Beth can finish on a high and be our best, bar none

Called to the bar: Great Britain gymnast Beth Tweddle has had to work hard to overcome injury as she bids to win an Olympic Games medal in Beijing

YouTube could hold the key to Beth Tweddle's quest for an Olympic medal. It's the only major medal missing from the 23-year-old's trophy cabinet - she already boasts gold at World Championship, European Championship and World Cup level.

Her sole Olympics to date ended in disappointment four years ago but Britain's most successful ever gymnast is a strong hope for a medal on the asymmetric bars - and she's been using her computer to help.

"You can see all my rivals' routines on YouTube and I'm sure they've seen mine too," she said. "Having seen them initially, though, I know they are all a similar difficulty level to mine so I've got just as good a chance of winning as any of them if things go right on the day."

But constant injury setbacks have hampered Tweddle's bid to complete a dream. She was forced out of the all-around event at the British Championships at the end of June because of an ankle problem and only yesterday suffered a new setback when injuring a rib at the GB training camp in Macau.

Though her recent problem was described as "minor" by coach Adrian Stan, it is still unsettling for an athlete who was fighting back to full fitness, to get in shape for Beijing.

However, there's been one plus point to the ankle injury. Tweddle explained: "It hasn't affected my work on the bars so I've been able to get my routine just right there. The only problem is that doing the same bit of apparatus over and over again can get boring."

The South African-born athlete, who moved to England aged two, thought at the time of the injury that her Olympic bid was over after landing awkwardly in training. "After 'ow', my first thought was 'no Olympics for me'," she said. "I looked over at my coach and my expression said as much. My foot went black and blue pretty much straight away but my coach told me not to panic and packed me off to the hospital.

"They know me pretty well there [Tweddle has had a catalogue of injuries over the years, ranging from a broken ankle to a torn bicep in her shoulder]. Thankfully, after a week on crutches, I was back walking again." Her recovery has been rapid but the injury has cost her time working on her allround skills and her floor routine in particular, another area where she has proved a world beater in the past. But she has every confidence her ankle will hold up on the day, as will her nerves.

Tweddle says the most nerve-wracking performance was not the one on the bars that won her the World Championship title in 2006 but instead a brief display in front of an illustrious audience at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. "I'll arrive at the Olympics knowing I'll never be as nervous as that," she said.

"I was in such a different environment that it completely threw me. I couldn't help thinking that, if I went sideways, I'd end up on Alan Shearer's knee. Thankfully I didn't. I'm not sure how well that would have gone down."

That year, 2006, has been the best of her career, and as well as getting a starring role in the BBC show she also came third in the competition.

But she might surpass that if she wins a medal from Beijing, her penultimate major championships before her planned retirement at the World Championships in London next year.

"I'll be too old for the London Olympics," she said. In fact, Tweddle's the elder stateswoman of British and world gymnastics and has used her experience to good effect to aid her team-mates - although she admits hanging around with 13 and 14-year-old team-mates has had an impact. "I guess that's why I'm so immature," she joked.

"But they are a lot more mature than the students I meet at university."

University is in Liverpool, where she recently qualified with a 2:1 in sports science and where she will begin a course to train to become a physiotherapist after the Games are over, a time she's approaching with slight trepidation.

"I'm already weaning myself off the gymnastics and it's not easy," she said. "It's not that it's a drug - although I do get an amazing buzz out of it - it's just it's been such a big part of my life so the transition will be tricky. But with my injuries I've definitely got an insight into what you need to be a good physio!"

As for what she'll miss most when she finally packs up gymnastics, it's the thrill of the bars.

"The only way I can describe what it's like when I'm up there is like being on a rollercoaster but a rollercoaster I'm in control of," she said. "People don't know what's going to happen next but thankfully I do."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in