Press Centre

To contact the British Gymnastics media team, please see contact details below:
E:media@british-gymnastics.org (not accessed out of office hours)

Or contact GB team press officer Tim Peake
P: 0345 129 7129  / 07825 980335
E: tim.peake@british-gymnastics.org

For out of hours media queries, please contact Tim Peake. (details above)

2000
Sydney Olympic Games:
British women's team finish 10th (Reeder, Mason, Williams, Murray, Hackman, Thomas). Men represented by Craig Heap. Lee Brearley celebrates Trampoline Olympic debut with 6th position in individual competition and Jaime Moore finishes 12th in individual women's competition.
Brian Stocks elected BG President and elected to FIG Council
Alan Sommerville appointed Chief Executive
John Atkinson re-elected President, Sports Aerobics Technical Committee
Dr Patricia Wade elected President, Sports Acrobatics Technical Committee
John Beeton elected member, Trampolining Technical Committee

2001
Women’s team finishes 9th in World Championships in Ghent, Belgium
At World Cup event for trampoline and tumbling in St Petersburg, Russia: Synchronised pair Kirsten Lawton and Claire Wright win gold, Kathryn Peberdy finishes 3rd in the individual tumbling.

2002
European Championships, Patras, Greece:
Beth Tweddle wins first European medal for British women, a bronze on A Bars!
Kanukai Jackson wins his first European Medal, a bronze on vault
Commonwealth Games, Manchester:  British Gymnasts celebrate 4 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze medals
Kanukai Jackson wins all-around; Beth Tweddle wins gold on A Bars; England Men's Team (Heap, Jackson, Smethurst, Brewer, Thoong) retain team title
Scotland celebrate first ever champion with Steve Frew on rings

World Sports Acrobatics Championships, Riesa, Germany: Silver for men's group (McKenzie, Scott, Patterson, Hindson); Bronze medal for mixed pair (Bonner, Hobby)

2003
World Championships, Anaheim, USA:
Beth Tweddle wins first World Championship medal for British Gymnastics: bronze on A. Bars!
GBR Women’s team (Tweddle, Mason, Hobbs, Line, Fennell, Dodsley with reserves Willis, Roberts) finish 9th and qualify a full team for the 2004 Olympic Games
Kirsten Lawton and Hannah McKibbin also gain Olympic qualification at the World Championships in Trampoline and Rhythmic Gymnastics, respectively.
Tumbling Teams, Women (Peberdy, Sala, Cheung, McLean) and Men (Small, Proctor, Porter, Walters) win World Team titles for the first time.
European Acrobatics Gymnastics Championships, Zielona Gora, Poland:
British Women’s Pair (Oliver, Leach) win silver medal.
Men’s Four (Hindson, Patterson, McKenzie, Scott) win bronze.
Delegation of 865 members represent GBR at 12th World Gymnaestrada in Lisbon, Portugal.

300 guests from around the World gather at Lilleshall to mark the retirement of John Atkinson from post of Performance Director and celebrate a unique contribution to British and World Gymnastics.

 2004
New records for British Gymnastics:
Beth Tweddle confirms star status: silver medal on A. Bars at European Championships, Amsterdam, gold medal at World Cup Qualifiers, Cottbus, Germany and Lyon, France; silver medal on A. Bars and bronze on Floor at World Cup Final, Birmingham, UK. She also wins third consecutive British overall title.
Rhian Pugh became first Women's European Junior Champion from GBR (A. Bars) and is matched by Louis Smith who becomes European Junior Champion on Pommels, Liubljana, Slovenia.
Kathryn Peberdy wins European Senior title, Sofia, Bulgaria and Junior Laura Houson also takes gold.
Tumblers and Trampolinists return from European Championships in Sofia with 16 medals (2 gold, 6 silver and 8 bronze medals), of which Seniors win 1 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals.

