MICHELLE Telfer might not spend her days teaching sick kids to do backflips through the wards but having competed at the world's highest level in gymnastics the p ediatrician is probably up to the task.Dr Telfer is four months into a 12-month stay at South West Healthcare's Warrnambool hospital, where she has managed to keep her Commonwealth and Olympic games appearances largely under wraps - until now.Those who were glued to the TV during the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1990 and followed the green and gold in Barcelona two years later might recognise Dr Telfer, although she is a bit older now and tends not to leap over beds and flip down the hospital corridors."I've really had two separate careers in many ways," she said, as she prepared to give the keynote speech at the hospital's annual general meeting on Thursday."I did the gymnastics and stopped that when I was in year 12." Dr Telfer came to the attention of gymnastics commentator and coach Liz Chetkovich and by 14, she had joined the West Australian Institute of Sports Elite Squad and became National Junior Champion.Before long, she was representing Australia in a team where she was widely regarded as an all-rounder on the vault, bars, beam and floor.At the peak of her career, she was training 35-40 hours a week."It's a big psychological sport and it's all about performing under pressure, especially when you're standing on a beam that's 10 centimetres wide and you've got 20,000 people watching you and you're only 15 or 16 at the time."Dr Telfer struggles to see a link between her gymnastics career and her work helping sick kids, although she recalls admiring the life of sports doctors who travelled with the world with the young athletes ensuring they could spring, spin and summersault with the world's best.In a near faultless transition from one apparatus to another, she abandoned the idea of sports medicine and channelled her energy towards helping children whose ultimate goal was to simply live a healthy life."I like dealing with really sick kids. You can make a real difference."Twins Rhylee and Jasper Moore, born eight weeks early a t 33 weeks gestation, have benefited from Dr Telfer's decision.Dr Telfer, who has her own two-year-old daughter Sylvia with her opera singing husband Angus Grant, is due to make her final dismount from her Warrnambool placement in June.