Event: Gymnastics – Artistic
Date of birth: 01/04/1985 (age 27)
Career highlight: Gold medal winner at the 2009 World Championships
Did you know?: In preparation for the Olympics, Beth has been sleeping with an ice machine strapped around her knee as part of her recovery from injury.
Beth Tweddle has been labelled by many commentators as Britain’s greatest gymnast of all time. And looking through the record books, it’s easy to see why. The Johannesburg-born star holds three world titles from 2006, 2009 and 2010, a staggering six European gold medals, and held the title of British National Champion every year between 2001, when she began competing, and 2007.
Unsurprisingly, Tweddle says her career highlight was winning gold at the floor event in the 2009 World Championships, held at the O2 Arena in London. Backed by the home crowd, Tweddle produced a sensational display in the most difficult rating to see off the other seven finalists (see video).
However, the one major success to have eluded her illustrious career is winning gold at the Olympic Games. Back in 2004, aged just 19, Tweddle missed out on the asymmetric bars final while in 2008, a mere 0.025 points cost her bronze. With retirement looming after the Games, this represents Tweddle’s last chance to make up for these disappointments.
In most sports, an athlete’s career peak age is 26 or 27, but for gymnasts this is much earlier, around the late teens or early 20s. Hence Tweddle’s challenge is to become the oldest Olympic winner since Larissa Latynina, who was 29 when she won the last of her 18 career medals at the 1964 Games.
A succession of injuries have threatened her long career, but each time she has recovered admirably. She missed the 2005 European Championships and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, but later in 2006 she won her first world title in Denmark. She will need to be at her very best this year, however, as her competitors are quite formidable.
For instance, the 17-year-old Russian sensation, Viktoria Komova, is the 2010 All-Around Youth Olympic Games Champion and the 2011 World Uneven Bars Champion, while American Natasia Liukin possesses nine World Championship medals. Tweddle says she is fit and ready for the Olympics, despite undergoing keyhole surgery on her knee in April and missing the European Championships in the process:
“I’m fit, healthy and my rehab has gone well so I hope that gives me enough time to be ready. The strange thing about being out injured has been that, for once, I have been able to fly under the radar and have not had to do many interviews.
“I found Beijing so hard to get over. There was so much hype after the Olympics. You came home and it was everywhere, on the telly and the radio. I literally just booked a flight and went on holiday with a friend. I’d love to finish my career with an Olympic medal, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. I’ve achieved a lot more than I thought I would with gymnastics.”