Gymnastics: Vote for Chester’s double world champion Beth Tweddle in Sunday night’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Dec 10 2009 by Alec Doyle, Chester Chronicle

ON Sunday we will find out the answer to one of the biggest questions in sport – can Beth Tweddle, the gymnast from Bunbury, topple her millionaire rivals and take the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year crown?

It is going to be a tough task, but the competition is being decided by a public vote so we are urging our readers to ‘Vote Beth!’

The overwhelming favourite for this year’s award is Formula One champion Jenson Button.

He boasts only one world title to Beth’s two, and millions upon millions of pounds were spent on the Frome Flyer to ensure he hit the pinnacle of his sport.

Contrast that with former Chester Queen’s School pupil Beth, who earns £25,000 per year from Lottery A-level funding, money which was about to be cut off had she not struck gold at October’s World Championships in London. Despite failing to qualify in her favourite discipline, the uneven bars, she won a surprise gold on the floor to seal her, and Britain’s, second ever gymnastics world title.

She tops her lottery funding up with a few thousand from her sponsor Gymnova to an estimated £30,000.

Brawn GP, the team Button won the F1 world championship with this year, was reported as a budget team.

But there were 450 highly-skilled and well-paid engineers and technicians supporting Button to glory.

Beth’s funding is not only her salary, it also helps pay for her support team, coach Amanda Kirby, assistant coach Zoltan Jordanov and choreographer Corina Morosan. She has a team of just three people helping her single-handedly take on and beat the well-funded and traditionally dominant nations of Russia, China and the USA.

It also pays for her treatment. Gymnastics is a cruel sport that takes a major toll on the body and Beth routinely undergoes surgery on her shoulders, ankles and feet to cure her of painful injuries which have in the past forced her to miss major championships, like the Commonwealth Games.

She is the only gymnast ever to be nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, having finished third in 2006.

But is it not time to show these money-burning sports stars that what matters most in sport is to achieve when the odds are stacked against you?

So please, vote for Beth on Sunday night.

SHE’S EARNED IT: Help us make Beth Tweddle the rightful winner of this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year by voting for her on Sunday night.