Leyanet Gonzalez

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Leyanet Gonzalez is a Cuban gymnast. An Olympian who finished 22nd in the 2004 Olympics all-around, she is exceptionally unusual in gymnastics. Not only has she enjoyed a long career, but she remained in high level competition after having given birth. Most female elite gymnasts are in their late teens and early 20s, and seldom in recent years have many been parents. In the 1950s and 1960s it was not unknown, the great Soviet Larissa Latynina having given birth during her competitive career, and won numerous Olympic and world titles.

But in the noughties, Gonzalez's combination of Olympic level gymnastics and motherhood makes her highly unusual. Oksana Chusovitina has done the same and has won more medals, but unlike Gonzalez she no longer competes on every piece of apparatus: Leyanet is a solid all-arounder. Older gymnasts are more likely to specialise because training all four pieces is harder (eg Annia Hatch in the 2004 Olympics).

Leyanet has now retired, and still lives in Cuba.