Hollie Dykes

Infobox Gymnast
gymnastname= Hollie Dykes


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fullname=Hollie Johnston Dykes
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Hollie Johnston Dykes (born September 12, 1990) is a retired Australian gymnast who was born in Gold Coast, Queensland and began gymnastics at the age of four and a half. She started training at the Australian Institute of Sport (Canberra) in 1998 and was awarded a full scholarship there in 2000. Her favorite apparatus is the balance beam.

Hollie made her major international début at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. She won gold in the women's floor exercise and as part of the women's team final. She earned a silver in the women's beam and a bronze in the women's all-around, beating Imogen Cairns of England despite having fallen on every piece of apparatus.

Later that year, Dykes competed in the World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. She helped the Australian team to a respectable seventh place finish, an improvement on the eight place in the 2004 Olympics. However, a fall from beam in qualification rounds left her unable to progress to the apparatus final, where she was a medal prospect. In the all-around, Dykes was one of only half a dozen gymnasts not to fall, but she still finished out of the medals, in seventh place. Dykes does show less difficulty than most of her rivals, but it seems ironic that she was able to take a medal when falling from every piece, but when she did achieve a consistent performance she was beaten by athletes with falls.

Hollie announced her retirement from gymnastics on January 11th, 2008, citing personal reasons. By doing this she obviously gave up her spot on the 2008 Australian Olympic Team. Whether or not she will return to the sport after the games still remains unclear.

External links

*fig|id=8780|name=Hollie Dykes