Tanya Nabieva - World Champion, and so much more

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17 year old Tanya Nabieva has been a gymnastics champion for many, many years, always enthusing her friends and audience with that special brand of cheeky determination and flighty innovation that could only be hers.

Tanya is a fearsome competitor and an excellent gymnast - her gold medal from the 2010 World Championships in Rotterdam, and her silver medal on bars at last year's Tokyo World Championships, were her highest honours, but she also contributed to the team's success at the Europeans in Birmingham in 2010 and won many, many medals at national and junior international level. She has always been so much more than a gymnast - full of joy and sadness, all of it always expressed so clearly. And such a good, generous friend to her team mates, especially Aliya, with whom she shares a special bond.

A painful back has troubled Tanya since her earliest days as a senior. Her Olympic preparations were disturbed by this and, most recently, by a leg injury incurred in the very last few days before team selection. Unable to train at her usual intensity, Tanya could not regain the level of difficulty for which she had become so renowned. She has been selected as a reserve but most likely will not compete in London. The most recent pictures of her show her in a reserved but contemplative mood. Tanya must have known her chances were limited, but it can't be easy to train for an event all your life, only to miss out by the tiniest margin.

The Smilebox is my way of wishing Tanya best of luck for whatever she chooses in the future - whether to continue training and support her team next year, or to concentrate on her studies at the Lesgaft Institute, or do something completely different. It is pure sentiment.