Beth's Olympic bonus
Beth Tweddle sees her final Olympic challenge as a bonus after she recovered from injury in time to compete.
Last Updated: 25/07/12 3:55pm
British gymnast Beth Tweddle sees her final challenge for Olympic gold as a bonus after she recovered from an injury in time to compete at London 2012.
The only gap in the 27-year-old three-time world champion's roll of honour, which also includes six European and seven British titles, is an Olympic medal.
However, the highly decorated gymnast, who recovered from keyhole surgery on a knee problem in time to secure her selection for the Games, refuses to focus on the only medal missing from her collection.
"A lot of people will say it's a failure if I don't do it but my coach has made it clear that it won't be," Tweddle said.
Pride
"I want to look back and say, 'I tried', rather than, 'I wish I'd tried'. So a lot of people are taking that pressure away from me by saying, 'You'll have a lot to look back on'.
"The world titles will still take pride of place because I was the first British person to do it."
Tweddle will bid for gold on the asymmetric bars and will only compete on her other apparatus, the floor, to help with team qualification.
The restriction to one discipline comes after years of training have taken their toll on her body, forcing her to sleep with a £3,500 ice machine strapped to her knee to avoid further problems.
"With the injury I'm glad to be here and I've got no expectation," Tweddle said.
"I'm treating it as a bonus. Four years ago I'd have said I wouldn't even carry on until 2012."
The Johannesburg-born gymnast is almost ready to pass the baton on to the younger generation, including 15-year-old Rebecca Tunney, the youngest member of Team GB who will compete alongside Tweddle after a meteoric rise in the last six months.
Tunney trains in the same City of Liverpool gym as Tweddle, as well as GB team-mates Hannah Whelan and Jennifer Pinches.
She burst on to the scene with an impressive performance at the London Prepares test event in January before finishing top at all three Olympic trials and being crowned British champion in her first year of senior competition.
Overwhelming
However, the step up to the Olympics is a different world to the teenager, who found out she had been chosen for the squad during a maths class at school.
"It's been overwhelming, definitely, I wasn't expecting it to be like this," Tunney said.
"I knew it was going to be big but this was more than I expected. But I've got all my team-mates to settle me down and talk me through things.
"Being in the village has been the best bit - how big it is, and seeing other athletes, great athletes, walking around. The others have tried to calm me down."
As for Tweddle, the end of her career is coming, but she admits it will be tough to hang up her leotard for the last time.
"I won't retire straight away," she said.
"Mentally it'll be too hard to go from 30 hours a week to nothing. I wouldn't know what to do with myself. That'll give me six months to decide what to do, and step aside to let the younger generation take over."
