Gymnastics is a popular sport worldwide and there have been some incredible gymnasts over the last 30 years. Simone Biles American gymnast Simone Biles took up the sport at the…

Gymnastics is a popular sport worldwide and there have been some incredible gymnasts over the last 30 years. Simone Biles American gymnast Simone Biles took up the sport at the age of six and so far she has won 30 Olympic and World Championship medals, more than any other American gymnast. She stands out due to her hard work and determination to succeed, as well as for being good at all the different events in gymnastics (floor exercise, bars, beam and vault). She is particularly famous for doing extremely challenging moves, ones most other gymnasts don’t attempt, especially not in competitions. She even has a move named after her, ‘the Biles’. Simone also loves dance and in 2017 she was in the TV series Dancing with the Stars. Although her performances impressed the judges, she ended up in fourth place. Svetlana Khorkina Most people would agree that the Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina was the best gymnast in the world during the 1990s and early 2000s. Because she was unusually tall for a gymnast, she had to create new moves to suit her height and strength. Svetlana holds the record for having more moves named after her than any other male or female gymnast, eight in total. In 2004, she retired after winning an incredible 47 Olympic, World and European Championship medals. She worked on Russian TV as a commentator on the gymnastics events during the Bejing Olympics. She has also got into writing and is the author of two books. Gina Gogean Gina Gogean is a gymnast from Romania who won her first international medal in a competition in Japan in 1989 at the age of 12. During her career, she won 30 medals at Olympic Games and other championships, and was a member and later leader of the national Olympic team. She was the favourite to win golds at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, but she had to have an operation just five weeks before. Despite this, she surprised everyone by still competing and winning four medals. After retiring in 1998, she trained gymnasts in Romania and in Scotland. She has been a competition judge since 2001. 3 Read the text and decide if the statements are true (T) or false (F). 1 Simone Biles is better at some gymnastic events than at others. T / F 2 Most other gymnasts don’t try to do the same moves as Simone in competitions. T / F 3 Simone has won 30 gymnastics medals and a dance competition. T / F 4 It is likely that Svetlana Khorkina was the world’s top gymnast during the 1990s. T / F 5 Svetlana’s appearance affected how she performed gymnastics. T / F 6 Nobody has had more gymnastic moves named after them than Svetlana. T / F 7 Gina Gogean won 30 medals at the Olympics in her career. T / F 8 Gina won four gold medals at the Atlanta Olympics. T / F