Olympic Games, Athens, Greece:   TRA- Gary Smith finishes 7th in the Individual Men's contest. Kirsten Lawton places 12th in Women's competition.   AG- Beth Tweddle misses A. Bars final by 0.025 and finishes 9th (19th All-around). Katy Lennon finishes 21st in the all-around. RG- Hannnah McKibbin also finishes 21st in Rhythmic competition.

Year ends with much praised World Cup Final in Birmingham in December, witnessed by a capacity crowd and broadcast live by BBC TV.

2005
Beth Tweddle confirms World status with bronze medal on A. Bars and 4th place in All-around at the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. She also wins her fifth British Senior title.
Imogen Cairns wins her first medals in the World Cup series (bronze on Vault and Floor in Stuttgart and Glasgow) and becomes a World Finalist on Vault finishing 8th. Sam Bailey- European Finalist (8th on Vault) in Debrecen (HUN), June.
Historic Team victory of GBR Women over China in Liverpool, July.
World Games, Duisburg, Germany:
Acrobats win two silver and a bronze medal (Cameron, Welsh - Women’s Pair silver), (Hindson, McKenzie, Patterson, Scott- Men’s Group silver), (Fyson, Jones - Men’s Pair bronze).
World Championships in Trampoline, DMT and Tumbling, Eindhoven, Netherlands:
Samantha Palmer wins bronze in Tumbling. 8 Finals achieved
13 medals achieved at the European Acrobatics Championships (Junior, Senior, European Age Group Games) in Thessalonica, Greece.
World Championships in Artistic Gymnastics, Melbourne, Australia:
British gymnasts reached 6 Finals (Beth Tweddle, bronze A. Bars and 4th AA, Imogen Cairns, 8th Vault, Shavahn Church, 20th AA, Ross Brewer 21st AA)

European Congress in Birmingham, UK and Paul Garber elected UEG Vice-President; and five British elected to UEG committees

2006
A New Era dawns for British Gymnastics
Beth Tweddle marks the start of a new era for British Gymnastics winning every available title on A Bars: starting at the European Championships in Volos, Greece through to the World Championship in Aarhus, Denmark and culminating in the World Cup Final in Sao Paolo, Brazil. She also wins silver on Floor in Sao Paolo.
Louis Smith becomes the Commonwealth Games and European Junior Champion on Pommel Horse and finishes 5th at the World Cup Final in Sao Paolo.
Imogen Cairns becomes Commonwealth Games Champion on Vault and European and World Cup Finalist.
Bromley Valley's Adam Denny, Adam Dobbs, Adam Smith and Andrew Price win the first World Champions title for GBR in Acrobatic Gymnastics Men's Four.
Samantha Palmer becomes European Champion and World Cup holder in Tumbling.

2007
British Gymnasts continue improving their profile!
Men's Artistic Gymnastics: Louis Smith - World Pommel Horse bronze medallist.
Daniel Keatings - European Pommel Horse silver medallist and finalist at the World Championships.
Great Britain Men’s Team wins 15th place at the World Championships in Stuttgart and two Olympic visas for Beijing 2008.
Women’s Artistic Gymnastics: Beth Tweddle - European Floor silver medallist, World Finalist on Floor, Uneven Bars and All-around, Glasgow Grand Prix, gold medallist on Floor and British Senior Champion for 7th time.
Marissa King - Bronze on Vault at the ‘Good Luck Beijing’ event; Vault finalist at the European Championships and winner on Vault at the at Glasgow Grand Prix.
Great Britain Women’s Team take a record 7th place in the world and qualify a full team for 2008 Olympics.
Trampolining: Jaime Moore, Sixth place, ‘Good Luck Beijing’ event. 11th place at the World Championships, thus securing one 2008 Olympic visa for GB.
Claire Wright crowned British Senior Champion for 7th time. Laura Gallagher World Age-Group Champion.
Tumbling: Samantha Palmer, Gold at World Cup event in Poland.  Zara McLean, World Age-Group Champion.
DMT: Men’s Team, Bronze medal at the World Championships in Quebec. Two places secured for 2009, World Games.
Acrobatics: Mark Fyson and Christopher Jones, 4th place World Cup Final. 3 gold, 7 silvers and 4 bronze medals at European Championships.
GMPD: Artistic Team win 34 Silvers medals and 18 Bronze medals at the Special Olympics while the Rhythmic Team win 9 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze medals.

