When Fayne O'Donovan was a toddler, her mom, Katherine, registered her in four sports: soccer, swimming, dance and gymnastics.

Katherine, who is also the Whitehorse Polarettes' coach, was secretly hoping she wouldn't pick gymnastics so she wouldn't have to deal with the struggles of being a coach and mother.

That didn't happen.

Fayne walked away from the Arctic Winter Games with a handful of ulus.

The local gymnast won gold in vault, silver in balance beam and overall and bronze on the floor — and that's after recovering from a torn ligament in her ankle.

"I felt ready,” Fayne told the Star this morning. " My ankle was fully healed and I had all my routines down.”

The 12-year-old only made a full recovery from her January injury a few weeks before the Games. She had to get special permission to be part of TeamYukon, as she was unable to participate in the try-outs.

Fayne said she was surprised to walk away with so many ulus.

"Two years ago, Alaska and Alberta were amazing. We didn't have any chance of getting individual medals.”

Katherine pointed to her daughter's high difficulty level and the fact that she is a "clean gymnast.

"She has a good head on her shoulders, and she knows how to show her lines,” said Katherine. "That's one thing that helps her; she has such finess.”

Fayne competed a handspring full-twist to win vault, while most of her competitors only competed a handspring, explained Katherine.

"It's definitely my strongest event,” Fayne said. " I have a lot of power on vault.”

The gymnast was worried about her backhandspring-backwalkover combination on the beam, but she landed it cleanly in last week's competition and was shocked with her second-place finish.

"I was quite afraid of the backhandspring. I don't really like beam that much,” said Fayne.

As a team, Katherine said her four gymnasts —Fayne, Kendra Peters, Caitlyn Venasse and Reena Coyne —reached their goal of having "no falls” one of the two competition days. That's a hard thing to do, especially on the four-inch wide balance beam, she continued.

Venasse, Coyne and Peters finished their four events with almost identical scores, coming in 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively.

Ten-year-old Austen Fraser, from Grande Prairie, Alta., won the overall competition with a score of 50. 599, just .099 ahead of Fayne.

The four gymnasts won bronze in the team competition, with Alberta North winning the title and Alaska coming in second.

"Alberta has a great facility in Grande Prairie, and both Alberta and Alaska get out to compete more because they're not as isolated as us,” said Katherine.

The Yukon's team was also at a disadvantage because its members are a lot younger than the majority of athletes, the coach noted.

The Polarettes club has a foam pit and a 40-foot tumbling trampoline to help the gymnasts learn new skills safely.

Nunavut, on the other hand, has to set up and take down their equipment in a gymnasium every time they want to compete.

"I feel really lucky to have this facility,” said Fayne. "I wish we could have Nunavut come use our equipment. I felt so bad when they told us what they had to do to train.”

Katherine has been coaching her daughter for five years.

"It's not always easy. We usually get along quite well, but it was particularly difficult in the weeks leading up to the games because she was dealing with frustrations from her injury,” Katherine said.

She doesn't like coaching her daughter in competitions because there is just too much stress.

Katherine said it's important to separate coach from mother.

"When we're driving home, we often debrief. I say, ‘Coach was kind of hard on you today, eh?'” she continued. "We have to remember in the gym I'm coach and at home I'm Mom.”

Fayne said having her mother as a coach helps her a lot because she knows everything about her daughter.

"I can't hide anything from her. But she doesn't give me special treatment. She doesn't want me to ever skip gym,” the young gymnast said.

"Sometimes her mom instincts kick in, but she really can't help that.”