It seems only yesterday that it was confirmed that London will host the 2012 Olympics. And now here we are, not much more than a year until it all kicks off.

British Gymnasts will be particularly excited about competing in front of a home crowd and hopes are high for medals. Over the coming months, we will be profiling British Gymnasts we expect to see in London in 2012, starting today with Daniel Keatings.


Daniel Keatings, of Corby, specialises in men's artistic gymnastics. The 21 year old is a big hope for team GB. He started his career at the tender age of 5, was selected for the British team at just 10 and has, since then, represented Scotland at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, represented Great Britainat the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2007 and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. His trophy cabinet is already well populated, with the gymnast having won a silver medal in the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. He became the first Brit to win a medal in an all round event. Add that to a host of medals he won as a youngster and a 2010 European Championships Gold on the pommel horse, amongst others, and it's safe to say he's performed well.

Daniel is tipped for success in London in 2012 and we will be watching this one closely!

We are currently looking for gymnasts to appear in The Zone's next brochure, which will be shot during May or June of this year.

For further information please e-mail donnag@the-zone.co.uk

Please note that we can only accept correspondence from
Parents/Guardians.

So, we all know that we’re crazy about our leotards, but it seems we’re not the only ones! In fact,if you switched on your telly last night and managed to see ‘Freddie Flintoff Versus the World,’ (shown on ITV4 at 9pm on 25^th Jan) you might have got an eyeful of Freddie Flintoff and Darren Gough donning men’s leotards. And they weren’t just any leotards, of course. They were in fact leotards from The Zone.



The guys put our kit to the test with a round of Luche Libre challenge wrestling.

Image as seen on the Daily Mail website.

Well, we think they wear them very, very well!

Keeping up with the latest and greatest in gymnastics fashions can be a bit of a burden on the bank balance at times. And that’s why we’re always keen to showcase spectacular special offers, enabling you to get high quality and great looking gym wear at excellent value.

And we all love a bargain in the post-Christmas sales, don’t we? So why not check out The Zone special offers to find out where you can get a great deal. We’ve got dozens of special offers available, with girls’ leotards starting from as little as £17.95 and stylish hipster style shorts from just £12.95.

All of our products come with the same high quality and are designed by people who really understand what they must be made to do. That’s why all our gymnastics clothing is functional and comfortable and, to add to that, it looks fantastic too!

You can find all of The Zone’s fantastic special offers right here. Get a great deal before they’re all gone!

For any of you not subscribed to our newsletter, you might have missed the shout out about our limited edition Comet Hipster shorties!



With two starburst jewelled motifs featured and availibility in three equally dramatic colours, they're rather a spectacular way to accessorise your gymnastics look!

And what a great stocking filler for those of you looking to stock up on great looking gifts for the gymnastics enthusiasts in your life!

Prices range from £16.95 - £19.95 and they're available right now from here. Get your hands on them now!

We’re all internet barmy! The world wide web has taken ”convenience” to a whole new level enabling people to bank online, communicate with friends and family online, shop and have said shopping delivered to their door.

One of the greatest things about the Internet is that people can share their opinions through a wide number of potential platforms to a global audience. Blogs, in particular are a great source of news, gossip and opinion and there are blogs about – everything! Gymnastics is no exception. Here are 3 gymnastics blogs well worth a read:-

Amy’s Gymnastics Blog

Hosted on massive site, about.com, Amy’s Gymnastics Blog has a huge audience and is updated frequently. A great source of gymnastics news.

The Couch Gymnast

This blog recently moved from Blogspot onto its own domain. The Couch Gymnast is a very established blog and is frequently updated. It covers everything from the latest events to the lowdown on the leotards being worn at them!

Full Twist

Full Twist is another brilliant and regularly updated blog. This covers international gymnastics news and is one you should really add to your blog reader.

Know of any more brilliant gymnastics blogs? Leave a comment and let us know about them too!

5 of the Best Ever Gymnasts!

Over the years, there have been some phenomenally talented gymnasts gracing the Olympic stage. They’ve hailed from all corners of the globe but here we take a look at just 5 of them.

Sawao Kato

Born in 1946, Sawao Kato is a Japanese gymnast. He is widely considered one of the best of all time. Participating in his first Olympics in the later sixties, he finished his career with a whopping 12 Olympic medals to his name.

Dmitry Vladimirovich Bilozerchev

This Russian Gymnast won a special accolade – the youngest male world Gymnastics champion, achieving that at the tender age of 16, back in 1983. The numerous medals that followed made him one of the best gymnasts ever to compete.

