Emily Little

Emily Little
— Gymnast —
Nickname(s)	Em, Beautiful,
Country represented	Australia
Born	29 March 1994 Perth, Western Australia
Hometown	Perth, Western Australia
Height	153 cm (5 ft 0 in)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior
Years on national team	2009
Club	Western Australian Institute of Sport, Perth Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra
Gym	Western Australian Institute of Sport, Perth Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra
World ranking	13 (2014 - 2015)
Medal record Competitor for  Australia Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi Team 2010 Delhi All-Around Pacific Rim Championships 2010 Melbourne Vault 2010 Melbourne Team

Emily Little (born 29 March 1994) is an Australian artistic gymnast. She won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the team women's artistic gymnastic events. She was chosen to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Personal

Little, nicknamed Em (beautiful), was born on 29 March 1994 in Perth, Western Australia,^[1] and continues to reside there.^[1][2] She attended City Beach Primary School and then went to high school at Churchlands Senior High School.^[1] She is 152 centimetres (60 in) tall, and weighs 52 kilograms (115 lb).^[1]

Artistic gymnastics

Little (far-left) with Kate Lundy and Australian Olympic teammates

Little is an Australian artistic gymnast, who has had a scholarship with the Western Australian Institute of Sport^[1][2] and the Australian Institute of Sport. Based out of Perth, she has been coached by Martine George and Nikolai Lapchine since 2003.^[1]

Little has been a member of the Australian senior national team for four years.^[1] As a member of the 2012 Australian senior squad going to the Olympics, she was coached by Peggy Liddick.^[3][4] She is often the lead-off gymnast. She won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the team event, and a silver medal in the individual all around competition. At the 2010 and 2011 Artistic World Championships, she was a member of the Australian team that finished sixth place each time.^[1]

At the 2012 Australian Gymnastics Championships in Sydney, Little finished second in the all around event. She earned a pair of silver medals in the floor and vault events.^[1][5][6] At the event, she introduced several new elements into her routines.^[2] The event was part of the Australian national team Olympic qualifying process.^[5] In mid-June 2012, Little was one of twelve Australian gymnasts vying to earn a final spot on the Olympic squad at a training session for the national team at the Australian Institute of Sport.^[7][8] In mid-June 2012, she was one of three Australian female gymnasts who were confirmed to be going to the Games alongside Lauren Mitchell and Ashleigh Brennan.^[9]

Little will represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in women's artistic gymnastics^[4][10][11] as an eighteen-year-old.^[4][12] She has been selected to compete in the women's team event.^[12] This will be her debut Games.^[10] Her Olympic training preparations will include learning how to deal with flash photography, with strobe lighting used during practice, and being exposed to distracting noises.^[4][13]

In March 2015, Emily was invited to compete at the AT&T American Cup alongside many all around world champions like Simone Biles and Vanessa Ferrari. This being Emily's second international competition since 2012 was very successful as she placed seventh in front of Commonwealth Games all around champion, Claudia Fragapane.

In May 2015, Little competed in the Australian Gymnastics Championships, she was in second place during the day 1 competition and held on to finish second in All Around finals behind Queenslands Georgia Godwin. Emily represented Western Australia, although there were not enough gymnasts to make a full team. Emily qualified for vault finals and won with a 15.3 scoring Yurchenko double twisting layout. She also qualified for bar finals placing sixth. In beam finals Little placed third in front of World beam silver medalist, Lauren Mitchell. Little competed a full twisting double layout in floor finals (only her third time competing this move) and placed in second behind 2010 World Floor Champion, Lauren Mitchell.

References

1. "London 2012 - Emily Little". Australian Olympic Committee. 1994-03-29. Retrieved 2012-06-23.
2. "Gymnasts battle for ticket to the Games". The West Australian. 2012-05-30. Retrieved 2012-06-23.
3. "The Australian Girls Hope to Finish Sixth as They Did in Beijing". The Australian. 21 June 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
4. "Olympic debutants jump for joy". Canberra Times. 2010-09-14. Retrieved 2012-06-22.
5. "International Gymnast Magazine Online — Mitchell Takes Two Titles at Australian Nationals". Intlgymnast.com. 2012-05-27. Retrieved 2012-06-23.
6. Jancetic, Steve (2012-05-28). "Lauren Mitchell stars at national gymnatics titles | thetelegraph.com.au". Dailytelegraph.com.au. Retrieved 2012-06-23.
7. "I've got work to do: Mitchell". Fox Sports. 2012-06-18. Retrieved 2012-06-23.
8. "Twelve women are in line for five seats on the plane to the UK". The Australian. Retrieved 2012-06-23.
9. "Lauren Mitchell says she's got work to do ahead of London". News.com.au. 2012-06-18. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
10. "Mitchell heads gymnastics team – Other Sports – Sportal Australia". Sportal.com.au. Retrieved 2012-06-22.
11. "Australian Olympic Team Announced". Inside Gymnastics Magazine. Retrieved 2012-06-23.
12. "Mitchell not feeling pressure for Games". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 2012-06-23.
13. "Australian Gymnasts ready to amaze in Olympic arena". Boxscorenews.com. 2009-07-15. Retrieved 2012-06-23.