Kristy, when you were attending St Joseph's Primary School did you play much sport?
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When I went to primary school I used to love swimming. I was a member of the Warrnambool Swimming Club.
I held the Victorian record for the 50 metre butterfly for eight-year-olds. I used to train for swimming seven times a week when I went to primary school.
I'll never forget the early morning swimming classes before going to school.
I was lucky to have won a lot of junior swimming medals at events like the Glenelg Games.
My dad got medal boards made for me when I was swimming, each board had room for 24 medals.
I ended up collecting enough medals to fill up seven boards.
We used to train at Warrnambool's Olympic Pool in the summer and at Action in the winter.
Ross Price was one of the swimming coaches when I was in the juniors.
I was asked to train more for swimming but I declined the offer because I was just starting high school.
I found that my body had stunted because I was putting so much excess stress on it at such a young age so I decided to change sports.
What sport did you take up after swimming?
I took up Funakoshi karate when I was 11-years-old.
The swimming and karate overlapped for a short while before I got more focussed on the karate.
I practised karate long and hard before winning the junior Kata and Sparring trophies at the National Karate Titles at the Melbourne Aquatics Centre when I was 15 years old.
I can still remember coming home to Warrnambool on the train from Melbourne with the two trophies – they came up to my hips.
I started doing dancing when I joined a dancing school in Warrnambool at the age of 14 years old.
I finished karate when I was 16 years old and focussed on my dancing.
Can you give me any details regarding your dancing career?
I went to Melbourne when I was 16 years old and joined Dance World.
You were supposed to be 18 years old to do the auditions to join Dance World but I just wanted to be a dancer.
For two years I did a diploma of arts instead of studying VCE.
I learnt all facets of dancing including ballet, jazz, tap, musical theatre, Indian and belly-dancing but hip-hop was my passion.
I decided to further my dancing career by heading over to the United States of America to study dancing.
I ended up getting a job in America where I did live performances to music videos before learning about aerial apparatus.
This led me into the sport of pole dancing.
Was pole dancing main stream back then?
No. I'm talking about 2007.
Pole dancing was really addictive.
I found it improved my overall fitness. Pole dancing changed the muscles in my body.
When I started I could do a few push-ups, within a short period of time I was doing 60 to 70 push-ups.
I was soon climbing upside down on a pole and could lift my entire body while working out on the pole.
My career took a dramatic change in 2009.
Kristy, how did your career change in 2009?
I decided to put my toe into the water by opening a pole dancing studio in Warrnambool.
To start up I rented a room at a local gym.
I used to put the poles up on a Friday and took them down on Sundays.
My dad and brother Travis often helped me setting up the studio.
My business was growing rapidly so after six months I decided to move to a more permanent site in Warrnambool.
I was working in Melbourne during the week and used to come home on weekends to take classes.
The whole thing has grown at an exceptional rate over the past few years with me competing in events and running a business so much so that I created a franchise for Physipole.
There are now 11 studios – nine of those are based in Victoria. We're in Albury and Hervey Bay.
I own four of the studios while seven are under franchise agreements.
The Warrnambool studio is based in Lava Street.
Kristy, what can you tell me about competing in pole dancing events. Have you had an success?
I've competed in events all over the place.
I was fortunate to win the Pole Art Championship at the International Pole Championships in Hong Kong last November.
There were more than 600 people at the championships which were live streamed across the globe.
The championships were really tough for me because I'm an asthmatic.
I spent four days in Hong Kong and was taken to hospital with an asthma attack.
It's really tough to breathe over there.
Kristy, I suppose your diet would be a major thing when you're competing in pole dancing events. Would that be a true statement?
Yes.
Diet is a major factor when I'm preparing for competition. I always watch what I eat.
I try and eat natural foods when I'm in competition, things like lots of veggies, meat and protein.
I'm careful that I don't have things like bread in my diet.
Bread bloats you up. I only have natural sugar in my diet. I don't like having processed foods.
I take part in another competiton in July in Sydney.
I usually keep a close watch on my diet six weeks before I go into competition.