A schoolgirl who discovered her "natural talent by accident" has gone on to win gold for Team GB.
Sophie Jo Millican, from Prescot, was just four years old when her coaches at Focus Gymnastics in Widnes first noticed her flair for trampolining. The 12-year-old, who is a pupil at Tower College at Rainhill, later became a member of Liverpool Trampolining Academy and has gone from strength to strength since then, winning her first competition, the Northwest Champion, in 2018.
Sophie was accepted onto Team GB's junior trampolining team at the start of this year and was the youngest person on her team to perform at the European Championships in Italy earlier this month.
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Her dad, Jimmy Millican, 40, told the ECHO: "It was by accident that she came into trampolining, she was a gymnast first. She started at a club when she was four years of age.
"I think with her being a four-year-old, she just ran to the trampoline and she just wanted to jump on the trampoline. As one of the coaches went to take her off, this other coach, Amy Simms her name is, she said 'don't disturb her, let her bounce.'
"They just watched her bounce and the coach called in another coach to say 'I want you to look at this.' They both agreed that she was a natural."
Sophie was the youngest person to compete in the European Championships in Italy on June 1 and went on to beat all of her personal bests. The 12-year-old was the last in her team to perform her routine which helped the Team GB junior girl's team to win gold at the competition for the first time in 20 years.
The 12-year-old is now on an Olympic pathway and hopes to make the Olympics in 2028. Jimmy said: "I'm really, really proud of her.
"We don't class ourselves as pushy parents, we've always been down the line of 'enjoy it until you don't' and that would be it. We always say 'have fun first you're only young', but our Sophie is so motivated she actually used to go out and play in the garden and play planks - strength and conditioning [training] - herself."
Parents Jimmy and Jo, 39, would like to thank Sophie's coaches Zoe Brookes, Jay Scouler and Dan Greeves for "keeping her focused, helping her to realise her potential and going above and beyond to get her where she is."
