Listening to “California Dreamin’”, Australian gymnast Kate McDonald hit the ground running on her road to Los Angeles by winning uneven bars gold at the Commonwealth Games.
It was sweet redemption for McDonald, who banished haunting memories of her “pretty poo” finish at the 2022 Birmingham Games with a near-flawless performance at Glasgow International Stadium, scoring 14.333 points.
So dominant was the 25-year-old that she was the only gymnast to hit the 14.000-point mark and blitzed next-best, Canadian great Ellie Black, by 0.433 points, with Wales’ Emily Roper following for bronze.
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Finishing seventh on the uneven bars in 2022, McDonald has now made it two from two events in Glasgow after winning the team gold medal.
“I’m over the moon,” McDonald said.
“I bombed in that (2022) final, and that’s obviously in the back of my head.
“(I felt) pretty poo. I knew I was capable of winning.
“I did want this medal really badly.”
Wearing her headphones during warm-up, McDonald said cycling through her competition playlist — from AC/DC to Dom Dolla — helped her fight off memories of the 2022 final.
Whether a coincidence or a good omen in her 2028 Los Angeles qualifying campaign, her final song before competing was a remix of “California Dreamin’”.
“Putting music in helps ground me and that helps the voice in my head stay nice,” McDonald said.
“’‘Don’t be poo, don’t fall. Be perfect, it’s not going to be perfect’ — there’s a lot of background noise.
“I’m just going to again try and learn from this experience and bring it into LA — hopefully, we qualify a team for LA, hopefully I’m on that team for LA.”
Having coached McDonald for 17 years at Victorian-based Cheltenham Youth Club, Jeb Silsbury was in tears as he watched the gold medal-winning performance.
“Watching from the crowd is the worst experience I have ever had,” Silsbury said.
“I’m a very, very lucky coach. Not many coaches in any sport get to really experience a relationship and a bond.”
McDonald can add to her Games tally when she competes in the floor final on the final day of the gymnastics competition.
Should she take out gold, she’ll become Australia’s equal-most decorated gymnast at the Games with Joshua Jefferis, Andrei Kravtsov and Lauren Mitchell on four gold medals.
As McDonald led the charge in the women’s field, James Hardy claimed bronze on the rings and the floor routine exercise.
Just as the team bronze was Australia’s first since the 2010 Delhi Games, Hardy’s two individual bronze medals ended the nation’s 16-year drought on the apparatuses in the men’s field.
The 23-year-old competed with a pink ribbon painted on the nail of his right hand ring finger in tribute to mum Sally, who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.
Sally is in remission after undergoing surgery, but she and the Hardy family were unable to travel to Glasgow.
“It’s been in the back of my mind, but obviously nice to know that she’s just doing really well,” Hardy said.
“Spoken to mum and dad before, they’re absolutely, you know, just so, so, so proud.
“It’s very emotional. They would have loved to here.”
The 23-year-old did enjoy ample support from the rest of the Australian squad in the crowd, with teammates Jesse Moore, Ritam Malik, Ben Foster and Tru Hagens also painting their nails.
Malik missed out on pommel horse bronze by 0.500 points, while Moore finished second-last in seventh after falling off the apparatus.
A sore Georgia Godwin fell short in her vault title defence, finishing fifth.
McDonald’s teammate Ruby Pass, aged 19, finished last in eighth after a fall during her uneven bars routine.
