After wowing the judges in her first competitive season, Azaria Tai is determined to continue her path to the Olympics, however, one thing is holding her back.

The 8-year-old Selwyn Ridge School student is a kind, bright, smiley kid with a great passion for gymnastics.

She likes school and works really hard – her favourite subject is math.

Her supportive mum Kelsey Gaby is in awe of Tai’s talents and wants her to achieve her dreams.

“She’s really talented. She’s wanted to do gymnastics since she was really little. She used to search and copy gym routines at home on the laptop, since she was 3. We put her in when she was 5 for after-school fun.

“Then the club said that she was really talented and has lots of potential and asked if she could join the competitive team.”

Azaria Tai and her awards from her first competitive season. Photo: Kelsey Gaby.

Tai’s first competitive season finished up in September where she collected more than 10 awards and took out first in the region overall.

“She just blew everyone away and came away with so many awards. She’s a natural and she spends every single moment practising,” said Gaby beaming with pride.

“She’s in love with it. I just want to do everything I can to keep her in the sport that she loves and has so much potential for,” said Gaby.

When asked why Tai loves gymnastics so much she said it’s because she gets to do hard tricks. She said if she can’t do a trick she tries again and again until she gets it, and her favourite trick is a back handspring.

Tai said everyone at the competition was really good, and she was surprised and really happy when she received her results.

When asked what her favourite part of the competition is, Tai said it’s the prizegiving.

“We knew she would do well because she has been practising so much but she blew us away,” said Gaby.

Azaria Tai has been doing gymnastics since she was five. Photo: David Hall.

Tai practises her gymnastics on the floor of their lounge room at home. She also does six hours a week of training after school at her gymnastics club.

“At her first competition, she came second on the bars, her team came second, she got third overall and second in the floor routine.

“At her second competition, she came second for her floor routine, third on bar, first on vault, second overall, third for her team …,” said Gaby and the list went on.

Tai said her favourite is her floor routine, “because we do lots of fun tricks”.

Tai has two gymnasts – Eliska and Reece – that she looks up to and aspires to be like when she’s older, both of whom are from her gymnastics club.

“Eliska is one of the girls in her team,” explained Gaby, “And Reece has been to the Olympics and is a senior gymnast at her club. She’s done really well so Azaria really looks up to her.”

Tai wants to be a professional gymnast and go to the Olympics one day.

Gaby wants to do everything she can to get Tai to achieve her dream, but competitive gymnastics is an expensive sport, and she is struggling to keep up with the costs on top of looking after her other children.

In her family, Tai has an older brother, two little half-sisters and two older stepbrothers who she helps to look after where she can to help out her mum.

When she came in to speak with SunLive, she held her little sister’s hand to help her walk up the stairs, and when they left, she carried the nappy bag even though it was half her size.

Azaria Tai doing her favourite trick, the back handspring. Photo: David Hall.

Gaby is trying to do all she can to support her family in this cost-of-living crisis. She started a small seamstress business while pregnant with one of Tai’s little sisters to help cover the costs.

Now that the baby has arrived, she’s on maternity leave and is restricted with how much she can work.

Gaby’s partner is trying to help out, but she said she doesn’t want him to hold the full responsibility of paying for the kids that aren’t his.

Tai’s father is living and working in Australia and was helping to pay for Tai’s costs before contact was lost, leaving Gaby to cover the costs.

Tai’s competitive training sessions cost $214 a month and every time she goes up a level it gets more expensive.

There are also annual competition levies that cost $180 per year.

On top of this are the costs of costumes of which Tai has five.

Azaria Tai said her favourite part of a competition in prizegiving. Photo: David Hall.

“One tracksuit and competitive leotard and three leotards for training we’ve been donated from other gymnasts,” said Gaby.

She said they bought a package that included the competitive costumes, a team bag, the hair ties, the tracksuit, and everything that cost more than $800.

“We fundraised for that and that was completely covered by the fundraising which was great.”

Gaby is fundraising constantly to keep up with it all by doing things like raffles and selling chocolates.

Gaby said the club has been really supportive and understanding of the situation.

Azaria Tai practices 24/7 in her loungeroom at home. Photo: David Hall.

She said the gymnastics club has donated some sessions which she is very grateful for and in exchange she does seamstress work for them.

“They’ve seen her potential and don’t want to see her slip through the cracks,” said Gaby.

“The Welcome Bay community have been really supportive as well, in their assistance with fundraisers, and the school allowing us to hire the hall for free.

“We have great community support which is amazing.”

Gaby has set up a Givealittle page to try and raise some money to help keep Tai in gymnastics and she hopes to raise $3000 to cover the next competitive season.

“But anything is a super amazing help because the costs just keep piling up every month.”