November 16, 2006

Tweddle and her sport must reach for the sky

By John Inverdale
Telegraph

	Beth Tweddle: simply the Beth

For most of us, asymmetric bars are pubs that are on opposite sides of the road, and once we've spent a bit of time in them both, one of the hardest words to say would probably be asymmetric.

For gymnast Beth Tweddle, they're the discipline in which, having fought off the inevitable stiff competition from eastern Europe, China and the United States, she is now a world champion and, as such, she should be one of our greatest sporting heroes of the moment. In a field that's not overly congested, you could make out a very good case for her to be named the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year.

Because how many gymnasts can you name? Korbut. Comaneci. Er...precisely.

And now we have a British gymnast who has the opportunity and the platform to dramatically alter the profile of her sport. To take it beyond the interest levels of pre-teenage schoolgirls, their mums, and the once-every-four-years Olympic watchers. This is someone who, given an injury-free passage to Beijing, could be our great Olympian of 2008, and who at the grand age of 26 could still be pretty influential come 2012.

So it's key that the gymnastics authorities maximise what might be a once-in-a generation opportunity to spread their particular gospel. And to that end, in this superficial, media-driven world of ours, Beth needs a helping hand. To see her interviewed on television at the weekend was to witness someone clearly ill at ease away from the comfort blanket of her apparatus. And sadly these days it's not enough to just be very good at something – to let your sport do the talking. You've got to be able to talk about what you do as well, and, in terms of her manner and her smile, Beth needs to be given some guidance – important trivialities which her sport has probably not had to think about too much in the past.

She's young, but put this in context – she's more than a year older than Sharapova – and she needs to be able to project herself beyond the confines of gymnastics, for the good not only of her sport, but of herself. She can prolong her career dramatically, in the way that John Curry and Robin Cousins managed in and beyond ice skating, by learning how to charm and manipulate the outside world. She must never lose sight of what matters most – the relentless drive towards being the best, because without that her stock falls like a dismount from the rings – but she could easily be out there on daytime TV, seducing mums and kids, and becoming the household name she deserves to be.

Just imagine Beth coming tumbling on to set as Jonathan Ross announces her as one of his guests. (Just imagine Jonathan trying to say Beth Tweddle.) The powers-that-be in gymnastics, and all those around her, have a responsibility to ensure that all the other aspects of life as a sporting celebrity are added to her overall training regime. Then when Jonathan announces her, Four Poofs and a Piano can justifiably break out into "Simply the Beth".