Soaring above the crowd

SOARING

ABOVE THE CROWD

For a remarkably well-grounded young woman, Sienna French flies. She scythes through the air with exquisite grace. The apparent effortlessness and fluidity of her movement belies the extraordinary athleticism and courage required to reach the heights necessary to execute breathtaking tumbles, turns and mid-air manoeuvres. She lands and stands. Just for a second, there’s a stillness and calm about her; only her breathing indicates what she has just done. And then she climbs down from the trampoline.

Quite evidently, there are people who are good at things and some who are unusually talented. But there are only a few people who are, simply put, brilliant. Sienna is honest about her ability and love of an athletic discipline that as much chose her as she chose it. Very soon after she got on a trampoline at a gym in the UK, where her family was living at the time, people started to take notice. Observers started to say: “Wow! That’s not what you see every day.”

She is philosophical about the demands that being a high-performing athlete at a young age puts on her. Sienna is also candid about the commitment that is required to master the sheer physicality associated with being on an Olympic trajectory. But she still loves it – most of the time.

There’s physio to reduce the pain of training, strength sessions to maximise her reliance and power, and then time on the trampoline mastering new moves, translating the instructions of her coaches into actual mid-air techniques, and teaching herself to overcome quite logical and understandable mental barriers.

This is all fitted around and within normal school and teenage activities. Sienna has an impressive academic record and is acknowledged within her year group as being an unpretentious and thoroughly decent person.

Her mum, Annabel, credits Dio with being very supportive of her daughter both in terms of facilitating the travel commitments that come with the sport and accommodating Sienna’s unusual schedule. “We have a great deal of gratitude for the fact that the School celebrates Sienna’s success at the same time as managing her broader education,” says Annabel. “Dio could not have been a better place for her.”

Dame Valerie Adams spoke at a training camp Sienna attended. Dame Valerie explained how everyone has good and bad days, and sometimes you don’t meet the standards you set for yourself. But next time, you might meet them so the only real solution is to power through.

Sienna will not use the word ‘should’. She doesn’t want to tell herself that she ‘should’ be able to do something. She either does it or she doesn’t but she chooses not to put extra pressure on herself unless she has a strategy to achieve her end goal. She’s mature enough to know when to step back and take a breath.

COVID-19 restrictions have had a big impact on Sienna’s year with international events like the Youth Olympics cancelled. But she will undoubtedly have many other opportunities to fly.