Raising the bar: Tweddle bows out with a bronze, going one better than Beijing

Olympic success is not just counted in gold medals but by how you match up to personal goals. That is why Beth Tweddle, for so long the smiling face of British gymnastics, was welling up with tears of delight here.
The one hole in her glittering c.v., which contains three world and six European titles, was an Olympic medal. She is 27 — a  geriatric in the joint-busting gymnastics world — and these are her last Games.
History said her task was hard because no gymnast as old as her had stood on a podium for nearly 50 years. No British woman had ever done so in an individual event.
So when a small, faltering step on her dismount ended her hopes of taking gold in the uneven bars she was not heartbroken. Then, after a wait while the three remaining routines were completed, the scoreboard confirmed her as a bronze medallist at last.

Top three: Beth Tweddle (right) with Aliya Mustafina (centre) and He Kexin

High standard: Beth Tweddle claimed the bronze medal for her performance on the uneven bars

At that moment she could banish the upset of Beijing, when a similar mistake to the one here cost her a medal in the parallel bars by 0.025 of a point. It condemned her to fly home economy class rather than with her beribboned team-mates at the front of the plane.

The other reason she could be pleased with her achievement is that 12 weeks ago she had keyhole surgery on her left knee.

‘I cried myself to sleep the night I found out I needed an operation,’ she admitted yesterday. ‘I thought my Olympics were over.’

Her dream lived on thanks to her ‘new best friend’, a £3,500 ice machine. She wore the contraption night and day at first and then just at night, including in the Olympic Village this week as she prepared for her swansong. She paid tribute to her ‘fantastic’ medical team.

Twists and turns: Beth Tweddle had been working on a new, more complicated dismount

‘At first it felt strange waking up with a cold leg but it worked,’ said Tweddle with her usual amiability after what amounted to a dazzling routine. Her score put her into second place before the eventual winner, Russia’s Aliya Mustafana, registered the highest mark of the competition and bumped her down one place.

She had watched anxiously while it all unfolded in front of her, helpless now to change the outcome. But the two final rivals both scored poorly, leaving Tweddle third.

‘This is incredible,’ she said. ‘Everyone kept saying to me, “You’re a great champ. It doesn’t matter what happens today”. I kept trying to tell myself that but I knew if I walked out of here  without a medal, I’d have been really disappointed.

‘Getting the bronze is the best feeling ever. I never get emotional but I saw my mum and started welling up. The podium doesn’t usually get to me but today it did.’

We have a winner: Russia's Aliya Mustafina took the gold medal for the uneven bars

There is a great affection for Tweddle, the Cheshire-born girl who captured people’s hearts with her vivacious personality and  professional brilliance. The crowd’s cheers were warm, though she said she all but managed to cut out the noise while she went through her routine.

Like all Olympic athletes, her sacrifices are near total. She trains for 30 hours a week under Amanda Reddin at Liverpool Gymnastics Club. She has Sundays off and half of Thursdays. But other than that she puts her body through three-hour sessions of jumping, twisting and somersaulting.

No gymnast can ever say he or she is totally injury-free, with all that hard landing and inadvertent falling. She has not had a drink since last year at the European Championships. Ask Reddin why Tweddle is so successful, the answer that comes back is ‘hard work’.

Sheer graft is an unavoidable ingredient for Olympic success, along with talent. Finally, the pain becomes too much. The wonder in Tweddle’s case is that she has gone on so long.

Back down with a bump: Kristian Thomas failed to land his second vault

Now, she has absolutely ruled out the idea of going to the Rio Games in 2016. ‘My Olympic career is over,’ she said. ‘I haven’t slept for three weeks. This has been the hardest week of my life. I have been going to sleep with butterflies in my stomach and waking up with butterflies. Winning the medal ends my career perfectly.’

Tweddle can take great delight in the way her sport has blossomed during the years when she has been its most prominent and successful member. Here in London, British Gymnastics have won a men’s team bronze, silver for Louis Smith and bronze for Max Whitlock, both in the pommel. It is unheard of success.

What can flow from it? The Soviet Union’s waif-like heroine of the 1972 Olympics, Olga Korbut, believes revolution is afoot. ‘Look at them, the men and women,’ said Korbut, now 57. ‘They will bring more men to gymnastics, which means you can choose more.

‘This Olympic Games is just the beginning for British gymnastics. You will see.’