Jessica Gadirova

Jessica Gadirova (born 3 October 2004) is an English artistic gymnast of Irish birth and Azerbaijani descent, representing Great Britain internationally. She represented Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal in the team event and was part of the silver medal-winning team at the 2022 World Championships and gold medal-winning team at the 2023 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Individually she is the 2022 World champion on floor exercise, the second British female and third Briton to win a World title on the apparatus (after Beth Tweddle and Giarnni Regini-Moran) as well as a three-time European champion on the same event (in 2021, 2022 and 2023). She is the first female gymnast to win three successive floor titles at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and the first of either sex since Franco Menichelli in 1965.
She is the 2023 European all-around champion, the second Briton after Ellie Downie to achieve that feat, and the 2022 World and 2021 European all-around bronze medalist. Additionally she is the 2021 European vault silver medalist. Gadirova became the first female gymnast to win three gold medals at the same European Championships since Cătălina Ponor for Romania in 2004, and the first to win the all-around title in doing so since Svetlana Khorkina for Russia in 2002.
She competed at the inaugural 2019 Junior World Championships alongside her twin sister, Jennifer. She was the first Irish-born gymnast to win a gymnastics World title in 2022; Rhys McClenaghan won the first gold medal for Ireland days later.
Domestically, Gadirova is a three-time English, three-time British champion.
Personal life
Gadirova and her twin sister Jennifer were born in Dublin, Ireland, and are of Azerbaijani descent. Their father, Natig Gadirov, and their mother are from Azerbaijan and emigrated to London in 2001. Gadirova was born in Ireland while her parents worked there for a few months before returning to England. As a result, she has Azeri, Irish and British citizenship. Her paternal grandparents live in Baku: her grandmother is a retired paediatrician, and her grandfather is a professor in physics and mathematics. Gadirova and her sister began gymnastics at six years old because their mother wanted them to have an outlet for their energy.
Gymnastics career
Espoir
2016
In March Gadirova competed at the British Espoir Championships, where she placed 12th in the all-around and sixth on balance beam.
Junior
2018
In February Gadirova competed at the English Championships, where she placed 23rd. The following month she competed at the British Championships, where she placed seventh in the all-around, eighth on uneven bars, and sixth on floor exercise. She ended the season competing at the British Team Championships, where she placed 11th in the junior non-squad all-around.
2019
In March Gadirova competed at the English Championships, where she placed fourth behind Ondine Achampong, Halle Hilton, and Jennifer Gadirova. Later that month she competed at the British Championships, where she placed seventh in the all-around, eighth on vault, fourth on uneven bars, and won bronze on floor exercise. Gadirova next competed at the Flanders International Team Challenge, where she finished third in the all-around behind Romanians Ioana Stănciulescu and Silviana Sfiringu and helped Great Britain finish fourth as a team.
In June Gadirova competed at the inaugural Junior World Championships in Győr, Hungary, alongside her twin sister Jennifer and Alia Leat. In the team final they finished in sixth place and individually Gadirova finished 33rd in the all-around.
In July Gadirova competed at the Sainté Gym Cup, where she helped Great Britain win team gold. In September she competed at the 2019 Women's British Teams Championships, finishing first in the junior all-around, ahead of her sister. Additionally, she helped Aylesbury finish first as a team.
Senior
2021
Gadirova turned senior in 2020, but did not compete due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2021 she was selected to represent Great Britain at the European Championships alongside her twin sister Jennifer (later replaced by Phoebe Jakubczyk), Alice Kinsella, and Amelie Morgan. During qualifications, Gadirova qualified to the all-around final, despite suffering a hard fall off of the balance beam. Additionally, Gadirova qualified to the vault final in first place and the floor exercise final in third place. In the all-around final Gadirova won the bronze medal behind Russians Viktoria Listunova and Angelina Melnikova. She is the second British female artistic gymnast after Ellie Downie to win an all-around medal at the European Championships. During the vault final, Gadirova finished second behind Olympic and World vault medalist Giulia Steingruber. On the final day of the competition Gadirova won gold on floor exercise ahead of Melnikova and former world all-around champion Vanessa Ferrari, making her the first British floor exercise champion since Beth Tweddle won in 2010.