European Congress in Birmingham, UK and Paul Garber elected UEG Vice-President; and five British elected to UEG committees

2008
What a year for British Gymnastics! 2008 is sure to go down in the history books as being one of the most successful ever; an Olympic Bronze, junior gymnastics leading the way, the hosting of back-to-back World Champions in Acrobatics and medals galore across all disciplines, in fact there’s been so much success we could only fit selections of it in our review of the year!

Beijing Olympics – Louis Smith makes history! He wins Bronze of Pommel Horse, Britain’s first Individual medal for 100 years.
Beth Tweddle finishes 4th on the Asymmetric Bars.
Becky Downie claims 12th in the All-around and Daniel Keatings 20th.
The British Women’s Team finish 9th in Qualification.
Claire Wright takes 10th position in the Trampoline Individual Women’s event.

Men’s Artistic Gymnastics -
British Men’s Junior Team – European Champions in Lausanne (SUI).
Daniel Keatings, Junior European Champion, Gold on Pommel and P.Bars and Bronze on Floor.
Daniel Purvis, Junior European Championships, 2nd Overall.
Louis Smith, 4th Place (Pommel), World Cup Final, with Daniel Keatings and Kristian Thomas in 5th on Pommel and Floor.
Daniel Keatings, Bronze on Pommel Horse at Doha World Cup event.
Louis Smith, Silver on Pommel Horse, Cottbus World Cup event.
Daniel Keatings and Louis Smith, Gold and the Silver on Pommels at the “World Stars” competition in Moscow.
Kristian Thomas, Silver on Floor, Stuttgart World Cup event. He becomes the new Senior British Champion.

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics -
Beth Tweddle, Silver on Floor, European Championships in Clermont Ferrnad (FRA).
Nicole Hibbert makes Junior European Finals on Floor and Vault.
Becky Downie, Silver, A. Bars, Cottbus World Cup event. She becomes the British Senior Champion.

Trampoline Gymnastics -
European Championships, Odense (DEN) - Silver Youth Women.
Senior Women, Synchro - Claire Wright/Katherine Driscoll- Bronze medal.
Junior Individual- Emma Smith – Gold. Junior Women (Synchro) Brookes/ Britton – Silver; Junior Men (Synchro) Greave/Strong – Bronze.
Claire Wright, Bronze, Word Cup event, Evian, France where she wins another bronze in the Synchro, with Kat Driscoll.
Claire Wright and James Higgins, British Senior Champions.

Rhythmic Gymnastics -
Francesca Jones, claims 3 Bronze medals at LG International.
British Junior Team, finish 13th out of 33 Team’s at European Championships in Turin (ITA).
Francesca Fox, British Senior Champion.

Tumbling -
European Championships, Odense (DEN) – Gold Youth Women.
Senior Women- Laura Houson- Silver medal.
Junior Women- Rachael Letsche - Gold.
Charlie Burrows and Sarah Turner, British Senior Champions.

Double Mini-Trampoline -
European Championships, Odense (DEN) – Bronze DMT Youth Women.
Junior Women - Adeva Bryan, Bronze medal.
Matthew Swaffer and Adeva Bryan, British Senior Champions.

Acrobatic Gymnastics -
Glasgow hosts the Acrobatic World Championships and the Age-group World Championships.
Great Britain wins the team Silver medal.
Men’s Group (Adam McCassey, Adam Buckingham, Alex Uttley and Samuel Sturt) and Men’s Pair (Edward Upcott and Mark Fyson) win Bronze, in World Championships.
Britain wins 3 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze in World Age-group Championships.

