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Welsh up-and-comer Lynette Lisle is among the world's premier exponents of twist. One of only a handful of gymnasts ever to have competed the 3 ½ twist on floor, Lynette is also capable of landing the exceptionally difficult quadruple twisting somersault. With a physique ideally suited to fast twisting, Lynette has shown increasingly difficult work on all pieces, gradually emerging as a likely star of the GB team in the 2005-2008 Olympic cycle.
Born in Cardiff on April 22, 1989, Lynette Sian Lisle started gymnastics at Cardiff Central Youth Club at the age of 4. "I was really hyper, jumping on the sofa and never keeping still, so my mum thought she had to channel my energy somewhere!" Lynette initially trained under Karen Hogg before being taken under the wing of her long-time coach Tania Coray. Nowadays she trains around 30 hours a week, working with Tania and Tracey Skirton who has been based in Cardiff since becoming Welsh performance director in 2003.
A member of the Welsh squad from a young age, Lynette took some time to establish a name for herself on the GB national scene. Initially noticed for her very fast, clean twisting on floor, she really caught people's attention at the 2003 junior British championships, successfully performing a very unusual 3 ½ twist that helped her to become British floor champion and win a place in the GB squad. Lynette has twice been Welsh junior champion - in 2003 and 2004. She represented Wales at the Canberra Cup in December 2003, placing 12th all-around, 4th on vault and 4th on floor. Despite injuries that saw her miss out on selection for the junior European championships and Commonwealth youth games, 2004 was a breakthrough year for Lynette. She made her GB debut in a junior home international against France and showed dramatic improvements on all pieces, particularly bars, on which she could boast a 10 SV by the end of the year with lots of interesting stalder work. Bars was the only event Lynette contested at the 2004 junior British championships and she walked away with the bronze medal. In October 2004 she placed 3rd all-around in a strong international field at the Rushmoor Rose Bowl.
Lynette's gymnastic idols are Svetlana Khorkina and Catalina Ponor. She considers her best pieces to be bars and floor and says her favourite apparatus is floor "because you can really express yourself". The achievement she is most proud of is competing the 3 ½ twist. Lynette's goals for 2005 include making the GB team for the European and World Championships. In the longer term she hopes to represent Wales at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics.
Outside of the gym Lynette is much like any other teen, listing her hobbies as "shopping, shopping, shopping, chatting to my mates, going to the cinema and spending time with my family - mum (Sue), dad (Phil), older brother Adam (24) and older sister Kimberly (19)." Her favourite TV shows include Newlyweds, Little Britain and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Musically she says she likes "any cool songs". Currently a student at Fitzalan High School in Cardiff, Lynette hopes to go into sports massage / physiotherapy when she retires from gymnastics.
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