Former Commonwealth Champion Andrei Kravstov teaches gymnastics to Batemans Bay youth

They belong to gymnastics instructor and owner of Andrei's Gymnastics, Andrei Kravstov.

The Russian-born athlete began gymnastics when he was seven years old. At age 12, he was selected to attend a specialist sporting boarding school in Moscow for top athletes. Here he would train 30 hours per week.

At 13, Andrei was selected in the junior national team, travelling the world competing for Russia.

"When I was competing there was no such thing as holidays," he said.

He would have perhaps, at most, two days off after a competition before training resumed. Andrei said he sometimes 'holidayed' while on the flight to the next competition.

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From the rigour and pressure of competing for one's country, Andrei pirouetted to use his skills in a different way. At 20, wanting something different, he joined the circus and spent 18 months travelling Asia performing.

It was during this time, on a break between swinging around the big top on a trapeze, Andrei visited the Gold Coast and, more importantly, a local gymnasium.

By chance, the gym owner saw Andrei's potential and called a friend at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

Andrei flew to Canberra and "had a little session with the Australian boys," he said.

A couple of weeks later, Andrei was signing documents in the Australian Embassy in Moscow to finalise his move to Australia. He joined the AIS.

He represented his new home country at World Championships, World Cups and, in a dream come true, was selected in the Australian team for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

However, just six weeks before the Games, he snapped his right Achilles tendon and was ruled out.

Andrei was utterly devastated. He watched on as the athletes he was able to match competed and won medals.

He returned to training with his eyes set on the 2000 Games in Sydney.

He was selected in the Australian team for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. He won four individual gold medals in floor exercise, parallel bars, pommel horse and all-round individual. He won silver in the all-round team event.

Despite key gymnastic countries such as Russia and China being absent from the Games, Andrei was taken by how much Australia celebrated his achievements.

"Australia really treats the Commonwealth Games like a second Olympics - they love it," he said.

Andrei was reaching his personal best.

With the 2000 Sydney Olympics on the horizon, he won seven competitions in a row against some of the best athletes from around the world. Then he snapped his left Achilles.

"As painful as it is snapping your Achilles, it is more painful emotionally," he said.

"That is your dream and then 'poof'.

"You can't stop training to protect yourself before the Olympics, so you train to the end, and boom."

Again he watched on, as the athletes he had been beating just weeks before won gold in Sydney.

"I had a good chance," he said.

"The 'what if?' is always in the back of your mind, but that is just life.

"It's a cruel sport."

In 2002, Andrei retired from gymnastics and relocated to Batemans Bay, where he became a bricklayer - a welcome change of pace in his life.

"You see the results - every day you build a wall rather than training for four years and then still not making it," he said.

However, Andrei decided he had knowledge to give and so started a little gymnastics class once a week at a high school in 2004.

It grew and grew.

Now he runs a gymnasium in Batemans Bay industrial area, teaching children before and after school and on weekends, as well as running holiday clinics and birthday parties.

In 2012, Andrei was inducted into the Gymnastics Australia Hall of Fame.

Now 51, Andrei is still running around flipping and spinning and showing the children how to do gymnastics just like he did as a seven year old in Russia more than 40 years ago.