Main:Ruby Harrold

Ruby Harrold
Harrold at the 2016 Olympic Games
Full name	Ruby Esther Harrold
Country represented	Great Britain England
Born	June 4 1996 (1996-06-04) Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Club	The Academy
Coach(es)	Liz Kincaid, Nia Edwards
Current status	Retired
College team	LSU Tigers

Ruby Esther Harrold (born June 4, 1996) is a retired British elite gymnast and 2016 Olympian. She's the 2014 English National Champion and trains at The Academy in Bristol. She's also 2014 European silver medalist with the team and a member of the bronze-medal winning British team at the 2015 World Championships.

Senior Career

2012

Harrold represented Great Britain at the 2012 European Championships where she contributed to the team's 4th place finish. She also placed seventh in the uneven bar final.

2013

Harrold competed at the British Championships, winning bronze on the uneven bars. Afterwards, she was named to the British team for the European Championships. At the end of March, she won silver on the uneven bars at the Doha World Cup. At the European Championships in April, she placed eighth in the all-around and on uneven bars after a fall, and sixth on balance beam.

Harrold competed at the British Team Championships in May, winning gold with her gym, The Academy. In September, she won the uneven bars and placed fifth in the all-around and on floor exercise at the Turnen Dames Interland. Shortly afterwards, she was named to the British team for the World Championships.

In qualifications, Harrold competed in the fourth subdivision. She qualified sixteenth to the all-around, and seventh to the uneven bars final. Harrold placed seventeenth in the all-around. In the uneven bars final, she went up last. She had a good routine apart from a step back on her dismount, and scored a 14.333. She finished seventh.

Following the World Championships, Harrold committed to LSU, and said she will attend and compete for them when she's done competing for Great Britain. She was also announced as a competitor for the Stuttgart and Glasgow World Cup. She placed fifth in Stuttgart, but a fall on bars in Glasgow left her in seventh place.

2014

In March, she competed at the Welsh Championships. She did not compete on vault, but scored a 14.900 on bars, 11.300 on beam, and 12.050 on floor exercise. At the English Championships, she won all-around and uneven bars gold, floor exercise bronze, and placed fifth on beam. She didn't do so well at the British Championships, only placing sixth on floor, seventh on beam, and ninth in the all-around. She had a much better competition at a friendly meet against gymnasts from Germany and Spain, winning team gold and all-around silver. She won another team gold at a friendly meet against the Netherlands, and placed tenth in the all-around.

In May, she competed at the European Championships, winning silver with her team. She went on to compete at the Commonwealth Games, winning team gold, all-around silver (she and her teammates Claudia Fragapane and Hannah Whelan swept the podium), and uneven bars bronze. In September, she competed at the British Team Championships, winning silver with her club, and was promptly named to the British team for the World Championships. In Nanning, she helped the British team place sixth in the team final. Individually, she placed eleventh in the all-around and eighth on uneven bars after a fall.

2015

Injuries kept Harrold out of competition most of 2015. She was well enough to be named to the British team for the World Championships. She helped the British team clinch a historic team bronze medal, their first World team medal, in front of a home crowd. She was less successful in the all-around, only placing twenty-second, and on uneven bars, where she finished seventh.

2016

Harrold started off the season at the English Championships, winning vault and balance beam bronze. At the British Championships in April, she won uneven bars and balance beam bronze and placed fifth in the all-around. Later that month, she competed at the Osijek World Cup in Croatia, placing fourth on floor exercise, fifth on uneven bars after a fall, and sixth on balance beam. In June, she competed at the European Championships in Switzerland, helping the British team to a silver medal. She was announced as part of the British Olympic team in July.

Rio Olympics

Having won team bronze at the last World Championships, expectations were high for the British team. They competed in the third subdivision of qualifications, starting on uneven bars. On floor exercise, her teammate Ellie Downie landed on her head on a tumbling pass on floor, which greatly shook up the team. She was well enough to vault in the last rotation and help Great Britain qualify in fourth place to the team final. In the team final, Great Britain placed fifth, besting their placement four years ago in London.

Harrold retired after the Olympics to attend LSU in the United States.

Medal Count

Year	Event	TF	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2010	Junior British Championships		4	1st			7
2011	Junior British Championships				2nd
2012	British Championships				3rd
	British Team Championships	2nd
	GER-GBR-ROU International Friendly	3rd	7
	Brussels European Championships	4			7
2013	British Championships				3rd
	Doha World Cup				2nd
	Moscow European Championships		8		8	6
	British Team Championships	1st
	Turnen Dames Interland		5		1st		5
	Antwerp World Championships		17		7
	Stuttgart World Cup		5
	Glasgow World Cup		7
2014	English Championships		1st		1st	5	3rd
	British Championships		9			7	6
	Munich Friendly	1st	2nd
	GBR-NED International Friendly	1st	10
	Sofia European Championships	2nd
	Glasgow Commonwealth Games	1st	2nd		3rd
	British Team Championships	2nd
	Nanning World Championships	6	11		8
2015	Glasgow World Championships	3rd	22		7
2016	English Championships			3rd		3rd
	British Championships		5		3rd	3rd
	Osijek World Cup				5	6	4
	Bern European Championships	2nd
	Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games	5

Floor Music

2016 - "Choosing Dauntless" from Divergent/ "La Bohemia" by Electro Dub Tango