MACLEAY ISLAND’S PEARL CASEY MULTIPLE AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION ARTISTIC SKATER!
Ten-year-old Macleay Island girl Pearl Casey just happens to be Australia’s most prolific and successful artistic skater in her age group.
At such a young age, she has taken the sport by storm and in a short space of time, has multiple artistic and dance Australian titles, all of this on a pair of roller skates.
Pearl lives on Macleay Island with her grandparents. She attends Redland Bay State School.
Not too long ago, when she was just six years of age, Pearl used to go with her dad Nigel and brothers Jack and Tom motor bike riding.
Pearl would play whilst the boys would ride with dad.
It was at that time she told her grandmother that she ‘hated motor bike riding’.
“I would like to try roller skating Gran. Would you take me?”
That didn’t stop Santa giving Pearl a motor bike for Christmas, however.
Gran took Pearl along to the Digi Roller Skating Rink, Browns Plains, around August 2011.
It happened to be on a day that an Australian champion of artistic skating, gave a demonstration of artistic skating on roller skates.
“I want to do that Gran,” Pearl pleaded.
In just under four years, Pearl has rocketed to fame in Queensland and Australian Artistic skating.
Pearl sold her motor bike to purchase the best possible skates and progressed from Saturday classes to a professional coach.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Pearl’s talent was quickly realised.
She was invited to join the Queensland team going to Sydney in July 2012 to compete in the 2012 Australian National Championships.
Pearl at age 7 at the time, had only been having lessons for six months before she went to Sydney to represent Queensland in the Figure Skating event. Pearl came first in that event and received her first Gold medal.
And since then, the medals and achievements have kept on coming.
She has attended the Australian championships ever since and has won numerous Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in her chosen sport.
There are four elements to artistic roller skating, figures, solo dance, artistic and creative dance skating and Pearl excels in all.
At the most recent Australian Championships in Adelaide two months ago, just aged 10, Pearl won Gold in the Figure Skating and Solo Dance. She won Silver for artistic and was sixth in the creative solo dance against dancers older than her - a highlight for Pearl.
Pearl Casey is the Australian National Champion four years in succession for figure skating, and Australian National Champion 2 years in a row for Solo Dance Skating, an amazing achievement.
She has achieved all this whilst living on Macleay Island, hiring the island community hall at one night a week to train, and attending coaching at Brown’s Plains.
So where to from here?
Pearl hopes that artistic roller skating may one day become and Olympic Sport.
“I would love to represent my country at the Olympics,” she told The Friendly Bay Islander.
Clearly, Pearl Casey is made of the ‘right stuff’.
What an inspiration she is to our islands, joining a growing band of island children achieving great things!

• Pearl Casey and her winning medal.
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