Emily Whitehead (born 11 December 2000) is an Australian

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 ...

. At the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

, she won a bronze medal in the team event and on the vault. She represented

Australia at the 2020 Summer Olympics Australia competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Australia is one of only five cou ...

and is a two-time Oceanic all-around champion (2021-22). She is the 2015 Australian junior national all-around champion and a three-time national all-around medalist at the senior level (2018, 2021-22). She won a silver medal on the

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

at the 2018 Melbourne World Cup.

Personal life

Whitehead was born in Mornington, a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, and attended

Mount Waverley Secondary College Mount Waverley Secondary College is a public secondary school located in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley. The school consists of roughly 1900 students and is one of the largest in the state. The school consists of two campuses (junior and ...

. She began gymnastics when she was four years old because her older sister was also a gymnast. Whitehead currently studies a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia. Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...

Career

Junior

Whitehead made her international debut at the 2014

City of Jesolo Trophy The City of Jesolo Trophy is an annual women's gymnastics competition held in Jesolo, Italy. There are competitions for the senior division and junior division. The United States won the senior team competition every year from 2010 to 2017.

, helping the Australian team place fifth and finishing twenty-fourth in the all-around. Then at the 2014 Pacific Rim Championships, she finished fifth with the team and qualified for the

floor exercise In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, which is considered an apparatus. It is used by both male and female gymnasts. The gymnastics event performed on the floor is called floor exercise. The English abbreviation for t ...

final where she finished eighth. Her final competition of the 2014 season was the Australian Championships held in

. She won a gold medal with the Victorian team and won the all-around silver medal behind teammate Alysha Djuric. She also won the gold medal on the

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes simply referred to as "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring i ...

and the bronze medal on the floor exercise, and she placed fifth on

and fourth on

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

. Whitehead opened her 2015 season at the

placing fourth with the Australian team and in the uneven bars event final. Then at the Australian Championships, she won the all-around title in addition to the team, uneven bars, and floor exercise titles. She also won the silver medal on the balance beam behind Talia Folino and the bronze medal on the vault. The final meet of her junior career was the Junior Japan International held in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

. She only competed on the uneven bars and did not advance into the event final.

Senior

Whitehead became age-eligible for senior competition in 2016. She was initially selected to represent Australia at the 2016 Olympic Test Event in its effort to qualify a team spot for the

2016 Olympic Games ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

. However, during podium training at the 2016 Pacific Rim Championships, she tore her calf muscle and had to withdraw from the team and Olympic selection. At the 2016 Australian Championships, she only competed on the uneven bars and won the silver medal behind Rianna Mizzen in addition to a team gold medal with

. Whitehead returned to all-around competition at the 2017 American Cup in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.International Gymnix, she won a silver medal on the uneven bars behind Japan's

Hitomi Hatakeda is a Japanese former artistic gymnast who competed at the 2020 Olympic Games. She is the 2019 Summer Universiade champion in the team, all-around, uneven bars, and balance beam. She is also the 2020 American Cup all-around bronze medalist. E ...

and also placed seventh with the team, tenth in the all-around, and seventh on the floor exercise. Whitehead won the silver medal on the vault at the 2018 Melbourne World Cup behind Slovenia's Tjaša Kysselef, the first

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

medal of her career. She was selected to represent

Australia at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Australia competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Queensland between 4 and 15 April 2018. It was Australia's 21st appearance at the Commonwealth Games, having competed at every Games since their inception in 1930. Australia previous ...

alongside Georgia-Rose Brown,

Alexandra Eade Alexandra Eade (born 15 January 1998) is a retired Australian artistic gymnast. Eade competed at the Gymnastics at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2018 Commonwealth Games where she won a gold medal in the Gymnastics at the 2018 Commonwealth Games ...

, Rianna Mizzen, and

Georgia Godwin Georgia Godwin (born 28 October 1997) is an Australian artistic gymnast. She is the 2022 Commonwealth Games all-around and vault champion and the team, uneven bars and balance beam silver-medalist. She is also the 2018 Commonwealth Games all-ar ...

, and they won the bronze medal in the team event behind England and Canada. She won the bronze medal in the vault final behind Canadians

Shallon Olsen Shallon Jade Olsen (born 10 July 2000) is a Canadian artistic gymnast. She is the 2018 World silver medalist and 2018 Commonwealth Games champion on vault. She is also the 2018 Commonwealth Games floor exercise bronze medalist and the 2019 Pan ...

and

Ellie Black Elsabeth Ann "Ellie" Black (born September 8, 1995) is a Canadian artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. She is a three-time Olympian, having represented her country at the Gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012, Gymnastics at the 2016 S ...

. She also competed in the balance beam final and finished fifth. At the Australian Championships, she won the silver medal in the all-around behind Georgia Godwin and also took home team gold. She also won the gold medal on vault, the silver medal on floor exercise, the bronze medal on balance beam, and placed fourth on uneven bars. Then in September at the Australian Classic, she won the all-around bronze medal behind Georgia-Rose Brown and Rianna Mizzen. She also won the silver medal on the floor exercise and placed fourth on the uneven bars and balance beam. She then competed at the 2018 World Championships in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

alongside Georgia-Rose Brown, Alexandra Eade,

Emma Nedov Emma Jane Nedov (born 11 March 1996 in Sydney) is an Australian artistic gymnast that competed at the 2014 and 2018 World Championships. She is the 2013 and 2019 Australian National Champion on beam. Early life Emma Jane Nedov was born on ...

, and Erin Modaro, and the team finished fifteenth in the qualification round. Whitehead began her 2019 season at the Australian Championships and finished fourth in the all-around, uneven bars, balance beam and ninth in the floor exercise. Then at the FIT Challenge in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

, the Australian team won the silver medal behind the Netherlands, and Whitehead placed seventh in the all-around. In August 2019, she sustained fractures in both sides of her back, leaving her out of the gym for three months and ending her 2019 season. She did not compete in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...

. Whitehead won the all-around gold medal at the 2021 Oceanic Championships and earned a continental quota spot for the 2020 Olympics. Then at the 2021 Australian Championships, she won the all-around silver medal behind

. She also won the uneven bars and floor exercise silver medals and placed fourth on the balance beam. She represented

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

alongside teammate Georgia Godwin. In the qualification round, Whitehead finished forty-fourth in the all-around with a total score of 52.298 and did not advance into any finals. Whitehead began her 2022 season at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

where Australia won the bronze medal behind the United States and Italy. In the event finals, she won the bronze medal on the floor exercise behind Angela Andreoli and

Konnor McClain Konnor McClain (born February 1, 2005) is an American Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast and a member of the United States women's national gymnastics team. She is the 2022 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships, 2022 U.S National Champion an ...

and also placed fourth on the balance beam. Then at the Australian Championships, she won the all-around silver medal behind

. She also won gold on floor exercise and bronze on balance beam, and she placed fourth on the uneven bars. She defended her all-around title at the 2022 Oceania Championships and also won team, vault, and floor exercise gold, silver on uneven bars, and bronze on balance beam. She was then selected to represent Australia at the 2022 Commonwealth Games alongside Romi Brown, Georgia Godwin,

Kate McDonald Kate Hergeaves (born 21 March 1970) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. She competed during her tennis career under her maiden name Kate McDonald. Biography A right-handed player from Albury, McDonald was the girls' doubles ...

, and Breanna Scott.

Competitive history

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitehead, Emily 2000 births Living people Australian female artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Gymnasts at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in gymnastics Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Australia Sportswomen from Victoria (state) Sportspeople from Melbourne 21st-century Australian women Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia People from Mornington, Victoria Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games