Aerobics Gymnastics -
GB record best ever result at French Open, returning with 8 medals.
GB win 3 Gold and 4 Bronze medals at Las Vegas, ANAC Championship.
Emily Gale and Sebastian de Verteuil, British Senior Champions.

GMPD -
Britain hosts training camp and friendly competition at the Blume Festival.

Cheerleading –
Over 1000 Cheerleaders attend British Championships at the NIA.
Britain claim 2 Silvers and Bronze at European Championships.

International Governing Bodies:
Brian Stocks elected to the FIG Executive Committee.
Karl Wharton elected as a member of the FIG Acrobatic Gymnastics TC.

2009

Men’s Artistic Gymnastics -
Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney: Boys take 11 medals inducing Team Gold (Max Whitlock, Sam Oldham, Ashley Watson and Reiss Beckford beating world superpower China) and All around Gold medal for Ashley Watson.
European Championships in Milan (ITA): Daniel Keatings- All around Silver medallist;Louis Smith Silver on Pommels, Dan Keatings Bronze on Pommels; Daniel Purvis- 7th in the All-around in his first Senior European Championships.
2009 Glasgow Grand Prix: Louis Smith and Daniel Keatings take Gold and Bronze on Pommels, with Kristian Thomas winning Silver on Floor.
European Youth Olympic Festival in Tampere (FIN): Sam Oldham wins Gold medals on Pommels and P. Bar, while Max Bennett wins the title on High Bar.
World Championships O2arena, London: Two British men place in the top 6 in the world - Daniel Keatings, World Silver medal in all around with Kristian Thomas in 6th.
Daniel Keatings crowned British all around Champion.

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics -

Australian Youth Olympic Festival: Two Silver and a Bronze medal (Danusia Francis, Nicole Hibbert, Jenni Pinches and Nicole Watson)

Beth Tweddle, World Champion on Floor in London and European Champion on Floor and Bars in Milan (ITA); Double Gold (Floor and A. Bars) at the World University Games, Belgrade, Serbia. Gold medal on Floor and Bars at the Glasgow Grand Prix; Becky Downie- Silver on A. Bars in Glasgow.
Nicole Hibbert, Bronze medal on A. Bars at European Youth Olympic Festival, Tampere (FIN).
Becky Downie retains British Senior Championship.


Rhythmic Gymnastics -
Individual Silver medal for Keziah Gore and Team Bronze medal for the British Rhythmic girls at Australian Youth Olympic Festival (Keziah Gore, Jade Faulkner, Lynne Hutchison).
Francesca Jones, Francesca Fox and Jade Faulkner compete for GB at World Championships in Mie, Japan.
Francesca Jones crowned British Senior Champion for the third time (2006, 2007, 2009).

Trampoline Gymnastics -
James Higgins makes Individual World Championships Final (7th).
James Higgins and Kat Driscoll crowned British Champions.
5 medals for the Trampoline Team at the World Age Group Championships in Saint Petersburg (RUS).
GBR had 9 gymnasts in the various finals of the World Age Group Championships: Trampoline Individual, 17-18 Boys - Bronze Medal: Daniel Greaves/Bradley Davies; Tumbling 13-14 Boys - Silver medal for Greg Townley

Double Mini Trampoline (DMT) -
Matthew Swaffer and Robyn Osbourne crowned British Senior Champions.
Two finals for GB in the World Championships with the Men’s Team taking fourth place.
Chloe Haldon took Bronze in the 17-18 Girls event at the World Age Group Championships in Russia.

Tumbling -
British Tumbling Team dominates International competitions in France, Portugal and Bulgaria.
Rachel Letsche and Michael Barnes win the British Senior titles for women and men respectively.
Fourth place for Men’s and Women’s Teams at World Championships with 3 British athletes in the Individual finals.
Emily Payne Marsden and Samantha Rocket - World Age Group Champions, with GB gymnasts taking a further Silver and Bronze medal.

