Louis SMITH

A specialist at the pommel horse, Louis Smith’s bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was the first individual medal won at the Olympic Games by a British Gymnast since Walter Tysall at the London Games of 1908 and only the second won by a black male gymnast in the entire history of the Games. A two-time European Junior champion on the pommel horse, he was Commonwealth Games champion representing England in 2006 and took a bronze medal in the team event as well. Smith has won World Championship medals on his favoured apparatus on four occasions, having placed third in 2007 and 2011 and second in 2010 and 2015. He has also won the European Championship pommel horse gold medal in 2015, silver medals in 2009-10 and 2012, a team gold in 2012, and team silvers in 2010 and 2016. Add to that list, two further Commonwealth Games medals, a team silver and pommel horse bronze in 2014, and Smith’s collection of medals make him the most successful male gymnast that his country has ever produced. Olympic notoriety saw Smith find fame as a television celebrity, and in 2012 he won the highly popular BBC series Strictly Come Dancing.