Émilie Le Pennec

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medal record
Competitor for France
Artistic Gymnastics
Olympic Games
Gold	Athens 2004	Uneven bars

Émilie Le Pennec, born December 31, 1987 in La Garenne-Colombes, France) was the first French gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal in women's artistic gymnastics.

Coached by Yves Kieffer at Pôle France INSEP in Paris, Le Pennec was the French junior national champion in 2002. At her first senior nationals in 2003, she placed fifth, but won a silver medal on her specialty, the uneven bars. She represented France at the 2002 junior European Championships, where she won a bronze medal in the team event. At the 2003 World Gymnastics Championships, Le Pennec was a member of the tenth-place French team. She also qualified for the all-around and the floor exercise finals, where she finished eleventh and seventh, respectively.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Le Pennec placed sixth with the French team and fourteenth in the all-around finals. However, she shone in the uneven bars event final, where her challenging routine helped her win a gold medal over a tough field with numerous Olympic and Worlds bars champions, including Svetlana Khorkina (who took an infamous fall from the apparatus, which she traditionally dominated) and 2002 World Champion Courtney Kupets. Her medal marked the first ever for a French female gymnast.

Le Pennec continued to train and compete after the Olympics. In 2005 she earned two medals at the European Championships: the gold on the uneven bars and a bronze on the floor. She was also qualified to the all-around finals in first place, but lost any chance for a medal when she fell during her balance beam routine. Emillie also competed in the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne, but mistakes prevented her from medalling.

Le Pennec's current competitive uneven bars routine is considered to be one of the most technically difficult in the world. She competes a Def (a Gienger release move with a full twist), an element classified at the top difficulty level, Super-E, in the 2005 Code of Points. Le Pennec also performs a tucked double-double dismount -- two back saltos with a full twist on each flip.

A photo of Le Pennec taken on vault at the 2005 World Championships and published by Getty Images was the subject of controversy late in the year. The photo appears to depict Le Pennec having an episode of urinary incontinence in the middle of her vault. However, the image captured in the picture is inconclusive, the incident has never been substantiated by any reliable source, other photographs, video footage or eyewitness accounts, and neither Le Pennec nor the French Federation have commented on the matter. Nonetheless, the photo has appeared on various Internet sites and in British tabloid magazine Nuts.

Le Pennec is still a member of the French gymnastics team as of July 2006. However, she missed the 2006 European Championships to concentrate on schoolwork. She is currently recuperating from an Achilles' tendon injury and, on the advice of her doctors, will be sitting out of the 2006 World Championships.