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Rebecca Owen's highly successful career, combined with her stylish gymnastics and popular appeal, made her one of the best-known British gymnasts of recent years. Becky is from Bridlington, East Yorkshire. She was born August 16th, 1986, the second of David (a photographic shop owner) and Helen Owen's four daughters. Rebecca's sisters are Rachael (2 years older), Charlotte (2 years younger and a top county badminton player) and Sarah (4 years younger and a gifted dancer). Becky started gym locally at the age of three after watching her older sister have fun learning the sport. Her ambition and enthusiasm for gymnastics were further fired by a family trip to the 1993 World Championships in Birmingham when she was 6.
In order to train seriously, Becky made a big move at the age of 9, joining the Park Wrekin Gymnastics Club based at Wrekin College and the Lilleshall National Sports Centre in Shropshire, some 200 miles from her home. Becky boarded at a local school so that she could work daily with top coaches Colin and Christine Still. This was a difficult arrangement for a close family such as the Owens, but Becky's very supportive parents spent hours on the road to bring her home every weekend. When she first arrived at Park Wrekin, Becky did not stand out as an obvious, natural talent - even her basic flexibility needed a lot of work. However, it soon became clear that she possessed the determination and temperament required to succeed in elite gymnastics.
Rebecca progressed quickly at her new club and soon began to establish herself as a top contender in British age group competitions. At her first national championship (Age 10 voluntary finals), Becky placed 10th overall, which was to be her lowest-ever national ranking! She was rarely off the medal podium after that, and really started attracting attention by beating top seniors at events such as the 1998 Welsh Open, where she won all-around bronze at the age of just 11. Rebecca was selected as a member of the national junior squad, making her GB debut in a 3-way International in June 1999. Becky became the Espoir British Champion all-around and on floor and beam in 1999, and also won Welsh Espoir gold. The following year she was part of the Great Britain team that placed 8th at the Junior European championships in Paris. Becky finished runner-up at the 2000 British junior championships, again winning golds on floor and beam.
In 2001, with her long-time rival Rebecca Mason out injured, Becky emerged as the outstanding British junior. She was an easy winner at the national junior championships (picking up vault and bars titles as well as the all-around) and led the junior team internationally, placing 1st AA in a match against France. Just as remarkable at this stage were her performances against senior opposition. Becky led Park Wrekin to victory at the British Teams Championships, achieving the highest individual score of the entire competition. She topped an extremely strong field to win the English Championships and then went on to be crowned World Schools champion in Hungary, where she again pipped her teammate, senior Beth Tweddle, to the title. So impressive was her form that 14-year-old Becky was chosen to represent the GB senior team in a home International against Romania. The only slight disappointment that year occurred at the European Youth Olympic Days event in Spain, where she failed to make finals.
2002 was Rebecca's first, and sadly last, full year as a senior gymnast. Happily it was filled with great performances at major championships. After a trip to Canada, where she impressed with 7th place AA, 4 finals and a silver medal on floor behind top US star Terin Humphrey at the prestigious Gymnix International, Becky moved on to the Senior European Championships in Patras, Greece, where she shone very brightly, equalling the British record placing with her 10th in the all-around competition and helping the team to 6th place which was also a record at the time. Injury caused Becky to miss the 2002 British Championships, but her second place at the English more than assured her of a spot on the England team for the Commonwealth Games. In Manchester, Becky emerged as one of the biggest stars of the gymnastics competition. She helped England win team silver and bounced back from a disappointment in the all-around event to claim individual silver on floor with her engaging routine. Towards the end of the year, Rebecca travelled to Debrecen, Hungary, as part of a 3-member British women's team for the World Apparatus Championships, where she finished 25th on beam and 26th on floor.
Becky's profile and popularity grew considerably in 2002. She made many appearances in the media, bringing her skill, style and articulate, bubbly personality to a wider audience. Becky gained many new fans around the world and outside the traditional gymnastics community. She became the idol and inspiration of thousands of young gymnasts in the UK. Rebecca was one of three finalists for the prestigious BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award in 2002, only losing out to soccer wunderkind Wayne Rooney at the glitzy ceremony in London.
Rebecca seemed poised for even greater success in 2003 and beyond. However, this was not to be. A serious back injury sustained early in the year ultimately spelled the end of her competitive career, although she spent most of 2003 undergoing intensive rehabilitation with the expectation of coming back to fight for a place on the Olympic team. In the end, despite all their efforts, Becky and her advisers had to concede that she would be unable to return to elite gymnastics. Like many before her, Rebecca experienced the sport at its cruellest. Injury denied her the opportunity to realize a life-long ambition of competing at the Olympic Games - a dream that she once said meant "everything" to her, inspiring her to train up to 36 hours a week. It was a sad and untimely end to a stellar career.
True to her sunny nature, however, Becky has made the most of her enforced retirement. Although she misses gymnastics, she really enjoys her new life outside of the gym and now has more time to indulge in her favourite activities of shopping and listening to music, and hang out at her favourite place in the world - home! Becky sat her final A-level exams at the Wrekin College school in the summer of 2004 and now plans to take some time out to travel. Throughout her gymnastics career, long-limbed Rebecca was known for her calm consistency and elegance. She was a true all-arounder, although her favourite pieces were floor and beam, and she claimed to dislike vault. Her premature retirement was greeted with a lot of sadness in the British gymnastics community where she was very popular and much respected, not least for her outstanding competitive record.
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