Janine Murray Prepares for Show Time

Australia’s rhythmic gymnastics wildcard entrant, WAIS athlete Janine Murray will draw inspiration from watching her team-mates over the past 12 days when she makes her Olympic debut at Wembley Arena on Day 13 (Thursday).

As one of the last events in the program to be contested, the 22-year-old has been resigned to watching her team-mates on television while training and trying to focus on her event.

“”I haven’t managed to get out to any competition yet, but I have watched it on TV and it has been very inspiring,” said Murray.

“I moved out of the Village to a hotel close to Wembley on Monday to get away from the distractions. It’s been fantastic and I’ve had a lot of fun, but now it’s time to focus.

“I have had two podium sessions and two other training sessions over the past two days and they went pretty well. Nothing is worrying me.”

The Zimbabwe-born gymnast is one of four wildcards in the field of 24, qualifying as the Oceania representative.

“The expectations of me are not huge because I qualified as a wildcard,” she said.

“I just want to go out there and perform my best so I can have the best competition of my life.

“If I can walk away as the top-ranked wildcard that would be icing on the cake for me.”

Murray said when she moved from Harare, Zimbabwe, to Perth, Western Australia, 10 years ago, she never imagined she would one day represent Australia at an Olympic Games.

“I just set myself small goals each year; one competition at a time,” Murray said.

“Then slowly it all set into play. It wasn’t something I aspired to for my whole gymnastics career.

“I am just shocked to be here.”

Murray said her potential to compete at a high level first started to become a reality when she made the Australian squad for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in her first year of senior competition.