Hollie Dykes | |
Full Name: | Hollie Johnston Dykes |
Birth Date: | 1990 9, df=yes |
Birth Place: | Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia |
Discipline: | WAG |
Retired: | 2008 |
Show-Medals: | yes |
Hollie Johnston Dykes (born 12 September 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.
Dykes made her major international debut at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. 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.
Later that year, Dykes competed in the World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. She helped the Australian team to a respectable sixth-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 announced her retirement from gymnastics on 11 January 2008, citing personal reasons.[1]
Her younger brother Lyndon Dykes is a professional footballer who plays for Queens Park Rangers and the Scotland national team.[2]