A strong squad of Australia’s male and female artistic gymnasts are ready to rise to the challenge of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, with the team featuring three returning Games alumni and seven debutants.
Comprised of five members each in the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Team and the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Team, both squads will be looking to challenge the field on the competition floor.
Both teams will compete in qualifications and team finals; athletes who qualify will then compete in individual all-around and apparatus finals, with a maximum of two per country eligible to compete in each event.
Returning to compete as part of the WAG Team are Georgia Godwin and Emily Whitehead, who were part of the bronze-medal winning team at the 2018 Gold Coast Games.
Godwin, who also claimed the silver all-around medal and the bronze medal on uneven bars in 2018, will be looking to her recent experience at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to bolster the team’s confidence.
Whitehead, who was also part of the Australian Team in Tokyo and claimed the bronze medal on vault at the Gold Coast Games, is joined by debutants Romi Brown, Kate McDonald and Breanna Scott to round out the five-strong WAG Team.
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In the MAG Team, Queenslander Mitchell Morgans is the sole alumni, competing alongside newcomers Tyson Bull, James Bacueti, Clay Stephens and Jesse More.
Morgans, who was part of the team that placed 5th in Gold Coast, will look to the reinvigorated team around him to improve on that performance.
Meanwhile Bull, who was the only MAG athlete to compete at the Tokyo Games, is one to watch on his pet event, the horizontal bar, after making Australian gymnastics history in Tokyo when he became the first Australian to make an Olympic MAG Final, finishing 5th.
Both teams, with their respective combinations of experience and youth, are ready to be bold in gold, competing against the best athletes from across the Commonwealth.