On 7 June, Gadirova was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics alongside her twin sister Jennifer, Alice Kinsella, and Amelie Morgan. At the Olympic Games, Gadirova qualified to the all-around and floor exercise finals; additionally, Great Britain qualified for the team final. During the team final, Gadirova performed on vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise, hitting all of her routines and helping Great Britain win the bronze medal, their first Olympic team medal in 93 years. During the all-around final Gadirova fell off the balance beam, but still finished tenth place overall. In doing so she became the highest placing British gymnast in an Olympic all-around final, surpassing Becky Downie's 12th-place finish in 2008. During the floor exercise event final Gadirova performed a clean routine and earned a score of 14.000, finishing in sixth place.
In December 2021 Gadirova became a brand ambassador for gymnastics leotard manufacturer Milano Pro-Sport.
2022
In March, Gadirova competed at the English Championships, where she won the all-around and also took gold on vault and floor.
Later that month, Gadirova competed at the British Championships in Liverpool, where she took gold in the all-around with a score of 54.650, ahead of her Aylesbury teammates Ondine Achampong and her sister Jennifer. She then went on to win gold on vault and floor as well as silver on beam. In July, Gadirova was selected to compete at the European Championships alongside her sister Jennifer, Achampong, Georgia-Mae Fenton, and Alice Kinsella. In August, Gadriova competed at the European Championships. She contributed scores on vault and floor exercise towards Great Britain's second-place finish. During event finals, Gadirova won gold on floor exercise for the second consecutive year. Gadirova was also named Gymnast of the Year 2021 by European Gymnastics, alongside Boryana Kaleyn and Ferhat Arıcan.
In September, Gadirova was named to the team to compete at the 2022 World Championships, once again alongside her twin sister Jennifer, Achampong, Kinsella, and Fenton. She helped Great Britain qualify to the team final and individually she qualified to the all-around, vault, and floor exercise finals. During the team final, Gadirova competed on vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise, helping Great Britain win the silver medal and achieve their highest placement at a World Championships. Additionally Gadirova posted the highest floor exercise score of the competition. During the all-around final Gadirova placed third behind Rebeca Andrade and Shilese Jones, earning Great Britain's first World all-around medal. Gadirova withdrew from the vault final. On the last day of competition she competed in the floor exercise final. She was the last competitor to compete and earned a score 14.200 to win the title. She became the second British woman to win the floor exercise title after Beth Tweddle did so in 2009. Gadirova was the second British gymnast to win a gold medal at these World Championships after Giarnni Regini-Moran won the men's floor exercise title the previous day. At only 18 years and 34 days old, Gadirova became the youngest British gymnast to become a World Champion. Due to her performances at the World Championships, Gadirova was named Sunday Times Young Sportswoman of the Year and additionally won the Sports Journalists' Association Peter Wilson Trophy for international newcomer, alongside fellow British gymnast Jake Jarman. In December, she won the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.
2023
Gadirova competed at the English Championships, where she placed fourth on uneven bars. She was named to the team to compete at the upcoming European Championships, alongside Becky Downie, Georgia-Mae Fenton, Ondine Achampong, and Alice Kinsella.
At the European Championships. Gadirova helped Great Britain win their first team gold medal. Additionally she qualified to the all-around, balance beam, and floor exercise finals in first place. During the all-around final, Gadirova scored 55.032 to win gold ahead of Zsófia Kovács and Alice D'Amato. During apparatus finals, Gadirova finished seventh on balance beam following a fall on dismount, but won her third consecutive title, and third gold of the championships on floor exercise. She was awarded the master gymnast award for the tournament.
In September Gadirova was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2023 World Championships alongside Kinsella, Achampong, Fenton, and Ruby Evans. She helped the British team to second place in qualifications as well as qualifying to the individual all-around, vault, beam and floor finals. But in the team final, where Gadirova contributed on all four events, the team were unable to reach the same level as they did in qualifications and finished sixth as a team. On the day of the individual all-around event, British Gymnastics in a surprise announcement said that Gadirova had withdrawn from the all-around competition as a "precautionary measure" after she felt some pain during training and was replaced by teammate Alice Kinsella. On 15 October, Gadirova posted on her Instagram account that her withdrawal from the individual all-around was because she had suffered a full tear of her anterior cruciate ligament in which she described as a "freak accident" whilst performing a gymnastics prep skill in training.
Selected competitive skills
Competitive history
Awards
References
2004 births
Azerbaijani gymnasts
Irish gymnasts
British female artistic gymnasts
British people of Azerbaijani descent
Irish people of Azerbaijani descent
Living people
European champions in gymnastics
English twins
Irish twins
Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Olympic gymnasts for Great Britain
Olympic medalists in gymnastics
Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain
Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
World champion gymnasts
Sportspeople from Aylesbury
Sportspeople from Dublin (city)