Bart Conner

Arguably the best American gymnast in history, Conner is the only American gymnast to have won gold at every level of competition you can partake in.

Larissa Latynina

Moving on the female gymnasts for our final 2 mentions, we cannot possibly omit this incredibly talented Russian. She remains the female gymnast with the most Olympic Medals to her name – 18 to be precise. And if that were not impressive enough, half of them are gold!

Olga Korbut

We’ll finish this list of five with Olga Korbut, the Belarusian gymnast who won 4 gold and 2 silver Olympics medals. She is famed for making gymnastics a “younger” sport and is often credited with a huge surge in popularity of the sport.

This is just 5 of dozens we could really argue a case for including.

Who is your personal favourite?

Following the recent World Gymnastics Championships, Britain's Beth Tweddle has put to rest claims from critics who claim she will be "too old," to perform at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Granted, 25 is by no means "old age," but in the field of gymnastics it certainly isn't young either. In fact, Tweddle, who will be 27 by the 2010 Olympics comes around, is one of the oldest competitive gymnasts on the circuit.

But there's no denying that Ms. Tweddle is still landing the results. The 3 times World Gymnastics Champion, her most recent victory coming just last week in the uneven bars contest at the 2010 tournament in Rotterdam.

Beth Tweddle laid the claims to rest, commenting publicly that:


Three-time world gymnastics champion Beth Tweddle has brushed aside concerns that she may be too old to land gold at the London 2012 Olympics.

At 25, the Briton is already the second oldest competitor on the circuit and will be 27 by the time of the Games.

"In every interview people ask about my age saying 'are you going to be past it for 2012?' But I'm still enjoying it, I'm still getting the results and I'll be there and ready. Then I'll retire."

Well, there's no denying she is one of the best gymnasts that Britain has produced and we certainly hope to see her competing her way to success in London in 2012!

We wrote about Damien Walters and featured his 2010 street gymnastics show reel last week. Well, we've been fortunate enough to be able to get in touch with Damien by email this week and he gave us a quick e-interview about his career in gymnastics.

How old were you when you first ventured into Gymnastics? Tell us a bit about your progress within the sport?

I first got into Gymnastics at the age of 7 at Amber Valley Gymnastics club. At the age of 10 or 11, I started to realise i was more suited to tumbling so trained more in this and at the age of 12 i did my first little tumbling competition.I never really took it seriously until one day when i was around 17. I was taken down to see the national coach, Vadim Skakun. I think he must have seen a little talent in me as he told my coach at the time he should put me in the British Championships. I went into the comp.... and I did rubbish! But i decided from then that that is what i wanted to do and I would try my best to make sure I was never that bad again! From then, I started training more and more down at Lillishall until one day when i was 19 i was asked to live there. I competed in my first World Championship in 2001.
I did ok but nothing special so I went and trained again and came back in 2003 and came 5th overall and we won the World Championships as a team. As you can tell, I was pretty happy and from then on and I just had the confidence to keep going and going. I got to winning world cup and being ranked number 4 in the world at one point.

You are, without doubt, incredibly fit and unbelievably strong. Are there any lifestyle habits, aside from regular training, that you would say are essential to achieving and maintaining your level of fitness?

I would honestly say that fitness will come easily if you just find something you like doing. I mean, nobody likes doing things they don't want to do and if you see exercise as a chore then it's much harder work. Find a sport you love with a group of people you like being around and you will be fit in no time. I'm lucky as i do somethig I absolutely love with the people I love being around.

How did you become involved in free running?

I don't really see what I do as 'free running.' I just see it as acrobatics outside. My friends do free running and parkour but I just do little bits to fit in with the moves i want to learn. For me, it's just trying to invent new things and take on new challenges . Some people call it 'free running,' and that's fine - It doesn't matter how people refer to it.

Street Gynastics seems to have captured the imagination of a whole group of people who might not previously have considered themselves interested in "gymnastics." What are the similarities between the more traditional forms of gymnastics and what you do?

They are very similar. As I say, it more or less is just acrobatics outside, but it's generally seen as a bit of a 'cooler' thing to do so people love it lol!

Your first role as a stuntman was a pretty impressive one - in hit film Hellboy II. How did you get involved?

I became a stunt man by fluke really! I got a phone call from a guy called Brad Allen, who is Jackie Chan's lead stunt coordinator, and he said he needed a tumbler in a movie called 'Hell Boy II. I thought he was joking at first, but he convinced me he was serious. Within 2 weeks, I was out there filming. I honestly thought it would be the end of it when i finished but he rang me again and said he liked the way I worked am was interested in doing another movie with me, with even more stunts in. From there the stunt work just kept coming. I never really initially wanted to be a stuntman but since then I've done loads of different types of films.

