Beth Tweddle

Beth Tweddle is Britain's most successful female gymnast in history, a three-time World Champion and Olympic bronze medallist who pioneered British women's gymnastics on the world stage.

Britain's first World Championship gymnastics title arrived at Aarhus in 2006, when Beth Tweddle won uneven bars gold — the first of three world titles she would claim in a career that also produced six European Championship golds and ended an 84-year wait for a British women's Olympic gymnastics medal at London 2012. She began gymnastics at age seven at a local club and was named to the British junior national team in 1994, developing into a specialist on the uneven bars and floor exercise under coach Amanda Reddin. Tweddle became the first British female gymnast to medal at a World Championships when she won uneven bars bronze in 2003, and went on to become Britain's first-ever world champion in gymnastics of either gender when she won uneven bars gold at the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus. She added a floor exercise world title in 2009 and a second uneven bars world title in 2010, becoming a three-time World Champion, while also collecting six European Championship gold medals across bars and floor — more major titles than any British gymnast, male or female, had won before her. Despite her dominance on the world and European stage, Olympic success proved elusive through two Games in Athens and Beijing. At London 2012, competing on home soil and having pushed through keyhole knee surgery to make the Games, Tweddle finally won Olympic bronze on the uneven bars, performing a signature release move — the 'Tweddle' — named after her for its difficulty. She retired in August 2013 with one Olympic medal, five World Championship medals, and eleven European Championship medals to her name, widely regarded as the gymnast who ended Britain's 84-year wait for a women's Olympic gymnastics medal and opened the door for the generation of British gymnasts who followed her.

Uneven bars and floor specialist renowned for innovative, high-difficulty routines including her eponymous release skill

Pioneered British women's artistic gymnastics on the world stage, paving the way for later British Olympic medallists including Amy Tinkler and the Gadirova twins

• Olympic bronze, uneven bars (2012)
• 3x World Champion (uneven bars 2006 & 2010, floor 2009)
• 6x European Champion
• Commonwealth Games gold
• MBE for services to gymnastics