Louis Smith (gymnast)

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Louis Smith
Men's artistic gymnastics
ClubHuntingdon Gymnastics Club
Head coach(es)Paul Hall
Retired2018
Medal record
Men's artistic gymnastics
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2012 London Pommel horse
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio de Janeiro Pommel horse
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Beijing Pommel horse
Bronze medal – third place 2012 London Team
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2010 Rotterdam Pommel horse
Silver medal – second place 2015 Glasgow Team
Silver medal – second place 2015 Glasgow Pommel horse
Bronze medal – third place 2007 Stuttgart Pommel horse
Bronze medal – third place 2011 Tokyo Pommel horse
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 2015 Montpellier Pommel horse
Gold medal – first place 2012 Montpellier Team
Silver medal – second place 2009 Milan Pommel horse
Silver medal – second place 2010 Birmingham Team
Silver medal – second place 2010 Birmingham Pommel horse
Silver medal – second place 2012 Montpellier Pommel horse
Silver medal – second place 2016 Bern Team
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2006 Melbourne Pommel horse
Gold medal – first place 2014 Glasgow Team
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Melbourne Team
Bronze medal – third place 2014 Glasgow Pommel horse

Louis Antoine Smith MBE (born 22 April 1989) is a retired British artistic gymnast.

He received a

Kristian Berki, but taking silver for a lower E or execution score. He followed this up with a second consecutive silver medal on the pommel horse at the 2016 Rio Olympics, this time finishing behind teammate, and 2012 bronze medalist, Max Whitlock.[5]

Smith was also part of the Great Britain team that took the bronze in the

Strictly Come Dancing and the 2021 series of The Masked Dancer
.

Early life

Smith was born in

Ritalin from age six until he was eleven.[6][7][8]

Smith attended Arthur Mellows Village College in Glinton, Cambridgeshire.[7] He has since described his childhood, saying that "My mum took me to a variety of sports but from a young age it was gymnastics that captured my attention and which I really wanted to progress in. I had to sacrifice a lot of things in my social life, and I also didn't do A-Levels as I wanted to focus on the sport".[9]

Career

2004–08: before Beijing

As a junior, Smith was twice a European champion on the pommel horse, winning the title in 2004 and 2006. In 2006, he took 5th place in the World Cup final. He won gold on the pommel horse for England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, beating Prashanth Sellathurai. In 2007, he came fourth in the pommel horse final at the European Championships. He attended his first World Championships competing for Great Britain at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. There he won a bronze medal in the pommel horse final. He also won a silver on the pommel horse at the World Cup in Ghent the same year. In 2008, Smith won a silver on the pommel horse at the World Cup in Moscow.

2008 Summer Olympics

On 9 August 2008, Smith qualified in fifth place for the Olympic final of the men's pommel horse, and on 17 August he won a bronze medal in the finals, becoming the first British man to win a medal in the individual gymnastics at the Olympic Games since Walter Tysall won a silver medal in 1908 and the first Briton generally to win a medal in gymnastics at the Olympic Games since the women's team won a bronze medal in 1928.[4] He is also the second black male gymnast to win a medal in an Olympic competition. The first was Jair Lynch of the United States in 1996, a silver medalist on the parallel bars.

2009–15

In 2009, Smith won his first silver medal at the European Championships on the pommel horse as a senior. In 2010, Smith helped the British men's team to win silver at the European Championships, and once again took the silver medal on the pommel horse. He went on to the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, where he beat Sellathurai once again to take the silver medal. In 2011, he made the pommel horse finals but did not perform at his best and finished in 6th at the European Championships in Berlin.[10] In October, he was chosen to be on the British team for the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo. The men's team were expected to qualify through to the team finals easily, but had a poor performance in the preliminary rounds.[11] Smith was only chosen to perform on the pommel horse, where he performed well, qualifying through to the finals, ranking 2nd behind the 2010 World Champion, Krisztián Berki. On 14 October, he performed the most difficult routine out of all the finalists, but fell on his dismount, lowering his execution score. Despite this, he still placed 3rd behind Berki and Cyril Tommasone to win the bronze medal — the only medal won by the British men and women at those championships.[12]

In 2012, Smith won the silver medal in the pommel horse finals in the European Men's Artistic Gymnastics Championships.[13]

Smith was part of the Great Britain team at the London Olympics. The team won a bronze medal at the men's artistic team all-around event on 30 July 2012, marking the first team medal for a British Olympic gymnastics team in 100 years.[14] Smith also won the silver medal in the men's pommel horse final, receiving the same score as Berki; Berki, however, was awarded the gold medal due to having a higher execution score.[15] This was especially crushing to the home nation as this could have been Great Britain's first ever Olympic gold medal in gymnastics but Smith said, "I set out to do the best routine of my life and I achieved it so I have to be satisfied".[9]

Smith retired in 2013 and did not compete that year, but announced in early January 2014 that he was back in the gym training in a bid to return to international competition at the

Daniel Keatings, who was competing for Scotland and Max Whitlock. In 2015, he gained a berth to the British team competing at the 2015 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Montpelier, France. On 18 April 2015, he won the gold medal on the pommel horse – his first individual European title – with a score of 15.800.[17]

2016

Smith again represented Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[18] He finished second in the pommel horse final behind teammate Whitlock.

