Olympic Games Paris 2024

Gymnast Alice Kinsella on the peculiarities of her coach commentating on her performances for TV

By Jo Gunston
7 min|
Alice Kinsella of Great Britain at the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium

Picture by Naomi Baker/Getty Images

A gymnast knows what their coach is thinking. They just know.

'Argh, coach keeps telling me to correct that and I did it again'. 'I know, I know, that connection probably wasn't the best.' 'Yep, that's good, pleased with that.'

But what happens when your coach's immediate thoughts are broadcast live to the nation during your most high-pressure moments while competing at major competitions?

That's the balance that British gymnast Alice Kinsella and coach and TV commentator Christine Still have navigated over the years as the Park Wrekin Gymnastics Club pairing take to the airwaves during BBC broadcasts of major events.

The next occasion is the European Gymnastics Championships in Rimini from 2-5 May. The one after that? The biggie, the Olympic Games Paris 2024, starting 26 July, should Kinsella be selected, of course.

That announcement will come after the Europeans in Italy where GB are hoping to defend their history-making title of 2023, and Kinsella is aiming to add to her five medals, which also include gold on beam from 2019.

So Olympics.com caught up with the twosome at the British Gymnastics Championships in March, to ask, what's it like for a coach to commentate on their gymnast, and what's it like for the gymnast to hear it?

Straight talking works best

So, Alice, how does it feel when you hear your coach commentating on your routines when watching performances back? Are there ever any moments when you think, 'I can't believe she said that'?

"No," she laughs, before saying that the things Still says on TV are pretty much what she'd be telling her in training anyway, "Like straight legs, point your toes, and all of those kinds of things.

"Also, if I do something bad, she would say it, she wouldn't lie and say 'that was good', which I would rather her do."

"You're very measured in the commentary box," says Still, who has coached Kinsella since she was seven years old and acts as an assistant to Kinsella's main coach, Brett Ince. "Also, what I do feel when I'm in the commentary box is that I want to portray my sport of gymnastics in a positive light.

"Even if a gymnast hasn't done well, you pick out the bit they've done well, and 'what a shame this didn't go right'. So, I probably approach commentating a little bit like I would if I was coaching the gymnast.

"I'm sure there could be bits where you go back and think, 'Oh, gosh, I wish I hadn't have said that', but if you're going to do commentary for any length of time, you have to manage to filter quite well."

Measured most of the time, yes, but there are those overwhelming moments that are just beyond being able to hold it together, particularly with such a close bond with one of the gymnasts.

Emotional release after GB claim Olympic bronze at Tokyo 2020

Kinsella, Amelie Morgan, Jessica Gadirova and Jennifer Gadirova, won Britain's first medal in the women's gymnastics team event for 93 years with bronze in Tokyo, behind the US silver-medal winners, and ROC, gold.

Still was back in the UK, reporting from the BBC Sport base in Salford for the COVID-impacted Olympic Games in Japan, which would provide challenges of its own when trying to decipher how the GB team, and her charge, were faring.

"I didn't really even see all the performances," reveals Still, "because you're only using the live feed that comes in, but along the side of the screen we'd got the rundown of scores, so I could see that GB were getting closer (to a medal)."

Seventh at the halfway stage, the GB side had high-scoring vault, and bars, to come.

"There wasn't much expectation from the rest of the world that the British girls were going to come and do what they did, so no one was following them," says Still of the minimal coverage on the world feed of the latter stages of the event, and the Brits' charge to the podium. "They were following the French and the Italians and whoever."

When the final score came up for Morgan's bars routine there was a nervous wait for the Italian's beam score, which when revealed, saw TV screens filled with weeping, cheering, emotionally overloaded GB gymnasts.

What on earth was that like to experience, Olympics.com asks Kinsella.

"At the time, I was pretty speechless," says the recently turned 23-year-old. "We went into that competition not really expecting much. We just wanted to go and enjoy ourselves but when we got to vault, I kind of looked up (at the scoreboard) and I didn't say anything to the others, but I was saying to myself, we could actually get this bronze medal. We would need to go to bars (the final apparatus) and do our absolute best, and all of us did."

After the final score came up, "We just didn't know what to say to each other, we all just started crying."

Things weren't much different in the commentary box.

Still had to hand over to fellow commentator Craig Heap, a former gymnast himself who was also struggling to keep his emotions in check.

"There are one or two occasions where I've said, 'You do it, I don't think I can', but mostly I do the commentary on Alice," says Still. "But I was in bits for the Olympic medal. We all were I think, it was just so unbelievable."

Emotions were heightened further for Still with the knowledge that Kinsella was not fully fit during the competition.

"Alice had hurt her foot as soon as she got out to Tokyo," reveals Still, who has been commentating for the BBC since the 1993 World Championships, "And so I had actually spoken to her quite lengthily on the phone the day before, saying, do you think you can do it, and just a general chat about it. But Alice is always at her best when her back is against the wall, and so she came out fighting that day, didn't you?" Chris beams at her charge who smiles in return.

On watching the moment back, Kinsella could hear her coaches' reaction in real-time, so how did that feel?

"I definitely knew Chris would be crying," says Kinsella, as both laugh. "But all of my family were crying, and I think Brett was crying as well, but, yeah, it was such a special moment, but I wish I could have had both Chris and Brett with there with me," referring to the fact neither of her coaches could travel to the COVID-impacted Games, as per many athletes facing the same disappointment.

The journey continues with Paris 2024 in sight

The rollercoaster ride has continued since Japan, with a sensational 2022 season that saw GB women claim World team silver at their home championships in Liverpool, which also secured a quota for a five-person team for Paris 2024.

Two golds at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham followed, and two silvers at the European Championships in Munich. The following year's continental championships saw GB women win team gold, and Kinsella claim silver on floor exercise behind team-mate Jessica Gadirova.

The lows have included nearly giving up the sport after taking medication to treat acne left her developing anxiety and depression in 2023.

So the journey continues, but when Kinsella does retire from the sport, can she see herself going into commentary?

"I don't actually like watching gymnastics," admits Kinsella with a smile. "It scares me a little bit, so for that question, probably not. The more I've grown up, the more I've realised that it's actually quite a dangerous sport, and my anxiety raises a little bit."

"Scary.' 'Anxiety-inducing.' Still might well agree with those sentiments from her view from the commentary box.

Related content