Voting has closed for SJA members to decide the winners of three major categories at the British Sports Awards 2024; winners will be announced live on Sky Sports News on Wednesday 20 November; Stuart Broad, Mary Earps and Manchester City’s men’s team claimed the 2023 honours; who will take the top prizes this year?
By Georgia Garnett
Bryony Page has completed a monumental year for British Gymnastics – and now deserves her moment of recognition by being named the SJA Sportswoman of the Year.
The 33-year-old from Crewe won Olympic gold in the women’s trampoline event at Paris 2024 to complete the full set of Olympic medals, after winning silver in Rio (GB’s first-ever medal in trampoline gymnastics) and bronze in Tokyo.
Page became the first British gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal in the trampoline discipline as well as the first British female gymnast to win an Olympic title across any discipline.
This is a remarkable feat when you consider the British history of women’s gymnastics, looking at gymnasts like former trampoline world number one Kat Driscoll or three-time world champion and Olympic bronze medalist Beth Tweddle.
Page’s Parisian triumph allowed her to complete “the treble” – being the reigning European, World and Olympic champion in the same event at the same time.
She picked up her second world individual title at the 2023 World Championships (Worlds are not held in the same year as an Olympic year) in Birmingham last November.
In April, she swept the European Trampoline Championships for the second edition in a row, winning both the individual event and the synchro event with partner Isabelle Songhurst in Portugal.
Page became the first woman ever to defend both a European individual and synchro title at successive European championships.
She is also just the third British woman to ever win a European individual trampoline title, joining Andrea Holmes (1983, 1985, 1991) and Susan Challis (1993).
Page and Songhurst are also just the second British female pair to win a European synchro title after Holmes and Penny Thomas took the title in 1983.
Overall, 2024 has been a monumental year for Bryony Page.
Her historic victory in Paris saw her be named one of the Team GB flag bearers for the Closing Ceremony alongside Alex Yee MBE.
Her historical feats are a massive deal for gymnastics in the UK, bringing more attention, awareness and funding to the sport to allow future generations to build on her success.
Specifically, her victory as a trampoline gymnast can allow for that discipline to shine in the spotlight as GB’s artistic gymnasts, the more notorious discipline, took just two bronze medals home from Paris.
That’s why I believe she should be named SJA Sportswoman of the Year.
Sports journalist Georgia Garnett is a member of the SJA Academy – find out more about membership here.
Visit our SJA British Sports Awards 2024 hub article for more information.
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