Other ventures

In an attempt to revive his interest in singing, Smith auditioned unsuccessfully for the British television music competition

The Jump
.

In 2021, Smith appeared on The Masked Dancer, masked as "The Carwash". He was crowned the first ever winner of the series on 5 June 2021.[citation needed]

Strictly Come Dancing

Smith took part in the 2012 series of the British television show

quickstep
that scored a perfect 10 from all judges.

Strictly Come Dancing Performances
Week # Dance/Song Judges' scores Result
Horwood Bussell Goodman Tonioli Total
1
Forget You
" 		6 8 6 7 27 Safe
2
Puppy Love
" 		7 7 8 8 30 Safe
3 Salsa/"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" 8 8 6 8 30 Safe
4
Tango/"Disturbia
" 		8 9 9 9 35 Safe
5 Samba/"La Bomba" 6 7 8 8 29 Safe
6 Waltz/"Moon River" 6 9 9 9 33 Safe
7
American Smooth/"I Got a Woman
" 		7 8 8 7 30 Safe
8
Paso Doble/"Dirty Diana
" 		6 7 7 7 27 Safe
9 Charleston/"Dr. Wanna Do" 8 10 9 10 37 Safe
10 Rumba & Tango/"With or Without You" 9 9 9 10 37 Safe
11 Jive/"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" 7 8 8 8 31 Safe
Somebody That I Used To Know
" 		9 10 9 10 38
12 Salsa/"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" 9 10 10 10 39 Safe
Showdance/"
Rule the World
" 		10 10 10 10 40
Dr. Wanna Do
 9 10 10 10 39 Winner

Controversy

In 2016, Smith issued an apology and visited Fazl Mosque in London, after a video leaked of him mocking the salah.[22][23]

Personal life

In November 2017, Louis began dating Charlie Bruce, a British jazz dancer from Leicestershire. In September 2020, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child together, with the due date being announced as late February 2021.[24]

Smith was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to gymnastics.[25][26]

References

  1. Yahoo
    . Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  2. ^ Williams, Ollie (5 August 2012). "Louis Smith wins Olympics pommel horse silver for GB". BBC Sport. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  3. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Louis Smith". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 4 December 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Smith wins historic bronze for GB". BBC Sport. 17 August 2008. Retrieved 18 August 2008.
  5. ^ "Rio Olympics 2016: Max Whitlock wins two golds, Justin Rose claims one". BBC Sport. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  6. ^ Barkham, Patrick (14 December 2012). "Louis Smith, gymnast: 'I'm quite a handful'". The Guardian.
  7. ^ a b Truslove, Ben (27 July 2012). "Mum's nerves as Olympic hopeful Louis Smith prepares". Peterborough Today. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  8. ^ "Cambridge News | Sport | Video: My son the Olympic gymnast". Archived from the original on 15 July 2012.
  9. ^ a b c "Interview: Louis Smith MBE". 22 January 2013.
  10. ^ "4th European Artistic Gymnastics Individual Championships" (PDF). Dtb-online.de. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  11. ^ "GB men fail to qualify for 2012". BBC News. 10 October 2011.
  12. ^ "Shaky Smith takes pommel bronze". BBC News. 15 October 2011.
  13. ^ "London 2012 Olympics: Great Britain men win first ever team gold at the European Gymnastics Championships". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  14. ^ Williams, Ollie (30 July 2012). "Olympic gymnastics: bronze for GB as Japan win silver on appeal". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  15. ^ Herbert, Ian (5 August 2012). "Gymnastics: Team GB's Louis Smith comes fraction short after playing safe". The Independent. London. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  16. ^ normile, dwight. "Top British Gymnast Announces Comeback".
  17. ^ Turner, Amanda (18 April 2015). "Five Gymnasts Win Big in Montpellier". International Gymnast Magazine Online.
  18. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  19. The Chicago Tribune
    . Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  20. ^ "Rip It Up The Show". Ripituptheshow.com. 14 March 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  21. ^ "Strictly Come Dancing: Louis Smith lifts the trophy". BBC. 23 December 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
  22. ^ "Louis Smith: Team GB gymnast receives death threats 'every day'". BBC Sport. 13 October 2016.
  23. ^ "Louis Smith misses Olympics celebrations after offensive video". The Guardian. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  24. ^ "Login • Instagram" – via Instagram. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  25. ^ "No. 60367". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2012. p. 25.
  26. ^ "2013 New Year's Honours" (PDF). Retrieved 29 December 2012.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louis Smith.
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