Charlottetown, PE  – Competing at a high leven isn’t new to Saskatoon’s Carroll. But, for Jordan Carroll, he is paving his own path in gymnastics.

‘I used to be a diver,’ said Carroll. ‘Then I kinda chose gymnastics. It felt like the right thing to do, I felt like it was going somewhere.’

Going somewhere is an understatement.

Carroll won Saskatchewan’s first ever gold medal in the pommel horse at the Canada Winter Games in PEI on Friday. It was Team Saskatchewan’s first gold medal of the games.

‘I was pretty nervous that I was gonna mess up,’ said Carroll reflecting on his performance. ‘I knew I could do it [though] cause I’ve done it many times before.’

Being the penultimate competitor in his event, All Carroll could do following his performance was sit and wait.

‘I was pretty nervous, because the [final] [competitor] is a really good gymnast,’ explained Carroll. ‘I knew I was gonna get a medal though, so I was already happy, and the gold was an extra boost of happiness.’

Carroll comes from a family of athletes. His sister, Sydney Carroll, is a member of the Canadian national artistic swim team, and his mother and father, Mary and Steve Carroll, are well known in the diving community.  Mary, who recently won a Saskatchewan Sport Award as the province’s coach-of-the-year, is a highly-decorated diver and a national diving coach.

Jordan Carroll is quick to give credit to those around him.

‘My coach Markos [Baikas] helped a lot. He was always motivating me to succeed. My parents have always been by my side, they helped me a lot.’

Like his mother, Jordan Carroll also has desires of reaching a future summer Olympics for Pommel Horse.

‘The experience has been great,’ explained Carroll when asked about his time in Prince Edward Island. ‘I’ve been happy the whole time really.’

And what do you do once you have gold around your neck? Cheer on other athletes, of course.

‘I really just wanna watch all the sports,’ explained Carrol, ‘and support teamSaskatchewan.’

He did just that. Carroll, along with several other Saskatchewan athletes, were seen at Eastlink Centre on Saturday night cheering on the Saskatchewan hockey team in the gold medal game.

Now Jordan and the rest of the week one athletes are heading home. But on this flight, he’ll have have just a little extra in his carryon luggage.