Kristian James Thomas (born 14 February 1989 in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

) is a British former artistic gymnast. A long-standing member of both the England and Great Britain men's teams, he was a member of the British team that won gold in the 2012 European Championships team event, and a historic bronze in the same event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He won his first global individual medal in the 2013 World Championships, a bronze in vault; it was also the first global medal ever won in vault by a British male gymnast. In 2015 he won his first major international title, gold in the floor exercise at the 2015 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships. Thomas was coached by Michelle Bradley and Alexei Popov, and is a member of the Earls gymnastics club. He was born in

. On 19 October 2017 Kristian announced his retirement from gymnastics.

Junior career

In 2006, Thomas attended 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 ...

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 ...

, Australia, where he placed 12th and helped the English gymnastics team win the bronze medal.

Senior career

Thomas rose to prominence in British gymnastics, when he won the British all-around title in 2008. Floor is his best event, and during his Senior career he has won several silver medals on floor in International competitions. At the

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 ...

in London, he placed 6th in the All-Around. He was also part of the British men's team that represented Great Britain at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam and the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo. After the men's team initially failed to qualify to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Thomas gave a solid performance at the London Prepares FIG Olympic Test event. The men's team qualified more than 7 points ahead of the silver medal team, France, and Thomas placed 2nd in the All-Around behind teammate Daniel Purvis, as well as qualifying to several finals. In the finals he won a Bronze on Floor, Bronze on Vault and Gold on High Bar.

2012

Summer Olympics in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

At the London Olympics, Thomas was part of the bronze medal-winning GB men's team, competing on 30 July 2012 at the North Greenwich Arena . In this team final, he vaulted with a massive score of 16.550. In October, 2013, Thomas competed at the

2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Antwerp, Belgium, from 30 September to 6 October 2013 at Antwerp's Sports Palace. Kōhei Uchimura won the men's all-around gold medal and finished the competition with four total meda ...

in Antwerp,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. In the vault final, he won the bronze with the score of 15.233, behind Yang Hak-Seon and Steven Legendre.

2014

European Championships

On May 19–25, 2014, at the 2014 European Championships in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

. Thomas along with his teammates (

Daniel Keatings Daniel Ryan Keatings (born 4 January 1990) is a retired British artistic gymnast 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 th ...

, Daniel Purvis,

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 ...

Sam Oldham Sam Joshua Oldham (born 17 February 1993) is a retired English artistic gymnast who represented Great Britain. He was part of the British men's team at the 2012 Summer Olympics that won bronze in the team competition. He is also a three-time j ...

) won Team Great Britain the silver medal behind

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

with a total score of 262.087 points. In event finals, Thomas won the bronze medal in high bar (14.808) behind teammate

Commonwealth Games

In July and August, at the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, Thomas contributed a score of 58.599 for the England team and won gold. He qualified for the vault final with a score of 15.100, and also finished in 8th in the Floor final. With a score of 15.033 he also qualified for the Horizontal bar final. He won a silver for vault with a score 14.499, coming behind Canadian gymnast Scott Morgan. Thomas scored 14.966 on Horizontal Bar, matching teammate Nile Wilson's score, but scoring lower on execution to win silver.

References

Kristian Thomas
athlete profile on the official site of the 2012 Summer Olympics {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Kristian British male artistic gymnasts Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Living people 1989 births Gymnasts at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts of Great Britain Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games medallists in gymnastics