(Jessica Gadirova Winning Gold At The World Championships)
Gymnastics has been gaining popularity across Britain for many years with the success of the National Team, accompanied by excellent coverage of major events by the BBC and a highly popular TV programme called Gym Stars aimed at inspiring young people to participate in the sport. Here we look at some past champions, returning gymnasts and young up-and-coming ones who continue to promote the sport and give back to others.
1. Women’s Artistic - Beth Tweddle MBE
Renowned for her uneven bar and floor routines, Tweddle was the first female gymnast from Great Britain to win a medal at the European Championships, World Championships, and Olympic Games. Known for her consistency and longevity as an elite gymnast, she is regarded as a pioneer of the renaissance of British gymnastics at the beginning of the twenty-first century which saw the country's gymnastics programme progress from 'also ran' to consistent global competitiveness and success.
She now runs Gym Stars — a programme to get children aged 2-7 involved in gymnastics.
Beth Tweddle Gymnastics: https://www.bethtweddlegymnastics.co.uk/total-gymnastics-gym-stars
2. Men’s Artistic - Max Whitlock
With fourteen medals and six titles in Olympic and World Championships, Whitlock is the most successful gymnast in British history. He is also the most successful pommel horse worker in gymnastics history with five Olympic and World titles.
Whitlock is a six-time Olympic medalist (all-around, team, floor exercise and three times on his signature piece, pommel horse), winning three golds and three bronzes, and a five-time world medalist on the pommel horse with three gold and two silvers. He became Great Britain's first-ever Olympic gold medalist in artistic gymnastics when he won both the floor exercise and pommel horse at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He is a four-time European champion and a four-time Commonwealth Games champion representing England.
Alongside his wife he now aims to improve teachers' knowledge and confidence through a fully accredited CPD course and increase children's engagement through comprehensive resources, revolutionising PE and extending its impact.
Max Whitlock Gymnastics: https://www.maxwhitlockgymnastics.co.uk/
3. Women’s Trampolining - Bryony Page
She is the 2021 and 2023 women's individual trampoline World Champion, and part of the British team that won team gold at the 2013 World Championships, and all-around team gold in 2022.
Page became the first British trampolinist to win an Olympic medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro when she won the silver medal.
Five years later, at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, she once more reached the podium winning a bronze medal. In doing so she became the first British female gymnast in any gymnastic discipline to win medals across two or more Games.
Outside of the gym she designs leotards with Quatro and speaks at public events as well as coaching trampolining and delivering Boogie Bounce exercise classes.
Bryony Page - Blog Page: https://bryonypage.wordpress.com/about/
4. Women’s Artistic - Jessica Gadirova
She represented Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics winning a bronze medal in the team event and was part of the silver medal-winning team at the 2022 World Championships and the gold medal-winning team at the 2023 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Individually, she is the 2022 World champion on floor exercise, the second British female and third Briton to win a World title on the apparatus as well as a three-time European champion in the same event (in 2021, 2022 and 2023). She is the first female gymnast to win three successive floor titles at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and the first of either sex since Franco Menichelli in 1965.
She is the 2023 European all-around champion, only the second Briton after Ellie Downie to achieve that feat, and the 2022 World and 2021 European all-around bronze medalist. Additionally, she is the 2021 European vault silver medalist. Gadirova became the first female gymnast to win three gold medals at the same European Championships since Cătălina Ponor for Romania in 2004, and the first to win the all-around title in doing so since Svetlana Khorkina for Russia in 2002.
She competed at the inaugural 2019 Junior World Championships alongside her twin sister, Jennifer. Both are ambassadors for leotard manufacturer Milano Pro-Sport.
5. Men’s Artistic - Jake Jarman
An elite English artistic gymnast from Peterborough, who has competed internationally for Great Britain, and for England at the Commonwealth Games. In his first major senior championships, the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Jarman won the gold medal in the team all-around, individual all-around, floor exercise and vault, the first English male gymnast to win four gold medals at a single Games.
A few weeks later in Munich, representing Great Britain, Jarman became European champion in the team and vault events, becoming the first British male to win European gold on vault.
In 2023, Jarman added vault gold at the 2023 World Championships, the first Briton to win world gold on the apparatus, the fourth male British world champion, and the sixth British world champion.
He has a vault that is unique to him and the hardest in the code which has been named after him the: Double salto straight backward with 3½ turn — you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/mNe3BAhLdi4?si=Mnsa5Ks_E07Q-oiz
World Championship Winning Vaults: https://youtu.be/E86fDJbUbvY?si=rf7dF1J4THJWUJ-K
There's now so much talent and strength in depth that this could easily have been the top 15-20 Gymnasts from Great Britain. That is a testament to the commitment and support given to the sport by National Lottery Funding, the leadership of British Gymnastics and the establishment of high-quality performance coaches.
With new policies and procedures in place to support the welfare of everyone participating in gymnastics the future of the sport looks bright and success is expected when the team hits Paris for the Summer Olympics this year.