Annika Reeder

Annika Reeder
Personal information
Full name	Annika Louise Reeder
Country represented	United Kingdom England
Born	(1979-09-28) September 28, 1979 Harlow, Essex
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Club	South Essex
Retired	January 2001

Annika Louise Reeder (born September 28, 1979, Harlow, Essex, Great Britain) is a British artistic gymnast. She was the first gymnast from Great Britain to compete in two Olympic Games, in 1996 and 2000.

Reeder began gymnastics at the age of three in 1982, following in the footsteps of her sister Kirsty. She trained at the South Essex Gym Club under coach Rod Smith. She made her international debut at the 1993 Junior European Championships and entered the senior ranks in the following year.

In 1994 in Victoria, Canada Reeder became England's youngest ever Commonwealth Games gold medallist at the age of fourteen, collecting golds in the team and the floor exercise. She collected a third gold medal at the Commonwealths in 1998. Reeder was also a European floor finalist in 1994, and a vault finalist in 1998. In the 1996 European Championships in Birmingham, Reeder finished 14th in the all-around, at the time, this ranking was the highest ever recorded for a British athlete. Reeder represented the UK at the 1994 team, 1994 individual, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999 World Championships. She was a two time Champion and four time silver medalist at British Nationals and the English Champion in 1996.

Great Britain did not qualify to send a full team to the 1996 Olympics, but were permitted to send two gymnasts to compete as individuals. Reeder was the higher-ranked of the two British gymnasts, placing 66th in the prelims. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney Australia, Reeder captained the British women's team. The squad finished 10th, its best Olympic placement ever. Annika qualified to the all-around finals, the culmination of a lifetime's ambition. However, her bid to compete in the all-around would be undone by the infamous vault fiasco. Prior to the all-around, unbeknownst to the athletes and coaches, the vaulting horse was set 2 inches (5 cm) too low. This completely altered gymnasts' pre and post-flight, and resulted in many crashes, falls and injuries. Reeder vaulted on the faulty apparatus and was, perhaps, the worst affected by the error. She was so injured on her vault attempts that she had to be helped off the mats and was forced to withdraw from the remainder of the competition.

Trivia

• Nickname: Furby
• Hometown: Loughton, Essex
• Family: Mother (Stephanie), Father (Stewart), Sister (Kirsty)
• She is currently in a long term relationship with Craig Pellowe (also a former international gymnast!)
• Reeder" added to Code of Points - 14 February 1668

Following the 1999 World Championships, the FIG (Federation of International Gymnastics) have added all the new elements into the Code of Points, and Annika has been lucky enough to achieve this honour. Only a few gymnasts have their name added to the code of points, and from this month, the uprise full turn or uprise 1½ turn will be officially named the "Reeder." The skills have a difficulty value of "D," meaning that it is very difficult.

It is interesting that Annika was the first gymnast in the world to perform this skill at the World Championships, being such a commonly used skill. Great Britain competed in the second round of qualifying, with seven teams competing before them on the bars. Four of these countries ended up placing higher than Great Britain, yet none of the gymnasts performed the "Reeder."

This is a fantastic achievement and honour for Annika, never before experienced by a British gymnast, and certainly an honour that she will never forget. Taken from Romania WON GOLD

Annika's first claim to fame was as a participant on the London Weekend Television programme, "You Bet!", hosted by Bruce Forsyth, in 1989. Her team's challenge was to complete 150 somersaults over a vaulting-horse in 90 seconds. Reeder, and her team-mates completed 184 somersaults in the allotted time, saving the host from a forfeit.

External links

• official site (Archived 2009-10-25)