Acrobatic Gymnastics -
Spelthorne and Wakefield share the medals at Acro and Tumbling British Championships.
3 Silver and 3 Bronze medals for GB Acrobatic gymnasts at the World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in July.
14 medals for GB at Acrobatic European Championships & European Age Group Championships in Vila Do Conde, Portugal.

Aerobic Gymnastics -
3 Gold and 2 Bronzes for Britain at ANAC Championships in Las Vegas.
British gymnasts took part in the European Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic.

CheerleadinG -
Over 2000 Cheerleaders took part in the 2009 British Championships
Double Bronze for Team UK at Inaugural World Cup for Cheerleading in Florida (USA).
Rachel Burrows- Senior Individual European Champion; Phoebe Hulme, Junior individual Bronze medal.

Team Gym -
6 British Teams compete at the first ever “Gym For Life” Challenge in Dornbirn (AUT).

GMPD -
Over 200 gymnasts, Artistic and Rhythmic, excel in the Special Olympics in Leicester in July. Britain leads International GMPD Training camp in Germany.

 

2010 - A record- breaking year for British Gymnastics!

2010 has been a year of record-breaking achievements, and is by far the most successful year for British Gymnastics since it’s founding in 1888. 2010 confirmed Britain’s new status as one of the top 10 nations in the world of Gymnastics and also, our outstanding skills and expertise in organising major events.

Champions and record-breakers:

Artistic Gymnastics:
The Icelandic volcanic ashes in April may have caused chaos and disruption across Europe, but didn’t affect the organisation of the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Birmingham in the end of April and the beginning of May.

The British gymnasts came out of it with a total of 15 European medals, including 8 titles:
- British Junior Men’s Team (Oldham, Whitlock, Beckford, Baines, Mackenzie) – retained the Champion’s status following the sensational victory of their predecessors in Lausanne 2008.
- Beth Tweddle defended her titles on A. Bars & Floor from Milan 2009.
- Daniel Keatings became the first British man to win European Senior title (on Pommels)
- Sam Oldham was the crowned European Junior Champion in the All-around and High Bar
- Max Whitlock- European Junior Champion on Floor and Pommels

In Birmingham the British women celebrated their first European Team medal - Silver (Behind Russia and ahead of Romania) won by Beth Tweddle, Rebecca Downie, Nicole Hibbert, Niamh Rippin and Jocelyn Hunt.

The next “first time ever” achievement was Sam Oldham’s Champions title on High Bar at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, in August.

Then followed the sensational victory of Luke Folwell in the All-around and on Vault and Imogen Cairns’ double Gold on Floor and Vault (the latter being her second title after Melboune 2006) at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. The English men and women came back home with a tally of 12 medals. Added to that came Wales’ Francesca Jones who took the Silver medal with Hoop in the Rhythmic gymnastics competition.

The record-breaking event for British Gymnastics was most importantly, the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam in October. Our men finished the Qualifications in 4th place, our women- in 5th. Both the teams reached the Team Finals for the first time ever and both finished in commendable 7th positions.

Saturday, 23 October 2010 was “a day to remember” in the history of British Gymnastics with the full set of World Championship medals coming to Britain:
Gold for Beth Tweddle on A. Bars - her third World title after 2006 (A. Bars) and 2009 (Floor).
Silver for Louis Smith on Pommel Horse and
Bronze for Daniel Purvis on Floor!
The Glasgow Grand Prix & World Cup in November rounded up a magnificent record of five medals: Gold for Louis Smith (Pommels), Silver for Hannah Whelan (Beam), Imogen Cairns (Vault) and Theo Seager (Vault) and Bronze for Jenni Pinches (Floor).
The following victories are just a few amongst the long list of medals in Artistic Gymnastics won at home and abroad:
Louis Smith on Pommels in the Glasgow Grand Prix (November) and Toyota Cup (December);
Daniel Purvis at the Champions Trophy in Germany (November);
Sam Oldham in the Junior internationals in Britain (April);
Sam Hunter at the Joaquim Blume (June);
Luke Folwell and Cameron Mackenzie’s success in South Africa (December)-

Trampoline, DMT & Tumbling:

Strong generations came through also in Trampoline, DMT and Tumbling who won 2 Gold, 5 Silver and 6 Bronze medals at the European Championships in Varna, Bulgaria in April.
Both titles came from our junior tumblers: Shaun Gregory, Ind. Men and the GB Team Women.

