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| Human Interest | |
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Sport Specific Information | |
| Club / Team | City of Leeds Diving Club: Leeds, ENG |
Further Personal Information | |
| Higher education | Sports Science - Leeds Metropolitan University: Leeds, ENG |
General Interest | |
| Hobbies | She likes to hang out with her twin sister relaxing, going to the cinema and eating out with friends. (leedsmet.ac.uk, 07 Apr 2009) |
| Injuries | She had a double fracture in her ankle that hampered her gymnastics career (british-gym.com, 15 Sep 2010) |
| Superstitions / Rituals / Beliefs | She intuitively knows what her twin sister is going to do next so they don't need any rituals but they may lighten the moment with a joke saying or a song. (leedsmet.ac.uk, 07 Apr 2009) |
| Other sports | She retired from gymnastics at the British Championships after competing at the 2002 Junior Europeans and 2006 Commonwealth Games (british-gym.com, 15 Sep 2010) |
| Famous relatives | Her identical twin sister, Carol was also a gymnast and competed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. They both switched to diving in 2006. (british-gym.com, 15 Sep 2010, youtube.com, 16 Apr 2009) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Why this sport? | She retired from gymnastics after the British Championships. Her mum had seen some divers, previously gymnasts competing at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and thought synchronised diving would compliment the twins bond and intuition. After retiring from a 30 hour a week training regime for gymnastics, she needed a new challenge. |
General Interest | |
| Ambitions | To compete at the 2012 Olympic Games (telegraph.co.uK, 02 Feb 2009) |
| Awards and honours | |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Name of coach | Adrian Hinchliffe |
| Coach from what year? | 2006 |
| Training Regime | She trains 5 hours a day between 8am and 11am and in the afternoon from 2pm to 4pm. |
| When and where did you begin this sport? | She started synchronised diving with her twin sister in 2006. |
General Interest | |
| Sporting philosophy / motto | Find someone you work well with, someone with a similar height and build and with similar techniques. You need strength, power, flexibility and good body tension. Be prepared to be patient as it can be very frustrating at times and you will need a lot of courage because diving from 10m is the same as diving the height of a three storey building. (leedsmet.ac.uk, 07 Apr 2009) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Coach from which country? | Scotland |
General Interest | |
| Other information | DIVING FIRST With her twin sister became the first synchro pair to perform an arm-stand back double somersault with one and a half twists - considered one of the most difficult dives in the world. (blog.mmenterprises.co.uk, 15 Feb 2009) YOUNGEST MEMBER She was the youngest member of the Scottish team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games after her sister was ruled out with an elbow injury. (sport.scotsman.com, 21 Jul 2002) TWIN PARTNER They (Helen and Carol) share the same taste in clothes, music and food, have the same favourite colour (pink) and last year bought each other the same Christmas card and the same present: La Senza underwear, same colour, same style, same size. They also look so alike that people constantly get them mixed up. The normal practice in synchro diving is for one of the pair to be the team leader and count the dives in. In the twins' case, counting-in duties are shared, though such is their natural togetherness it is barely necessary to count at all. (telegraph.co.uK, 02 Feb 2009) |
Further Personal Information | |
| Residence | Leeds, ENG |
| Occupation | Athlete |