You've been ranked 4th in the world for tumbling, won the Taurus World Stunt Awards, had TV stunt man roles in films such as Hellboy II, Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Kick-Ass, taken part in the Trampoline World Championships and enjoyed some Internet success with your 2009 showreel video becoming one of Youtube's most viewed. That's an impressive CV. But if you had to choose just one achievement to name as your best, what would it be?

If I had to choose one I would choose winning world champs in 2001 as a team and world cup 2004. They really were highlights for me and made me feel like everything I'd worked for was worth it :) That's not to say the others havent been great, of course, but the tumbling was the best for me.

I know we've already featured one Damien Walters video here... but his stuff is absolutely engrossing to watch, so we're going to include the 2009 one here!









You can find Damien's Youtube channel here.

‘Street Gymnastics,’ also known widely as ‘free running,’or ‘parkour,’ is an incredible variation on traditional types of gymnastics. It takes all the strength that gymnastics takes, all the discipline and all the creativity, but when someone gets its right, it is stunning to watch.

It’s a modern, edgy sport that has captured the interest of young and old alike and has even garnered interest from a whole fanbase who would never have previously considered themselves to be interested in “gymnastics.” Browsing Youtube is a great way to watch some of this and we’ve identified one Street Gymnast in particular who is incredibly talented.

Watch the work of Damian Walters on Youtube below.

We were utterly inspired to read about a project in Redditch, here in the UK, that is bringing the possibility of participating in gymnastics into reality for disabled children.

The project, organised by Redditch YMCA, is to be run in conjunction with Redditch Special Olympics.

The once weekly sessions will give the disabled youngsters, between the ages of five and thirteen years, the opportunity to obtain their BAGA Cadge awards and even potentially compete in special Olympics gymnatics tournaments around the UK.

We think this is an amazing opportunity for the youngsters to take part in a sport that's notonly socially satisfying and fun, but that enhances discipline and both mental and physical strength. What's more impressive is the fact that the sessions will cost only £1.50 per week, making this an affordable class as well.

For anyone in the Redditch area who is interested in the classes, the contact is Darren Veness, at darren.veness@redditchymca.org.uk.

The U.S women's gymnastics team were disappointed with their fourth place position at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. They felt very much as though they were capable of more - capable indeed of reaching the medal places. But it wasn't to be.

However, the team, who have since then grown up, obtained degrees, married and made all manner of other lifestyle changes, have just received bronze medals for their performance a decade ago.

No, they haven't started handing out consolation medals! However, in April of this year, it was deemed that they'd actually finished in third place back at the event some ten years ago. It wasn't a miscalculation that led to the oversight. Instead it was a decision many years after the event to disqualify third place team, China, when it emerged that they had used an underage participant.

Well, better late than never, you might argue!

This year's winners of reality show, 'Britain's Got Talent,' were 'Spelbound.' The group of high adenalin acrobatic gymnasts took the nation by storm with their spectacular (and somewhat risky) routines that seemingly tested the boundary of what was physically possible to achieve with the human body.

However, not satisfied with their winning cash prize and subsequent place in the next Royal Variety Performance, the troupe have set their sights on the Olympics. There's just one problem - their specific sport, Acrobatic Gymnastics, is not yet included in the Olympics.

While many varieties of gymnastics are of course on the bill, this particular type is not. This disappoints the troupe to say the least. But they're certainly not down and out about it. Instead, they have been campaigning for years for the sport to be included and it's hoped that their hard work will eventually pay off.

The difference between a sport being an Olympic sport and not? Well... a LOT of money. At present, Acrobatic Gymnasts will have to find a way to fund everything themselves - from their gym wear, to their fees, to their competition travel costs. Certain elite Olympic athletes qualifty for Government support.

But of course it isn't just a question of money.Spelbound simply want to compete on the greatest stage of all - the Olympics.

And why shouldn't they? Acrobatic Gymnastics is physically demanding, thoroughly entertaining and certainly deserving of a place in the Olympics.

Not convinced? Check out Spelbound's winning performance on this year's 'Britain's Got Talent.'

The Zone brings you the finest in gymnastics wear, all designed to be robust, great looking, performance clothing.

We're now pleased to launch the blog, which will bring you news, reviews and profiles from the prolific world of gymnastics.

While we start gathering all the latest news and reviews, why not check out behind the scenes at last season's catalogue photo shoot?