There is one Olympic spot for a NZ gymnast, and Reece Cobb is aiming for it.
A top gymnast fighting for an Olympics spot learned of her mum’s devastating cancer just days before heading overseas to compete against the world’s best - including superstar Simone Biles.
Seventeen-year-old Reece Cobb, from Tauranga, says juggling her mother’s breast cancer news while competing against her heroes of the sport in France and Belgium “was quite hard”.
“I definitely had to put it aside ... but obviously, she was always in the back of my head. Like, ‘I can do this for mum’.”
Reece’s mother, Miranda Cobb, joined Reece overseas last month but had to return to New Zealand early for urgent surgery.
October is breast cancer awareness month. It is New Zealand’s third most common cancer; about 3300 women and 25 men are diagnosed each year.
Reece told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend her mother’s cancer “definitely pushed me”.
“I didn’t want to let her down and I knew I just had to keep pushing because she believes in me, she knows I can do it.
“As soon as I came back, I went and saw her straight away in the hospital and she just gave me a big hug and said she’s so proud of me for everything I’ve achieved.”
Reece, of Tainui descent, trains up to five hours a day six days a week at the Impact Gymsport Academy at Baypark, Mount Maunganui.
“I have Sunday as a break off and then I go to wake up, go to school, come straight from school to here, and train from four to eightish and then go home and repeat, every day,” she says.
Reece says her parents took her to gymnastics when she was about 6.
“At first, my coach Ebony [Matenga] didn’t think I was very good and then she trialled me and I smashed out like five chin ups and she’s like, ‘right, you’re in’.
This grit has since been evident throughout Reece’s sporting career.
The Aquanis College student is 2023 New Zealand’s Gymnast of the Year and is ranked No 1 NZ senior female international gymnast for the second consecutive year. She is ranked second in Oceania, an area comprising Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.
Reece has also been awarded the school’s Megan Braid trophy for best female sports performance.
The accolades were rewarding but there were other benefits from gymnastics, she says.
“I really like the courage that comes with it, and the determination - like, to be the best and set goals for yourself and achieve them and [with that] comes resilience.
Olympic gymnast hopeful Reece Cobb. Photo / Alex Cairns
“It makes you feel good because it feels like you’ve accomplished something that you’ve always dreamed of.”
The Olympics has always been a goal of Reece’s. To qualify for Paris, she must compete in international competitions and place high enough to gain enough points.
But there is only one Olympic women’s artistic gymnastics spot for New Zealand.
Reece will travel to Germany, Doha, Baku and Egypt in February with the aim of qualifying.
She has not long returned from Australia for the Oceania Championships, France for the World Cup Challenge, and Belgium for the World Championships - where she competed among the best such as Biles.
“She’s like the best gymnast in history and to be able to be in the same arena as her, competing against her, is just insane,” Reece says.
“She came back from 2020 Tokyo with a massive mental illness, the twisties, so she got lost in her tumbling and so she had to pull out of the Olympics and then she was going to retire but then she came around, trained real hard and came back to the next world [championships].
“So just her overcoming her fears and just showing that anyone can do it is just amazing.”
Reece says there is a lot of pressure in the sport, especially because new skills and moves are often “scary” but as an athlete, she has to push through the fear.
In recent weeks, Reece’s mother has been her inspiration and motivation.
“It was so scary but I just knew that I had to go there and do it for my mum and show her that I could do it.”
Reece says each athlete has to pay their own way to go to the competitions “which is so expensive and we don’t get any funding for this”.
“As a parent, you don’t have a choice - you have to support the child as much as you can. It’s not fair to them not to give them every opportunity you can.”
New Zealand top gymnast Reece Cobb on the beam. Photo / Supplied
Miranda says Reece’s excellence is through a culmination of years of sacrifice, hard work and unrelenting dedication.
She could not be prouder.
Miranda’s cancer has gone, for now. She is recovering from a single mastectomy and reconstruction but recovery is going to be “a long journey”, she says.
Being able to travel with Reece before coming home for surgery was incredibly special and she hopes to cheer her on at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
For Reece, the goal is so important, that the only days between now and then that she plans not to be training are Sundays, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, she says.
“It’s been so stressful, we’ve had lots of ups and downs and to show that I can do it and I can just pull through and just show how much I’m grateful for the opportunity I’ve been given ... I’ve just got to keep pushing.”
Signs of breast cancer
A new lump or thickening
An inverted nipple
Nipple discharge
Crusty nipple
Dimples, puckering or dents
Reddened, orange peel-like skin
Unusual breast pain
Source - NZ Breast Cancer Foundation
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