At the World Age Group Championships in Metz, France in November, the British won an overall of 9 medals (4-3-2) and took the third position on the Medal Table by country, following Russia, 28 and USA, 13

World Age Groups Champions became:
Rachel Davies, Tumbling, 11-12
Greg Townley, Tumbling, 13-14
Lucie Colbeck, Tumbling, 13-14
Nathan Bailey, Trampoline, 17-18

Acrobatic Gymnastics:

2010 was a revelation year for Acrobatic Gymnastics, a discipline developed by British Gymnastics since 1974. The credit for its new popularity should go to the magnificent “Spelbound” Group, led by former World Champion Neil Griffiths. They were the “Britain’s Got Talent” TV Show sensation in June and turned into audience favourites and stars overnight.

But more was to come one month later when the World Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships in Wrozlaw, Poland saw the Spelbound members Douglas Fordyce & Edward Upcott winning the Men’s Pairs title and Adam Buckingham, Adam McAssey, Alex Uttley and Jonathan Stranks becoming World champions in the Men’s Four.

11-16 World Age Group Champions - Christopher Childs & Jake Underdown (Men’s Pair) and Connor Bartlett & Millie Spalding (Mixed Pair).

Aerobic Gymnastics:

A break through to the elite was registered also in Aerobic Gymnastics with the two Silver medals for Great Britain at the World Age Group Championships in Rodez (FRA) in June: Sebastian De Verteuil in the Age-group 2 and again Sebastian, with Chloe Farrance in the Mixed Pairs.

Rhythmic Gymnastics:

Commonwealth Games in Delhi (IND): Team England - Bronze medal and Francesca Jones (Wales) - Silver medal on Hoop.

The Media team promote British Gymnastics activities and events to broadcast media and regional, national and international press.

It also co-ordinates media activities before, during and after major events including accreditation of photographers and journalists at national and international events, provision of gymnast profiles and management of press conferences, and interview opportunities and photo calls.

The Media team provides, reviews and selects news items for British Gymnastics internal publications and website from a variety of electronic data and in-house submissions and arranges for promotional visits for high profile gymnasts and VIP’s.

There is no future without a past.

The history section of the British Gymnastics website was originally created with the intention of marking some of the most significant events in the development of the Association since 1888. However, the increasing number of achievements since the second half of the 1990's has led to the necessity of more detailed records. With this in mind, the division of our significant milestones into decades, seemed a logical progression.

Although the thread of developments, events, initiatives and people does not go into the greatest detail, we believe that delving into the past can reveal how and why British Gymnastics celebrated unprecedented success at the Olympic Games.

We hope that this page can serve as a reference point to all those interested in the history of British Gymnastics and that our best achievements are still to come.

Rich in history and tradition, British Gymnastics is pleased to provide an abbreviated history of the sport in the United Kingdom.

• pdf 1860-1959 (31 KB)
• pdf 1960s, 70s, 80s (33 KB)
• pdf 1990's (47 KB)
• pdf 2000-2003 (47 KB)
• pdf 2004-2006 (48 KB)
• pdf 2007 (65 KB)
• pdf 2008 (69 KB)
• pdf 2009 (69 KB)
• pdf 2010 (52 KB)
• pdf 2011 (77 KB)
• pdf 2012 (206 KB)
• pdf 2013 (182 KB)
• pdf 2014 (273 KB)
• pdf 2015 (121 KB)
• pdf 2016 (215 KB)
• pdf 2017 (416 KB)
• pdf 2018 (238 KB)