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Hollie Dykes began gymnastics at the age of 4 at the Gold Coast Gymnastics Club in Queensland, before being talent scouted and moving to the Australian Institute of Sport at the age of 7. Identified by Head Coach at the time, Ju Ping Tain, she received a scholarship a short time after relocating to Canberra.
Moving up through the development system, she quickly made a name for herself in Australia, by finishing not only on the All-Around podium for 3 consecutive years (2003-2005) at Australian Championships, but also winning medals on every apparatus for those 4 years. Super impressive, gorgeous lines, and perfectly pointed toes and straight knees, she executed her skills with ease and was a joy to watch.
Plagued by injury in her first year at the senior level, Hollie made the 2006 Commonwealth Games team where she had her breakout international performance. She won a gold medal with the team, as well as a bronze in the All-Around, however the competition did not go as planned, she had numerous uncharacteristic mistakes, counting a fall on each of the 4 apparatus'. Regardless of the large mistakes, she impressed the world with her beautiful execution.
Hollie was the first to score a 16.000 in the "new code" of points, when she did a near perfect routine on beam at the 2006 Pacific Alliance Championships in Hawaii; she was regarded as one of the best beam workers in the world heading into the World Championships later that year.
Once again, the World Championships in Denmark (2006) were full of mixed results for Hollie. While the team finished an increidble 6th place, and in the All-Around compeition she did 4 clean routines, to end up in 6th place. However, she unfortunately fell on Beam in qualifications which kept her out of what would have been a finals berth.She returned to the World Championships the following year (2007) this time in Germany, she helped the team qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games, but sadly fell on Beam again, and missed the finals.
Following the 2007 World Championships, Hollie Dykes sadly announced her retirement from the sport just 8 months before the 2008 Olympic Games. Hollie will always be remembered for her beautiful gymnastics and an incredible career.
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