Allana Amy Slater (born 3 April 1984 in Perth, Western Australia) is a retired Australian artistic gymnast. The Australian senior all-around National Champion in 2000, 2003 and 2004 and a multiple medalist at the Commonwealth Games, Slater is considered to be one of Australia's most internationally successful gymnasts. Early life and career Allana Slater was born in Western Australia on 3 April 1984. She has a half-brother and -sister named Mark and Claire. Her father died in 1997 in a plane crash in Indonesia while she was competing in the Junior Pacific Alliance Championships. Slater began gymnastics in a toddler program at Kalajos School of Gymnastics at 16 months of age, at the suggestion of a family doctor, who thought it would help treat her sleep apnea and increase her strength. When she was 5 years old, she was spotted by talent scouts from the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) and invited her to join their elite development program. She began training in the WAIS program just after her 6th birthday. Slater made her national competition debut at the age of 9 and her international debut at 11. Senior career 1998 stands out as a breakthrough year for Slater. At a dual meet against Japan, while still a junior, she emerged as the all-around champion, recording her first major international victory over her more experienced teammates, in addition to the best gymnasts from Japan. A good performance at the World Youth Games followed and soon after a third-place finish at the Australian Commonwealth Games team trial. Slater soon found herself standing with her teammates at the podium in Kuala Lumpur receiving Australia's first ever Commonwealth Games team gold medal. Individually, Slater also won two silver medals in the all around and floor exercise finals. Since then, Slater and her Australian teammates have truly made their mark on the international gymnastics scene. Their 5th-place finish at the 1999 World Championships (ahead of the US, who were the 1996 Olympic Champions) was a surprise to all but supporters of Australian gymnastics. At the same competition, Slater earned the highest place individual world ranking ever achieved by an Australian gymnast when she finished 9th in the individual all around. In the most closely contested National Championship in Australian Gymnastics history, Slater pipped Trudy McIntosh with her last event to win her first National title early in 2000. In July of that year,