Shavahn Church

Infobox Gymnast
gymnastname= Shavahn Church

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country=GBR
ENG
formercountry=USA
birthdate= birth date and age|1989|05|03
birthplace=Los Angeles, California
hometown=Tarzana, California
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discipline=MAG
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club=Heathrow
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headcoach=Don Peters
assistcoach=Yu Feng
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Shavahn Church (born May 3, 1989 in Los Angeles, California) is a British gymnast, who lives and trains in California. She formerly competed for the United States but decided in 2005 to represent Great Britain. She made her major international debut at the 2005 world championships in Melbourne. Though not fully recovered from an injury and severely out of competition practice, Church placed a respectable 20th in the all-around. She trains in the gym run by Chris Waller of UCLA fame, and is also coached by 2000 Olympian Kristen Maloney. Church's best piece is the bars.

Shavahn was a member of the English team for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Due to an injury to captain and world bromze medallist Beth Tweddle the team had to compete with only four members, and were unable to challenge Australia for the gold medal. Instead, at the last rotation they were in a dogfight with Canada for the silver. Shavahn's bars routine secured second place for the team. In the all-around, Shavahn was in medal contention until her beam routine, where a narrow save after a large wobble was not enough to prevent her from dropping behind, and she finished fifth. In apparatus finals she bounced back, finishing second on bars to Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of Canada.

Shavahn was also a member of the British team for the 2006 European Championships in Greece. She had hopes of more success on bars (her highest Commonwealth Games score would have qualified her to the European finals) but injury struck in the qualifying rounds and she was unable to complete the competition. Later in 2006, Shavahn underwent surgery, and the recovery kept her out of further competition that year. She hopes to return in 2007, compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and eventually attend UCLA.

External links

* [http://www.shavahnchurch.com Official website]
*fig|id=8171|name=Shavahn Church