Dream comes true for 16-year-old twins as they help seal gymnastics team medal

Alice Kinsella, Amelie Morgan and twins Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova claimed a first women’s team gymnastics medal since 1928.
Great Britain’s Alice Kinsella, Jennifer Gadirova, Jessica Gadirova and Amelie Morgan celebrate with their bronze medals (Martin Rickett/PA)
PA Wire
Emma Bowden27 July 2021

A pair of 16-year-old twins had their “dream come true” after helping Great Britain’s women’s gymnastics team deliver an extraordinary bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.

The team of Alice Kinsella Amelie Morgan and twins Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova claimed a first women’s team gymnastics medal since 1928.

The quartet, referred to as the “awesome foursome” by Team GB on Twitter, totalled 164.096, with the Russian Olympic Committee taking gold and the US team settling for silver for the first time since 2008.

Fighting back tears, 16-year-old Jessica told the BBC: “It’s a dream we never thought could just come true.

“I never thought this was possible, but it is, it happened.”

Jennifer and Jessica, born in Dublin to Azerbaijani parents, train at the Aylesbury Gymnastics Academy and have both recently completed their GCSEs at a school in the Buckinghamshire town.

Asked how she was feeling about their historic win, 18-year-old Morgan told BBC Sport: “It seems so unreal that we have made history and got a medal.

“I think we just can’t quite believe it.”

In a striking similarity to her teammates, Morgan is a twin.

Her brother Finlay Morgan is also a gymnast who has competed at a national level.

Essex-born Kinsella, 20, daughter of former football player Mark Kinsella, put a tough individual qualifying session on Sunday behind her following the win.

She told BBC Sport: “My qualification didn’t go so well, so I came in here today just to go and absolutely smash my routine, to go and enjoy it, come out with the girls.

“Coming away with bronze feels absolutely amazing.

“I’m speechless.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in