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Holly Murdock's results in the sport seem to bely her apparent stance as one of Britain's best ever gymnasts. Born December 1983, Holly made her major international debut at the 1998 junior Europeans where she placed 5th in beam finals, though many felt she deserved higher. Later that year Holly travelled to Kuala Lumpur for the Commonwealth Games representing Northern Ireland, where she further confirmed her talent with an 11th place finish, despite her relative inexperience. 1999 was another big year, as she qualified for her first world team contributing on all events except floor, and her consistency helped team Britain to their first ever Olympic team berth. However, a year later her Sydney dreams were not to be and a weak performance at British Nationals (11th) together with a broken toe, left her as a non-competing reserve for the Olympic team.
Yet by 2001, with the retirement of many of her compatriots and an older head on her shoulders, Holly made the world team in Ghent and much to many people's surprise finished a remarkable 14th AA - the highest AA finish of a British female gymnast to date. Her high score of 9.012 was particularly rewarding since not only is floor Holly's weakest event, but with a back injury hindering her progress, the success was no mean feat. However, injury struck once again in 2002 and she was forced to withdraw from both Nationals and the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, both of which she had been well-backed to win. September saw her travel out to USA to begin a new chapter in her life at American university, UCLA, where she will combine both her studies (Holly aspires to be a vet) and her gymnastics, where she currently trains alongside Olympians from both Canada and USA. Though her status for future international competition has yet to be determined, Holly could very well challenge strongly come Athens 2004.
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