Heath Thorpe

Heath Thorpe
Full name	Heath Thorpe
Born	(2000-09-03) 3 September 2000 (age 24) [1] Australia
Residence	Sydney, Australia
Gymnastics career
Country represented	Australia
Years on national team	2017–present
Club	New South Wales High Performance Centre
Medal record Representing  Australia Men's artistic gymnastics Oceania Championships 2022 Gold Coast Team 2022 Gold Coast Floor Exercise 2023 Carrara Team 2023 Carrara Floor Exercise 2022 Gold Coast Vault 2023 Carrara Horizontal Bar 2022 Gold Coast Horizontal Bar

Heath Thorpe (born 3 September 2000) is an Australian artistic gymnast. He represented Australia at the 2022 World Championships ^[2] and at the 2019 Summer Universiade.

Personal life

Thorpe studied communication at the Queensland University of Technology. ^[3] He currently resides in Sydney, Australia. He is openly gay. ^{[4] [5]}

Gymnastics career

2018

Thorpe made his international debut as a junior at the 2018 RD761 Junior International Team Cup, where he placed third in the vault final. ^[6] Thorpe then went on to make his senior international debut at the 2018 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in April and qualified to the vault final, to finish fourth. ^[7]

Thorpe competed at the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships and placed first on floor. ^[8]

In October, Gymnastics Australia announced Thorpe to the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships team. ^[9] While in Doha, Thorpe was announced as the alternate for the team and did not compete in the event. ^[10]

2019

In February, Thorpe was announced to compete at the Individual Apparatus Artistic Gymnastics World Cup taking place in Melbourne, ^[11] despite having had surgery to remove screws from his elbow just eight weeks prior to the event. ^[12]

Thorpe competed at the 2019 Australian Gymnastics Championships, finishing sixth all around, second on floor and third on vault in the senior international competition. ^[13]

Thorpe was announced to represent his country at the 2019 Summer Universiade in Naples, Italy. ^[14] Thorpe went on to qualify to the event finals, placing sixth in the vault final.

2020–2021

Thorpe missed out on qualifying for the Oceania quota spot for the Tokyo Olympic Games following a subpar performance at a National Team Camp in April. ^[15] Despite this, Thorpe competed and finished third all around at the 2021 Australian Gymnastics Championships, hosted on the Gold Coast, in May. His success in the all around was accompanied by a first place in the team event and a second place finish on horizontal bar. ^[16] Due to a hamstring injury, he could not compete in floor and vault finals, where he finished first place on both apparatus during the all around competition on day 1.

Thorpe competed in Bundesliga for TG Allgäu in Germany throughout September and October 2021. This was his first professional competitive season. Thorpe also went on to compete in the Wase GymCup in Belgium under the Australian flag where he placed first on floor, horizontal bar and second on vault.

2022

In 2022, Thorpe submitted a request to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to allow leaps to be added to the Code of Points for Men's Artistic Gymnastics. The request was denied by the FIG.

2023

In May, Thorpe won his first all-around title at the 2023 Australian Gymnastics Championships at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre in Carrara, Queensland. Despite this, he was not named to the Australian team for the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium. ^{[17] [18]}

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB
Senior
2018	Pacific Rim Championships	4					4
	Australian Championships
2019	Australian Championships		6			5
	Summer Universiade	8					6
2021	Australian Championships
	Wase Gym Cup
2022	Australian Championships		5
	Oceania Championships		4		8	6		7
	Szombathely Challenge Cup								5
	World Championships	22	50
2023	DTB Pokal Team Challenge	14
	Oceania Championships				6	8
	Australian Championships
2024	DTB Pokal Team Challenge

References

1. "THORPE Heath – FIG Athlete Profile".
2. "Gymnastics Australia". gymnastics-australia-stage.incrowdsports.com. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
3. "2019 WSG Gymnastics | UniSport Australia". unisport. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
4. "r/Gymnastics – Diego Hypolito officially comes out: "I want people to know that I'm gay and that I'm not ashamed of it."". reddit. 8 May 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
5. "The Australian athletes championing LGBTIQ+ pride in sport" . Retrieved 6 August 2022.
6. "2018 RD761 Jr Event Results" (PDF). Retrieved 25 September 2019.
7. "2018 Pacific Rim Championships Snr MAG Event Finals" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 December 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
8. "MAG 2018 Nationals Results". Gymnastics Australia . Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
9. "Worlds Team Announcement". Gymnastics Australia . Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
10. "Heath Thorpe on Instagram: "Podium training was a heap of fun and a pretty successful day on the big stage! As expected coming over here to Doha, I was always the…"". Instagram. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
11. "Gymnastics Australia Announces 2019 World Cup Team". Gymnastics Australia . Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
12. "World Cup Wrap". www.gymqld.org.au. Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
13. "Results | Ausgymnasticschamps". ausgymnasticschamps.com.au. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
14. "2019 World Universiade Team Announcement". Gymnastics Australia . Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
15. Countdown to Aus Champs – Ep 2 , retrieved 4 July 2021
16. "Results | Ausgymnasticschamps". ausgymnasticschamps.com.au. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
17. Bregman, Scott. "Aussie champ Heath Thorpe left off 2023 World Championships team – Gymnastics weekly news". Olympics. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
18. Duffy, Patricia (19 July 2023). "Reigning Australian all-around champion Heath Thorpe left off world championships team – Gymnastics Now". gymnastics-now.com. Retrieved 28 September 2023.