Carmen Whelan

Biography

Carmen Whelan has dreamed of representing Canada since training with Olympian Alexandra Orlando who told her that she was a hard worker with lots of talent, making her realize she had the potential to be a great gymnast. In 2015, Whelan achieved a career highlight, representing Canada at the Pan Am Games in Toronto, where she placed in the top seven in all the individual events. She went on to compete individually at the FIG World Championships in 2015, 2017 and 2018. In 2017, she was crowned national champion in the individual all-around and on all four apparatus. In 2018, she competed at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. Starting in 2019, Whelan decided to join the group, helping them to 11^th place in all three events at the World Challenge Cup in Guadalajara, Spain.

 A LITTLE MORE ABOUT CARMEN

Getting into the Sport: Started in gymnastics at age 6… First tried artistic but was too flexible and didn’t enjoy it… Fell in love with the beauty and difficulty of rhythmic immediately after switching… Outside Interests: Enjoys playing sports, going to the cottage, travelling… Odds and Ends: Nickname: Monkey… Role model is former Canadian Champion Alexandra Orlando for how she pushed boundaries in sport and in everyday life… Always wears a gold maple leaf necklace that was given to her by role model Alexandra Orlando…Collects souvenir postcards from each country she visits… Grandfather Raymond Collyer was a national artistic gymnastics champion… Mother Cynthia was a professional dancer with multiple renoned ballet companies…