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Rowena Jane Roberts (born 14 May 1977, Kingston, Surrey, Great Britain) is a retired British artistic gymnast.
Roberts began gymnastics at the age of four at the Elmbridge Leisure Centre and further trained at the Heathrow Gymnastics Club and Spelthorne School of Gymnastics later in her career.
Roberts made her international debut at the age of 12 in 1989 and travelled to the 1990 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships as a team reserve after placing second in the Junior British Championships all-round, and taking the Junior British beam title.
In 1991, Roberts took the Senior British Beam title and placed sixth in the all-round competition. Roberts represented Great Britain in the 1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. [1] In Indianapolis, USA.
In 1992 Roberts became all around British gymnastics champion and represented Great Britain at the 1992 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships where she placed the highest of British women’s gymnasts in Europe at 19th. This was the highest placing ever by a British woman at that time.
Later that year she was one of two gymnasts selected to represent Great Britain at the Olympic games. She was the youngest member of the Great Britain Olympic Team for the Barcelona Olympic Games.
Roberts remains the youngest ever British all around gymnastics champion and also the youngest female gymnast to have represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games at the age of 15 years and 73 days. Roberts also holds the title of Master Gymnast from British Gymnastics. [2]
Roberts appeared numerous times on TV during live broadcasts of various gymnastics championships. She also appeared on Blue Peter twice and in 1992 was the recipient of the Blue Peter Gold Badge.
Roberts retired from competitive gymnastics at the age of 16 and started a commercial career in freight forwarding, logistics, technology and supply chain. She is currently Vice President Global Product Development at EV Cargo.
She is also the founder and head coach of gymnastics club ‘Gympickles’ based in SW London. Gympickles is a recreational club with an ethos focused on fun and inclusiveness for children of all abilities.
Roberts married businessman, Clyde Buntrock on 12 May 2018 and changed her name to Rowena Buntrock. Mr Buntrock is CEO at the Global Aviation Company AJW Group as well as Founder and Joint Managing Director of the Equity Investment firm, Scarbrow Morgan.
Věra Čáslavská was a Czechoslovak artistic gymnast and Czech sports official. She won a total of 22 international titles between 1959 and 1968 including seven Olympic gold medals, four world titles and eleven European championships. Čáslavská is the most decorated Czech gymnast in history and is one of only three female gymnasts, along with the Soviet Larisa Latynina and American Simone Biles, to win the all-around gold medal at two Olympics. She remains the only gymnast, male or female, to have won an Olympic gold medal in each individual event. She was also the first gymnast to achieve a perfect 10 at a major competition in the post-1952 era. She held the record for the most individual gold medals among all female athletes in Olympic history as well until it was surpassed by swimmer Katie Ledecky in 2024 after 56 years.
Svetlana Leonidovna Boginskaya is a former artistic gymnast for the Soviet Union and Belarus of Belarusian origin. She is a three-time Olympic champion, with an individual gold medal on vault from the 1988 Summer Olympics and team gold medals from the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics.
Lavinia Corina Miloșovici is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast. Also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, Miloșovici is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts and one of the most prolific female all-around medalists ever, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female Romanian gymnast ever, after Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloșovici was also the last gymnast, along with Lu Li, to ever receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition and the last to receive the benchmark score of 9.95 at the World Championships. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2011.
Daniela Viorica Silivaș-Harper is a Romanian former artistic gymnast best known for medaling in every single event at one Olympics, winning six medals at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. In doing so, she was the fourth female gymnast to achieve this, after Maria Gorokhovskaya (1952), Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská (1968). As of 2024, Silivaș is the last gymnast, male or female, to have accomplished this feat.
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Ecaterina Szabo is a former Romanian artistic gymnast who won 20 Olympic, world and continental medals.
Lisa Elena Jane Mason is a British gymnast who has competed for her country at the Commonwealth Games, European championships, World championships and the Olympic Games. She was the vault champion at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, and was part of the first Great Britain women's artistic gymnastic team to qualify for the team event at the Olympic Games.
Rebecca Lauren Downie is a British artistic gymnast who competed at the 2008, 2016, and 2024 Summer Olympics. She is a double European champion and 2014 Commonwealth Games champion on the uneven bars as well as the 2019 World silver medallist.
Hannah Kate Whelan is a retired British artistic gymnast who competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Whelan won three European Championships medals and four British senior national titles, and was the bronze medallist in the all-around at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Cristina Bontaş is a Romanian former artistic gymnast, who competed in international events between 1987 and 1993. Her best events were the floor exercise, the vault, and the all around. She is a world champion on floor, a double olympic medalist and a six-time world medalist. Bontaş scored a perfect ten on floor in the all around event of the 1989 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Maria Neculiță is a Romanian artistic gymnast who competed in international events between 1988 and 1992. Her best events were the floor and the beam. She won the team silver medal at the 1992 Olympics and team bronze at the 1991 World Championships. Individually, she won silver on beam and bronze on floor at the 1992 Worlds and a continental bronze on beam in 1990.
Vanda Maria Hădărean is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast who competed in international events between 1990 and 1993. She is an Olympic silver medalist and a world bronze medalist with the team and a European all around bronze medalist. She is also a successful fitness model and she has won various world class fitness competitions. She is a four-time Ms. Fitness World and a four-time Ms. Fitness Canada (2006–2009). She also coaches, trains, provides consultation services to gymnasts and fitness models under the brand name “Inspired by Vanda”. She is also known for her breakout photo series in the Romanian Playboy magazine.
Elvira Fuadovna Saadi is a retired gymnast from the former Soviet Union and a former elite gymnastics coach in Canada.
Danusia May Francis-Reid is a retired British artistic gymnast who represented Great Britain and Jamaica in international competition. She was a reserve athlete for Great Britain's 2012 Olympic team. She attended UCLA and competed for the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team. She represented Jamaica at the 2020 Olympic Games.
Rebecca Tunney is a retired British artistic gymnast who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Claudia Fragapane is a retired British artistic gymnast. She came to prominence at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, where she was the first English woman to win four gold medals in a single Games since 1930. In 2015, Fragapane was part of the women's gymnastics team that won Great Britain's first-ever team medal, a bronze, at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, before winning an individual world championship bronze on floor two years later.
Alice Nicole Kinsella is an English artistic gymnast and member of the British national gymnastics team. She represented Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal in the team event, and was part of the Great Britain team that achieved the highest positions ever achieved in the same event at the 2022 World Championships (silver) and the 2023 European Championships (gold). Kinsella won a Commonwealth Games team title as part of England's gold-winning team all-around squad of 2022.
Georgia-Mae Fenton is an English artistic gymnast and a member of both the British national gymnastics team and the England Commonwealth Games gymnastics squad. She is the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth champion on uneven bars, and a member of the gold medal-winning England team in 2022. With Great Britain, she was part of the team that won silver at both the 2022 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships and 2022 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, before winning the gold medal, the first for a British women's team, at the 2023 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Jessica Gadirova is an English artistic gymnast of Irish birth and Azerbaijani descent, representing Great Britain internationally. She represented Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal in the team event and was part of the silver medal-winning team at the 2022 World Championships and gold medal-winning team at the 2023 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships.