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Born somewhat inauspiciously on Friday the 13th of May, 1988, Melanie Roberts has since ridden her luck all the way to the top of British gymnastics. Mel comes from Saltney, Chester, on the North Wales/England border. An active young child, by the age of 5 she was attending gym classes at the Northgate Arena leisure centre in Chester. Her parents Coyle and Paula, who run a hairdressing salon, considered the sport to be an ideal outlet for their daughter's energy. Mel soon began to show signs of considerable talent, and when she had outgrown the programme at her local gymnastics club, her parents were advised to take her to the renowned City of Liverpool gym. Melanie made the move to Park Road at the age of 8. She is now among the top stars at that famous club, where her coach is Sarah Atwell.
2002 was Mel's breakthrough year on the national and international stage. Although she was a Welsh international and former GB Under-12 squad member, she had only managed 20th and 18th places all-around in her two appearances at the Espoir British championships and did not seem a likely candidate for the 2002 British Junior Euro team. Nevertheless, at the spring trials she showed considerable improvement, and in the absence through injury of several leading contenders, Mel was selected for the Junior Europeans, making her GB international debut in a warm-up match against Spain. In Patras, Mel helped the GB juniors retain their 8th place ranking. She found herself in the limelight when her beam routine was one of only a handful of junior performances broadcast on Greek television. Melanie's fame has continued to grow ever since.
Although a newcomer to the GB team in 2002, Mel was no stranger to international competition. The Welsh Espoir champion for two years running, she was already an established member of Wales's squad, having represented the principality in various Internationals including the 2000 Commonwealth Youth Games and two Northern European Championships. In 2002, after finishing runner-up at the trials, Melanie achieved her lifelong ambition of competing for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. The baby of the team at 14, Mel helped Wales to 5th place at the Games and qualified to the individual AA final where she came 13th ( - she says 13 is her lucky number! - ) with a personal best score. Mel describes Manchester as "the best experience of my life!"
Melanie won bars bronze at the 02 junior British and capped off a superb year with a gold medal on the same piece at the Northern European championships in Sweden. She ended 2002 as one of the two youngest members of the British Olympic Squad aiming for Athens 2004. The following year again began successfully for Mel as she was selected to tour Canada as part of a 3-member British Junior team. Mel proved to be GB's strongest performer on the trip, winning all-around bronze medals at both the Jurassic Classic and Bluewater International competitions as well as vault gold at the latter. Unfortunately, her progress was slowed by injury in the build-up to the all-important summer season, but she still managed to place 3rd AA and win bars silver at the junior British championships before battling her way to the 2nd travelling reserve spot on the World Championships team. At just 15, Mel was the youngest member of GB's Anaheim delegation and seemed well-positioned in the race for Athens.
Sadly, Melanie's Olympic plans were thrown into turmoil at the end of 2003 when she suffered a potentially career-ending elbow injury in a serious training accident that occurred while she was learning a new dismount from bars - her favourite piece of apparatus. However, showing characteristic courage and determination, Mel amazed her doctors and coaches with the speed of her recovery, returning to competition at the 2004 Celtic Cup where she claimed all-around bronze. She has since won a third successive British Teams title with Liverpool and is set to challenge for a place in Athens.
Melanie is a member of the Great Britain senior (Olympic) squad and part of the lottery-funded World Class and Elite Cymru programmes. She is a solid all-around gymnast, although her best pieces have traditionally been bars and beam. Mel is exceptionally determined, hard-working and dedicated to her sport. Naturally competitive, she enjoys the personal challenge of gymnastics and is constantly setting targets for self-improvement. Her main competitive goals are to be selected for the 2004 Olympics and Commonwealth Youth Games, and the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Beijing 2008 is also a possibility. Mel comes from a very athletic family. She is often to be found cheering on her dad and older sister Samantha who compete in triathlons and marathons. In her spare time, Mel enjoys shopping, watching the music channels, playing football and walking her pet dogs. She takes GCSEs at St David's High School, Saltney in the summer of 2004.
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