British WAG and MAG talk 2025

[RAFIKI]

If either Gadirova is back, it'll be interesting to see what they prioritise.

Extremely. They went for Euros in 2022 but after such a long absence CWG might be a better goal this time around. It will be less competitive but still new for them and with the multi-sport excitement bonus.

 

[MaryClare]

It would certainly be a very BG thing to ask the athletes which event they’d prefer to attend

 

[Gymfan93]

Does GB have any stand out juniors turning senior next year? I can only think of Lexi Holmes, but I'm sure there must be more 2010s I'm missing. It's hard to keep track of who was born in each year!

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

20 years since Netty was in doubt.

What a milestone

 

[irichluck21]

20 years since Netty was in doubt.

You unlocked a core memory.

Next year will be 20 years with the open ended CoP.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Fuck that went fast.

 

[BB12]

I hope Ruby does both CWG and Euros. I always enjoying seeing the Welsh team compete as their own entity.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Abi has posted some training footage of new skills she's working on.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/gymnast_abi_martin/3780863819980265320/

Cheng and Amanar into a pit, the latter with rather more height than the former. And also a Moors on the track.

Also the Scotland CWG selection info is out, a few months old now but I don't think we've had it on here yet.

https://www.teamscotland.scot/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/G2026-Team-Scotland-Artistic-Gymnastics-Selection-Policy.pdf

As we approach the end of the year, the length of this thread feels nicely manageable. I'm happy to continue with the new thread every year model, if there's general agreement? We could always revisit if it gets too clunky with 2026 being probably a busier year.

 

[MaryClare]

I don’t think Scotland has anyone obvious other than Crystelle Lake, who now trains at Park Wrekin. Might be time to start looking for L10s with a grandparent

 

[Gymfan93]

Looking at the '25 Scottish championship results, a 49 AA does seem quite ambitious as a benchmark. 3rd AA got a 45.917.

 

[MaryClare]

Looking at the '25 Scottish championship results, a 49 AA does seem quite ambitious as a benchmark. 3rd AA got a 45.917.

Yes. Only Crystelle is scoring in that region. If it was overseas, they’d probably not send a full quota due to costs etc. But because it’s at home, they will want a full team.

 

[Bob]

Yes. Only Crystelle is scoring in that region. If it was overseas, they’d probably not send a full quota due to costs etc. But because it’s at home, they will want a full team.

I think Lottie Smith is a possibility.

 

[DaniH]

GB MAG squad has been released. No major surprises. James Hall has retired and Max Whitlock is back on the squad. There is a lot of depth to send two full teams to Commonwealth and Euros next year.

 

[Gymfan93]

Sad to see James retire. He seemed like a nice guy, and was always a solid option for the team.

 

[esta]

Sad to see James retire. He seemed like a nice guy, and was always a solid option for the team.

Did Giarnni officially retire as well?

 

[MaryClare]

Sad to see James retire. He seemed like a nice guy, and was always a solid option for the team.

Sad? He’s 30, he’s had a long, largely injury free career where he has won multiple world, European and commonwealth medals. Including being able to win commonwealth golds both at home in England and where he was born in Australia. He’s an Olympian, and just this year has his own element in the COP.

I’ll miss him being on the scene, definitely. He’d almost become part of the furniture. But I’m definitely not sad

 

[MaryClare]

Did Giarnni officially retire as well?

I don’t think he’s made any official announcement, but I don’t think he’s been training since having knee surgery last year. He also became a dad not long after that.

His younger brother Ricco was very promising, but he’d be about 20 now. So I guess it never worked out for him

 

[MaryClare]

Seeing this post from intl gymnast reminded me of Melissa Wilcox and how good she was. But what happened to her? I vaguely remember there was some sort of “story” there. Anyone remember?

 

[Bob]

I was just admiring that yesterday and wondering the same.

 

[MaryClare]

I was just admiring that yesterday and wondering the same.

All I could find was that she was named to the 2000 Olympic team although she hadn’t had the sort of success in 98-00 we might have expected. However she was injured whilst training in Australia and was replaced by Paula Thomas. She came back after injury to place 3rd at the 2001 British and competed at worlds that year however her scores seem pretty low compared to Tweddle and Willis. She doesn’t seem to have competed after that. Her coach was Carol Malone, who judged at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

I want to say that back in the day, John Pirrie talked about her in an article criticising the British set up at the time. There was definitely something late 90s and early 00s where some GB squad members were effectively forced to live and train full time at Lilleshall with national team coaches, not their personal coaches. It went on until about 2002 when it was challenged by social services who said there was inappropriate provision for under 18s to live there. So I don’t know if perhaps Melissa Wilcox was injured or badly managed by national team coaches that she’d rather not have been training with.