By Keiran Gorsky
Qualifying for nationals wasn’t the only thing on the minds of Shanae Emmanuel and Oliver Fong at the 2026 Ontario Artistic Gymnastics Championships, they also had to contend with the thoughts of coming back from some of the first serious injury setbacks of their young careers.
Emmanuel, from the Nepean-Corona School of Gymnastics, suffered a concussion in mid-October, not spiralling through the air or dangling from uneven bars, but in about the least dangerous place imaginable.
“It happened at school, during lunch,” the 15-year-old can’t help but laugh. “Someone kind of just sprinted into me.”
Fong was similarly struck outside his domain. The 14-year-old from Rideau Gymnastics was injured while playing volleyball in February. He suffered a partial tear in his right hip flexor after an awkward fall. The injury restricted him to just a single event at Elite Canada a few days later in Calgary.
“We still went because my tickets were non-refundable, but he was basically out of commission,” his mother Jocelyne Chan indicated.
When it comes to injuries, Emmanuel has an easier time finding humour in the inciting incident than the resulting inactivity. There is little worse than watching your friends and teammates twisting and tumbling while your development is curtailed.
The concussion was just the latest hurdle in a difficult season. Emmanuel was sidelined for a substantially longer period after a summer surgery on her ankle – the result of an injury she gradually aggravated.
“It literally just felt like a piece of my life was being ripped away,” she recounted.
Fong’s recovery was mostly a matter of waiting for his body to patch itself up, though he was aided by exercises given to him by his physiotherapist and coach.
Emmanuel’s surgery, in contrast, stopped her competing for roughly three months. She still couldn’t walk by the time the summer season rolled around. The concussion came just as she was beginning to run and jump again.
Both gymnasts desperately needed something to go right. On the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Belleville, Fong felt a mixture of nerves and excitement. Emmanuel did her best to think only positive thoughts.
“Just be a goldfish,” Emmanuel recited Ted Lasso’s popular aphorism.
Emmanuel needed a top-six finish to qualify for a spot on Team Ontario for May’s nationals in Oshawa, while Fong required a combined score above 63 points. Both of them proceeded to dash their own expectations.
Fong dominated the novice men’s high-performance category, winning three of his six events. He finished number one in floor, pommel horse and parallel bars, with a second-place finish in high bar and third in rings.
His coach, Michael Figotin, opted to simplify his approach so he could get to 63 with relative ease. Fong executed his routines near flawlessly and finished atop the field by a solid 2.698-point margin with an all-around score of 66.599.
Emmanuel, meanwhile, was one of a handful of 2010-born competitors in the Level 10 Women’s Age 16+ category – her first time competing in the division. The 2025 Level 10, Age 12-15 all-around bronze medallist is the first to admit she never expected to win against substantially more experienced competition.
“Some of them are committed to D1 schools,” Emmanuel explained. “So I just didn’t really have high expectations for myself.”
After 16th, 12th and fourth-place finishes for floor, balance beam and vault, she needed to place high in uneven bars to secure a spot at nationals. Emmanuel had fallen several times in warm-ups for her final event.
Once again, she forced herself into positive modes of thought. In her head, Emmanuel separated her routine into individual steps and visualized a different course of events.
“If I don’t want to fall, what do I need to do to not fall?” she thought.
What followed was her best event of the day. Emmanuel finished in second place of 35 competitors. Her combined score of 36.183 across the four events didn’t just win her a spot in nationals – it left her number one overall.
Fong and Emmanuel also took home special awards – Fong the Sasha Zavadich Award for his execution score and Emmanuel for her vault routine. They both went out for dinner afterwards. Emmanuel and her father drove all the way back home to their local Mandarin while Fong enjoyed his usual celebratory sushi.
When asked which kind was his favourite, Fong responded: “Everything.”
Emmanuel can still scarcely believe everything went so well. Regrettably, what comes next may be harder still – Emmanuel mentioned she re-injured her ankle in the lead-up to provincials.
A second surgery may or may not be in her near future – Emmanuel is doing her best not to think too hard about it.
“I think it’s going to be harder the second time,” she dreaded the possibility of another prolonged recovery period. “Just the fact that it’s happening again and I have to do it all over again.”
If there is ever a time for relentless positivity, it might be now. For the time being, both gymnasts are focused squarely on the Canadian Artistic Gymnastics Championships, which will take place at Durham College in Oshawa from May 25 to 29.
The number of local gymnasts who earned all-around podiums at the provincials was in the double digits as they visited the home of the Belleville Senators at the Quinte Sports & Wellness Centre.
In women’s national categories, Tumblers’ Mackenzie Cohoon-Da Silva and Kanata Gymnosphere’s Ellie Wink both finished second all-around in their respective Aspire 1 and Aspire 2 classes, while Edge’s Mackenzie Grant was first on floor and second on beam as she entered just two of four events.
In all-around women’s provincial competitions, Tryumph’s Maryam Sharaf won her 183-athlete Level 6, Age 12-14 division, while Ottawa Gymnastics Centre’s Georgia Feltham was second and Corona’s Bianca Dhanjal was third in Level 6, Age 15+.
In men’s competitions, OGC’s Valdemar Coveny was second in Junior Age 15-16, Tumblers’ Benjamin Bruce was third in Open and Rideau’s Artem Petrov was second in U12 Provincial Level 2.