Beth Tweddle

From an athlete's perspective London 2012 is still quite a way away and I've got two European Championships and a world championship to get through before the Olympics becomes the focus. Having said that I don't think my routines will change massively for the Olympics because you've got to take consistency into consideration and the factor of difficulty. At the minute my bar and floor routines are among the most difficult in the world and if I start upping it I have to be mindful that the consistency could go down. Every competition I enter I hope to do the best routines I can and if you come home with medals as I did at this year's European and worlds then it's an absolute bonus and if I don't I use that as a spur to make me work even harder for the next tournament. After Athens our funding went down but with Louis [Smith] getting bronze at Beijing, the funding went back up and since then we've continued to get the results and the lottery has been on our side, supporting us 100%. It has helped me no end. Before I got funding in 1999 I was dipping into the Bank of Parents. Going into this year I knew it would be a lot tougher. Obviously I was a reigning double champion at the Europeans this year and it's always easier to chase titles than it is to stay as a champion. Key Statistics Major honours 2002 European bronze on uneven bars; Commonwealth gold 2003 World bronze, bars 2004 European silver 2005 World bronze, bars; 2006 World gold, bars; 2008 European silver, floor 2009 European gold, floor and bars 2010 World gold, bars 2010 World Ch'ship final standings 1 B Tweddle 15.733 2 A Mustafina 15.6 3 R Bross 15.066 4 B Sloan 14.666 5 A Porgras 14.600 Main rivals He Kexin Olympic champion, fell in 2010 worlds Huang Qiushuang Yet to win individual title but a rising star Biography Born 1 April 1985 Johannesburg, South Africa Educated Queen's School, Chester; Liverpool JMU Outside gymnastics I go shopping, meet my friends, go out Favourite film Man on Fire – I'm not very good at sitting still but that was compelling enough to keep me in my seat Favourite band I listen mainly to the radio. My iPod wouldn't keep me entertained if that's all I had. We have some input into the music for our floor routines but I leave it to the choreographer to come up with the most appropriate tune Favourite food Roast dinners – roast beef and Yorkshires Olympic Countdown 5-10 April 2011 Individual European Championships, Berlin, Germany Summer 2011 Women's British Gymnastics artistic championships 8-16 October 2011 43rd Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, Tokyo, Japan January 2012 (Only if Tokyo does not go to plan) Olympic test event in Britain which will act as final Olympic qualifying Spring 2012 Individual European Championships, date and venue to be confirmed Other events Participation at other World Cup and Grand Prix events to be based on training requirements Training "All the preparation for the Europeans and worlds is geared to London but we tend to work towards the next thing first. My training for the Olympics will be similar to the days I spend preparing for the worlds and Europeans. It's six hours a day, six days a week. I split it into two three-hour sessions specifically working on the routines."