Neil Thomas (gymnast)

Neil Thomas
 Gymnast 
Personal information
Country represented  United Kingdom
 England
Born (1968-04-06) April 6, 1968
Hometown Liverpool
Height 162 cm (5 ft 4 in)
Discipline Men's artistic gymnastics

Neil Roderick Thomas MBE is a retired English artistic gymnast who experienced most of his success in the floor exercises. An acknowledged inspiration to many young British gymnasts, he was former world silver medalist and Commonwealth Games Champion and one of the most successful British gymnasts in the history of the sport.

Born in Chirk, Wrexham in Wales on April 6, 1968, Thomas was noteworthy as a successful gymnast at world and international level at a time when British gymnastics generally did not figure at that level, and is regarded as an important torchbearer in the sport for the later successes of Elizabeth Tweddle, Louis Smith and other male British gymnasts in the 2010s.

Winner of three gold medals spanning two Commonwealth Games, Thomas also added a world silver medal on the floor in 1993, and repeating the feat in 1994. he finished 20th at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

He won a Commonwealth gold medal on floor at Auckland and the vault bronze medal at European Championships in 1990. In 1993 he won Great Britain's first World Championship medal in Artistic Gymnastics (silver) 1993. A year later he won a gold medal on floor and became All-around champion at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, and also won the silver medal on floor at World Championships in Brisbane.[1]

Post-retirement and personal life

He was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1995 New Year Honours for services to gymnastics and in recognition of his near single-handed achievement in putting British men's gymnastics on the map.[2]

Following retirement, Thomas works as a development officer in the north west of England.[3] He is a member of the Liverpool Gymnastics Club.[4]He is cousin to TV journalist Owen Spencer-Thomas who also awarded the MBE.[5]


References

  1. British Gymnastics official website. Accessed December 4, 2009
  2. Shropshire Star front page. December 31, 1994
  3. Manchester 2002 official website. Accessed December 4, 2009
  4. SR Olympic Sports official website. Accessed November 5, 2010
  5. Men’s Health p.31 August 2008

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, April 11, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.