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Gymnasts will vault on to the world stage in film by BBC
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent14 Aug 2008
Britain's women gymnasts are on course for international stardom even if they fail to scoop Olympic gold.
BBC Films has been tracking the preparations and performances of British gymnasts for a cinema documentary called Road To Glory.
Executives - many of whom knew nothing of the sport before filming began - are now on tenterhooks as Becky Downie and Beth Tweddle compete in their respective Olympic finals.
Downie, 16, from Nottingham, appears in the all-round individual finals tomorrow and Tweddle, 23, from Liverpool, competes in the asymmetric bars final on Monday.
Whatever the results, their trials and tribulations will be seen across the world when the BBC production is released.
The film is being billed as in the mould of hit documentary Spellbound which followed American children taking part in spelling competitions.
Joe Oppenheim, the executive producer, said: "Most people only care about gymnastics at Olympics time. So you get young boys or girls who spend thousands of hours during their adolescence training for a minute in the sun.
"And because of the age range, unless you're very lucky you only ever get one Olympics. I'm very nervous now for them in the finals."
A revival in British gymnastics was the backdrop to the decision to greenlight the film. Tweddle became the first Briton to win a gold medal at the sport's world championships two years ago.
A three-strong BBC crew has been filming the gymnasts this year, led by director Anthony Wonke who promised not to disrupt training.
