Name: Louis Smith
Event: Artistic Gymnastics
Date of Birth: 22/04/89 (age 23)
Career Highlight: Pommel horse gold medal at 2006 Commonwealth Games
Did you know? Louis was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, his excessive energy playing a part in his transformation into a gymnast.
Louis Smith is an English gymnast who specialises in the pommel horse event. He currently holds the European Championships silver medal for pommel horse, as he did in both 2009 and 2010. The highlight of his career came at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne when he took home the gold medal for the same event before becoming the first British individual gymnast to win an Olympic medal since Walter Tysall in 1908, when he claimed the bronze in Beijing in 2008.
Great Britain have never been prolific medal winners in Olympic gymnastic events, which is why Louis and female gymnast Beth Tweddle are currently enjoying a relatively high profile as both stand a chance of picking one up in front of their home crowd in London this summer. Great Britain as a whole have only ever won one silver and three bronze medals, and whilst the elusive first gold may be too much to ask for Smith, if he performs to his best he should not be written off. The 23 year old placed third in the pommel horse in last year’s World Championships after attempting the most difficult routine of all the finalists. Smith fell on his dismount but the fact that he still claimed bronze despite this shows what a great chance he has if he gets it right this summer.
As expected, Smith will face stiff competition from the Chinese gymnasts in London. They claimed all but one of the men’s gold medals in Beijing, with Xiao Qin winning on the pommel horse, whilst the Japanese, Americans and Russians should also be typically strong. However, Smith’s ambition in tackling the trickier routines could help him spring a shock and add to his already impressive haul of medals.