The talented athlete was named World Champion in the 15-16 Men’s Synchro Trampoline - along with his jumping partner Brock Batty from Victoria - at the 2023 Trampoline World Age Group Championships held in Birmingham, England last November.
Nicolas has been involved in trampoline gymnastics since the age of five and currently trains at the Sydney Gymnastics and Aquatics Centre in Rooty Hill.
He had a stellar season throughout 2023, taking out the State and National Championship titles and ending the year at the World Championships where he competed in Individual Trampoline, Double Mini Trampoline and Synchronised Trampoline.
Synchronised trampoline consists of two gymnasts on two separate trampolines performing the exact same routine of 10 skills at the same time.
Each gymnast is judged on execution, time of flight (how long they are in the air), degree of difficulty, horizontal displacement (where on the trampoline they land) and on the level of synchronisation.
This was Nicolas and Brock’s third time competing as a pair on the international stage.Proud mum Argyro Ballas said what made the championship win even more special was the fact the boys can’t train together because they live in different states.
“They only got to train together in the two to three days immediately prior to the competition when they arrived in Birmingham,” Ms Ballas said.
“Plus, they only just managed to make it into the final because when they managed to complete a routine in the qualifying rounds they were slightly out of synch in the first half, which compromised their score, and saw them qualify in eighth position. Only the top eight go through to the finals, so they were very lucky.”
But when it came to the finals the pair pulled it together and completed “the most amazing routine”, Ms Ballas said.
That took them straight through to the top and they held onto first place right through to the end of the competition.
“The final competitors were the team from France who completed a beautiful routine themselves, so waiting for their score to pop up on the screen felt like an eternity. They knew they had won a medal by that stage, but the French score would determine whether they got gold or silver.
“Nicolas had a gut feeling they would hold on to the top position because their degree of difficulty was higher than the French, but because the synchro score plays a big role, he held his breath.”
When the scores were finally revealed, the French had won bronze, which meant Nicolas and Brock maintained the gold and were named World Champions.
“Their emotions just poured out,” the proud mum said. “They are the best of mates so for them to experience this together, especially after the hiccups of their previous attempts, was the best feeling in the world.”
A Year 12 student Nicolas manages to find a balance between school work, his job as a junior gymnastics coach and four training sessions a week.
He was named the Gymnastics NSW Jr International Trampoline Athlete of the Year at the recent Gymnastics NSW annual awards presentation where he paid tribute to his coaches Jessie Tulett and Tom Holman as well as the head coach of the trampoline program at the Sydney Gymnastics and Aquatics Centre, Belinda Cox.
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