games. She did not retire out of devastation. Lauren was done because of her uber successful routine. She was just out of gas after the Games. She wanted to live a chilled life with no chalk. No vault, bars. beam, or floor exercises in sight.
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