Claudia Fragapane

Claudia Fragapane
— Gymnast —
Fragapane at the 2015 European Championships
Personal information
Full name	Claudia Fragapane
Country represented	Great Britain  England
Born	(1997-10-24) 24 October 1997 Bristol, United Kingdom
Height	4 ft 6 in (137 cm)[1]
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior international elite
Club	Bristol Hawks
Music	2013–2014: Shake Break Bounce by The Chemical Brothers 2015-2016: Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag by Pigbag
Medal record Representing  Great Britain World Championships 2015 Glasgow Team European Championships 2014 Sofia Team 2015 Montpellier Floor exercise 2016 Bern Team Representing  England Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow Team 2014 Glasgow All-around 2014 Glasgow Vault 2014 Glasgow Floor exercise

Claudia Fragapane (born 24 October 1997 in Bristol)^[2] is a British artistic gymnast.^[3][4] She came to prominence at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, where she was the first English woman to win four gold medals since swimmer Joyce Cooper 84 years previously.^[5] In 2015, Fragapane was part of the women's gymnastics team that won Great Britain's first-ever team medal, a bronze, at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.^[6] She also competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.^[7]

Career

2014

At the British national championships in 2014, Fragapane placed 2nd on vault with a score of 14.000, 5th on floor exercise (13.000), and 3rd on uneven bars (13.950). She finished third in the all-around competition with a total score of 55.700,^[8] and was selected to compete at the European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.

At the European Championships, she contributed to Britain's silver-medal performance in the team competition. Individually, she qualified for the vault and floor exercise finals, finishing 6th and 8th, respectively, with scores of 14.333 (vault) and 14.133 (floor).^[9]

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Fragapane competed on all four events in the team final, where the English team won gold.^[10] She qualified first into the all-around final with a score of 56.740, more than a point and a half ahead of the second-place qualifier, Ellie Black of Canada.^[11] She also qualified first on balance beam,^[12] vault,^[13] and floor.^[14] Fragapane won the individual all-around final with a score of 56.132,^[15] and the women's vault final with a score of 14.633.^[16] On 1 August, she won the floor final with a score of 14.541.^[17] With four gold medals in a single competition, Fragapane was England's most successful female Commonwealth Games competitor in more than 80 years.^[4]

In October, Fragapane competed at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, where she helped the British women qualify into the team finals in 4th place. Individually, she qualified for the all-around in 13th place with a score of 55.999, despite a fall on the balance beam. She also qualified for the floor final in 6th place (14.400) and the vault final in 7th place (14.716).

In the team final, she contributed a vault score of 14.466 and a floor score of 14.533 towards the British team's 6th-place finish. In the individual all-around final, she placed 10th with a total score of 56.098. In the vault final, she scored 14.716 and tied for 5th place with Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland. In the floor final, a fall and a step out of bounds put her in 8th place with a score of 13.100.

After Fragapane's success in 2014, she was named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, edging out para-cyclist Sophie Thornhill and golfer Bradley Neil.

2015

Fragapane at the 2015 European Championships

Fragapane competed at the 2015 American Cup in Arlington, Texas.^[18][19] She struggled throughout the competition, counting numerous falls,^[20] and finished 9th.^[21] A week later, she competed at the English Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Loughborough, where she scored 54.900 all-around.^[22]

At the 2015 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier, France, Fragapane placed 6th in the all-around final,^[23] 6th in the vault final,^[24] 4th on the beam,^[25] and 2nd in the floor final, behind Ksenia Afanasyeva of Russia.^[26]

2016

In March 2016, Fragapane won the all-around title and three event titles at the 2016 English Championships in Loughborough.^[27] In July, she was named to Great Britain's women's gymnastics team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, along with Becky Downie, Ellie Downie, Ruby Harrold, and Amy Tinkler.^[28]

At the Olympics, Fragapane fell on uneven bars and balance beam in the qualifications round and narrowly missed the cut for the individual all-around final.^[29] Great Britain finished fifth in the team final.^[30]

Strictly Come Dancing

On 20 August 2016, it was revealed that Fragapane would participate in the 2016 series of the popular reality TV competition show Strictly Come Dancing. She is the second youngest celebrity ever to participate at the age of 18 (the youngest was actress Louisa Lytton who was 17 at the time she competed in 2006). She is also the first ever female Olympic gymnast to compete on the show (the first Olympic gymnast was Series 10 champion Louis Smith.) ^[31] She is partnered with AJ Pritchard.

Competitive history

References

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