Beth Tweddle

She regularly updated fans when she was able to walk again and on her subsequent progress. Of course, before then Beth was better known as Britain’s greatest ever gymnast. She had been the National Champion 10 times on the run, Commonwealth Champion, European Champion six times, World Champion three times and bronze medal winner on the uneven bars at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Apart from those medals, Beth won silvers at the 2007 and 2008 European Championships and at the 2010 World Cup. While she has a bronze Olympic medal to her name, the motivational speaker took part in three consecutive Olympic Games in all, the others being Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008.

In all, across all competitions, Beth has 28 medals – 14 of them gold, eight silver and six bronze. She came out of a university course in sports science with a 2:1 in 2007 and was awarded an MBE three years later. Since retiring from professional gymnastics, Beth Tweddle has appeared on – and won – the TV programme Dancing on Ice. She has also set up Total Gymnastics Academies which deliver national curriculum gym classes to primary schools around Britain.