Daniel Ryan Keatings (born 4 January 1990) is a retired British
artistic gymnast
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...
representing Scotland and Great Britain. Both an all-around gymnast and a specialist pommel horse worker, Keatings was the first male British gymnast to medal at the all-around competition at the World Championships, and the first male British gymnast to become a European champion, winning on pommel horse, his signature piece, in
2010 in Birmingham and again in
2013 in Moscow. In 2014, he won gold at the
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
, again in pommel horse, for Scotland. With
Louis Smith,
Max Whitlock
Max Antony Whitlock (born 13 January 1993) is a British artistic gymnast. With fourteen medals and six titles in Olympic and world championships, Whitlock is the most successful gymnast in his nation's history, and the most successful pommel h ...
and
Joe Fraser
Joe Fraser (born 6 December 1998) is an English artistic gymnast. He is the 2022 European all-around and parallel bars champion and the 2019 world champion on the parallel bars, the first British gymnast to ever win gold in any of these eve ...
of England and Great Britain, and
Rhys McClenaghan
Rhys Joshua McClenaghan (born 21 July 1999) is a Northern Irish artistic gymnast competing internationally for both Northern Ireland and Ireland. He is the 2022 world champion on pommel horse, the first Irish artistic gymnast ever to win world ...
of Northern Ireland and Ireland, Keatings formed part of a golden generation of
home nations
Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on context. Politically it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). In sport, if a sport is g ...
pommel horse workers who dominated the apparatus at global, continental and Commonwealth Games level from 2010 onwards.
Career
Keatings represented Scotland at the
2006 Commonwealth Games
The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006 (Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm 2006'' or ''Naarm 2006''), was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth held ...
and Great Britain at the
2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 40th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar r ...
,
2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 41st World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held at The O2 Arena in London from 12 to 18 October 2009. Similar to the 2005 World Championships, there were no team competitions. Individual all-around and event finals were contested.
C ...
,
2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Tokyo, Japan, from October 7–16, 2011, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Due to uncertainty over the nuclear situation following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the Inte ...
and the
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
.
In April 2009, Keatings won the all-around silver medal in the European Gymnastics Championships in Milan. He also won the bronze medal in the pommel horse final. In September 2009 Keatings gained a sponsorship deal with business power supplier
Opus Energy
Opus Energy Limited supplies gas and electricity to businesses across the United Kingdom. It purchases electricity from wind, solar, hydro, and anaerobic digestion generators, and provides support to develop energy-generating sites. It is headquar ...
. The company agreed to cover his competition fees, equipment, and travel costs. During the same year, Daniel also became an official ambassador for premium sports nutrition brand Maximuscle.
On 15 October 2009, Keatings made history when he became the first British gymnast to win a medal in the all-around event at the Artistic World Championships. The event, which was held at the O2 Arena in London, saw Keatings rise to the occasion and record a score of 88.925, taking the silver medal in front of the home crowd.
On 25 April 2010, Keatings made history again when he won Great Britain's first-ever Senior European Championship gold medal on the pommel horse the day after he helped Great Britain to win a historic silver medal in the team competition (their previous highest finish was 9th in 2008).
Returning from an injury, he made a comeback at the
2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Tokyo, Japan, from October 7–16, 2011, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Due to uncertainty over the nuclear situation following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the Inte ...
in Tokyo. He did not have a good competition in the preliminary rounds, including a fall off the pommel horse and a particularly nasty fall on high bar. He was not the only one of the British men's team to falter, and the team did not qualify through to the team final, finishing in 10th place. In addition, Keatings failed to qualify through to any of the individual event finals.
On 25 March 2012, Daniel competed at th
Turnier der Meister FIG Challenge Cup C III Apparatus Cottbus, Germany. After exceeding all expectations, Daniel reached the final and held his nerve, producing a quality routine that scored 15.775 for the silver medal, just over a tenth of a mark behind the Olympic champion,
Xiao Qin
Xiao may refer to:
* Filial piety (), or "being good to parents", a virtue in Chinese culture
* Xiao (flute) (), a Chinese end-blown flute
* Xiao (rank) (), a rank used for field officers in the Chinese military
* Xiao County (), in Anhui, China ...
of China.
Keatings again represented Scotland at the
2014 Commonwealth Games
The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...
in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
. As part of the Scottish team, he won a silver medal in the team competition on 29 July 2014 and followed this with another silver in the individual all-around final on 30 July. Keatings won gold in the pommel horse final on 31 July with a score of 16.058.
References
External links
*
Daniel Keatingsat
British Gymnastics
British Gymnastics, also known as the British Amateur Gymnastics Association (BAGA), is the sports governing body for gymnastics and Trampolining in the UK.
History
It was founded in 1888 as the Amateur Gymnastics and Fencing Association. Gy ...
Paul Hall Beijing blogKeating's WebsiteDaniel Keatings Official SponsorsDaniel Keatings Video Interview on MaximuscletdmcottbusTurnier der Meister FIG Challenge Cup results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keatings, Daniel
1990 births
Living people
Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
British male artistic gymnasts
Olympic gymnasts of Great Britain
Gymnasts at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Scotland
Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Scotland
Commonwealth Games medallists in gymnastics
Gymnasts at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Gymnasts at the 2014 Commonwealth Games