Gary Smith
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Sport: Trampolining, individual and synchro Age: 27 Club: Gillingham Jumpers Key achievements:
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Gary Smith is Medway's recently-retired, Olympic trampolining star.
The Gillingham Jumper represented Great Britain at the 2004 Athens Olympics, finishing seventh in the individual men's event.
His Athens adventure is the highlight of an international career that began in 2001, when Gary was first selected to represent Great Britain.
Chatham-born Gary lives in Rainham and took up gymnastics 16 years ago. He works as a coach at the Jumpers Rebound Centre in Gillingham, where he also trains.
He won several national titles in both individual and synchro events in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007 and has represented Great Britain in European and World Championships, World Cup events and international matches. His top international performances include a team third at the European Championships in 2002 and 2004 and a team fourth in the 2005 World Championships. In 2006 he was the top competitor in the European trials.
He won the over-19 men's title at the National Championships 2007 and only missed out on the overall men's title on the countback rule. Gary was also the top placed British competitor in an international match against Canada in August, finishing second overall.
Gary recently competed for Great Britain at the World Championships held in Quebec in November 2007. This event is used to decide the qualifying spots for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Gary was in a qualifying position until the last round of routines when he was overtaken by strong competitors from Germany and Russia.
Gary finished the highest British competitor but unfortunately Great Britain was the 19th highest nation with places for the Beijing Games going to the top 16.
After Great Britain failed to win a place in the men's trampolining event at the Beijing Games, Gary decided to retire from international competition. He is still training and has not ruled out a return to competition in the future, possibly for London 2012.