Beth Tweddle

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Elizabeth Tweddle at the 2006 World Gymnastics Championships.

Elizabeth 'Beth' Tweddle (born April 1, 1985, Johannesburg, South Africa) is the most decorated British gymnast of all time. She is the current European Champion and World Champion on the uneven bars.

1 Background
2 A Pattern of Near Successes
3 World Champion
4 Reference
5 External links

[edit] Background

Tweddle hails from Bunbury, Cheshire in the northwest of England, and began gymnastics at the age of seven. Training with coach Amanda Curbishley at the City of Liverpool Gymnastics Club, Beth won her first British National Championships in 2001, an achievement she would repeat every year through 2004. She also helped her club team, Liverpool, win the British Team Championships four consecutive times.

In her World Championships debut in 2001, Tweddle placed 24th in the all-around final. She would improve drastically in 2002, when she won a bronze medal on the uneven bars at the European Championships in Patras, Greece. Her medal was the first ever for a British gymnast at Europeans. Later in the same year, she finished a close fourth in the bars final at the World Championships and won three medals at the Commonwealth Games: silver in the team final and all-around and gold on the uneven bars. In 2003 Beth became the first UK female gymnast to medal at the World Championships with a bronze on the bars.

2004 began as a promising year for Tweddle; she won silver medals on the uneven bars at the European Championships and the World Cup. She competed on the UK team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and was considered an excellent prospect for a medal on bars, but barely missed qualifying for the event final. Tweddle continued training after the Olympics and, at the 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, earned her second Worlds medal, another bars bronze. She also placed fourth in the all-around at the 2005 Worlds; the highest placement ever for a UK gymnast.

Tweddle had aspirations to compete in the 2006 Commonwealth Games, however, she was forced to withdraw from the meet with an injury. She recuperated in time to compete in the 2006 European Championships, where she captured the uneven bars title with a performance that scored a full point ahead of that of the next competitor. With her win, Tweddle became the first British gymnast ever to win a gold medal at Europeans.

Tweddle's great strength is the uneven bars; she is one of the only women currently competing a routine with two consecutive high bar release moves. However, she has also emerged as a strong all-around gymnast and a floor exercise specialist in recent years, qualifying for the all-around and FX event finals at many international events.

[edit] A Pattern of Near Successes

Tweddle is known not only for her accomplishments on bars, but also for competitive misfortunes. At the 2005 Europeans, she qualified in second place to the all-around and had the potential to medal in all four event finals, but she injured herself during the AA competition and had to withdraw, leaving with nothing. At the 2005 World Championships, she injured her knee immediately before the bars finals. While she competed on the event and won a medal, she had to withdraw from the floor competition the next day. Tweddle was also forced to withdraw from the 2006 Commonwealth Games when she suffered an ankle injury in training.

Tweddle was close to a higher rank at several other competitions. Some believe her routine at the 2002 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships should have earned a bronze medal instead of fourth place. At the 2004 World Cup, Tweddle lost the bars gold by only 0.013. She also lost out the silver medal on the bars in the 2005 World Championships, where the difference between her score and that of silver medallist Chellsie Memmel was the smallest possible difference, 0.012.

[edit] World Champion

In October 2006, Tweddle became Britain's first ever gymnastics World Champion by winning the uneven bars event with a score of 16.200 in the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. [1]

As a result of this success Beth came third in the 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.[2] which was decided by a public vote.

Tweddle has not yet announced her plans for the 2008 Olympics. She currently divides her time between her training and her studies at Liverpool John Moores University.