Nisha Rathode (Editor)

Neil Thomas (gymnast)

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Hometown
  
Liverpool

Home town
  
Liverpool

Height
  
1.62 m

Role
  
Olympic athlete

Name
  
Neil Thomas


Neil Thomas (gymnast) Neil Thomas GBR FX EF World Championships Brisbane 1994 YouTube

Country represented
  
United Kingdom England

Born
  
April 6, 1968 (age 56) (
1968-04-06
)

Discipline
  
Men's artistic gymnastics

Neil thomas


Neil Roderick Thomas MBE is a retired English artistic gymnast who experienced most of his success in the floor exercises. An acknowledged inspiration to many young British gymnasts, he was former world silver medalist and Commonwealth Games Champion and one of the most successful British gymnasts in the history of the sport.

Contents

Born in Chirk, Wrexham in Wales on April 6, 1968, Thomas was noteworthy as a successful gymnast at world and international level at a time when British gymnastics generally did not figure at that level, and is regarded as an important torchbearer in the sport for the later successes of Elizabeth Tweddle, Louis Smith and other male British gymnasts in the 2010s.

Winner of three gold medals spanning two Commonwealth Games, Thomas also added a world silver medal on the floor in 1993, and repeating the feat in 1994. he finished 20th at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

He won a Commonwealth gold medal on floor at Auckland and the vault bronze medal at European Championships in 1990. In 1993 he won Great Britain's first World Championship medal in Artistic Gymnastics (silver) 1993. A year later he won a gold medal on floor and became All-around champion at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, and also won the silver medal on floor at World Championships in Brisbane.

Neil thomas gbr floor 1990 french internationals ef


Post-retirement and personal life

He was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1995 New Year Honours for services to gymnastics and in recognition of his near single-handed achievement in putting British men's gymnastics on the map.

Following retirement, Thomas works as a development officer in the north west of England. He is a member of the Liverpool Gymnastics Club. He is cousin to TV journalist Owen Spencer-Thomas who also awarded the MBE.

References

Neil Thomas (gymnast) Wikipedia