10:24am Thursday 3rd July 2008
By Joe Ware
Gymnast Katie Moffat will get her first taste of Olympic action aged just 13 when she travels to Beijing this summer as part of the British Olympic Ambition Programme.
The Stanton St Quintin starlet has been earmarked for 2012 Olympic success and the British Olympic Association are keen for future British medal hopefuls to get a feel for the games before they have to compete themselves.
In the past five summer Olympics, 70 per cent of Britain's gold medal winners enjoyed previous Olympic experience and that figure went up to 75 per cent in Athens.
Katie, who is a member of the Wiltshire School of Gymnastics in Melksham, is thrilled with her invite to Beijing.
She said: "I'm very excited, it's going to be a great experience.
"We're hopefully going to watch a few different events and I think we have tickets for the apparatus finals.
"We'll be there about week to ten days but hopefully we won't just be sat on our bums the whole time."
Although not old enough to compete at this year's Olympics, Katie impressed the British selectors with her sixth-placed junior finish in the British Championships in Guildford last weekend.
Tim Peake from British Gymnastics said: "She was very impressive and she won bronze in the floor event.
"She is basically the sixth best junior gymnast in Britain.
"The full Olympic squad was selected this weekend so she was competing in front of British gymnastics' top brass."
Katie has been a keen gymnast for seven years and is looking forward to 2012.
She said: "When I was young I always liked jumping around and climbing out of my bed.
"I'm not ready to take part in the Olympics yet, but by the time I'm 16 I'll be able to do bigger moves. My favourite event is the beam, it's the most fun because I get to learn harder moves."
Katie trains for seven hours twice a week and for four hours three times a week.
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