Lisa Elena Jane Mason (born 26 February 1982 in

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) is a British gymnast who has competed for her country at the Commonwealth Games (for England), European championships, World championships and the Olympic Games. She was the vault champion at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, and was part of the first Great Britain women's artistic gymnastic team to qualify for the team event at the Olympic Games. Having retired aged 18 in 2001, Mason unusually made a very successful elite comeback aged 31, winning numerous national titles and being invited to World trials for the Great Britain team, despite that teams ranking having improved dramatically in the years since her first retirement. In 2020 Mason, with fellow gymnast

Catherine Lyons Catherine Lyons (born 30 August 2000) is a former British artistic gymnast. She has represented Great Britain numerous times in a prodigious junior career, most notably at the 2014 European Championships where she was crowned Junior European Floo ...

went public with allegations of serious physical and mental abuse within the

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 ...

system In response several elite and former elite gymnasts came forward, corroborating Lyons and Mason's allegations in their own careers, including European champions Becky Downie and

Ellie Downie Elissa Rebecca "Ellie" Downie (born 20 July 1999) is a retired artistic gymnast who has represented Great Britain. She is the all-around 2017 European gymnastics champion, the first gymnast to win a major all-around title for Great Britain. T ...

and Olympic medallist

Amy Tinkler Amy Tinkler (born 27 October 1999) is a retired British Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. She is the Gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's floor, 2016 Olympic floor exercise bronze medallist and the 2015 British all-around cha ...

. Later that year, British Gymnastics CEO

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resigned from her role, though denied her resignation was linked to the Lyons and Mason interviews and their fallout.

Gymnastics career

Lisa Mason began training at Huntingdon Gym Club at the age of five. She has represented her country at three European championships and world championships events,

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 ...

and

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. She represented

and won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

in the vault and also won a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in the team event, at the

1998 Commonwealth Games The 1998 Commonwealth Games ''(Malay: Sukan Komanwel 1998)'', officially known as the XVI Commonwealth Games ''(Malay: Sukan Komanwel ke-16)'', was a multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This edition is marked by several unprecedent ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

. She was the first British gymnast to make finals in European and World Championships. In Tianjin she earned the highest ever placing in the All-Around for a British Gymnast in the World Championships, also helping Great Britain take the first-ever full team to the Olympic Games. On the domestic scene, she has been a British gymnastic champion on three occasions, her first title being won at the age of 14, making her the youngest ever gymnast to win the senior title. Her worst noteworthy injury was when she broke her arm in 1995 at the junior British championships after falling off the

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 ...

. During the resulting surgery, she had two plates and twelve bolts inserted in the injury. Six months later, she returned to claim the title of senior British champion. She then defended that title twice consecutively, a first for any gymnast. Lisa was the first British gymnast to ever win gold at a Grand Prix event. In 1998 she won the Cottbus floor title ahead of Russia's Yelena Produnova and Svetlana Khorkina. She also won medals on the circuit on floor, Beam and Vault events. She was awarded the title of "Master Gymnast" by British Gymnastics. In January 2013, after 12 years away from the sport, Lisa announced her comeback with her aim being to qualify for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. In March 2013 in her first come back competition and after five months of training, Lisa was crowned English vault champion and finished 4th in the finals at the national British championships. Lisa went on to compete at the English and British championships the following year picking up a collection of medals on vault and floor and finishing top 8 on both beam and bars.

Personal life

Lisa is involved in gymnastics as a coach and a choreographer and is also a stunt double and sports model. She is known for her outlandish gymnastics attire. In 2020, following the gymnastics abuse revelations in the press Mason talked about the dark side of British sport, in order to encourage fellow sufferers.

References

External links

*
Lisa Mason
at Gymn Forum
British Gymnastics "Master Gymnast" Status
*https://www.pressboxonline.com/2016/10/18/ravens-cb-will-davis-former-uk-gymnast-lisa-mason-share-21st-century-love * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Lisa 1982 births Living people British female artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Aylesbury Olympic gymnasts for Great Britain Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in gymnastics Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games English female artistic gymnasts