BETH Tweddle will look to bow out on a high in what his

likely to be her last Olympic Games in Beijing.

The former Crewe and Nantwich gymnast, Britain's most

successful gymnast, has indicated she intends to quit the sport

after the World Championships in London next year and nothing

would give her a greater feeling of achievement than an Olympic

gold medal.

Injuries have hampered the career of the South Africa-born

23-year-old – most recently a rib injury which will limit her

participation in Beijing to the team event, individual bars and

individual floor – and she has vowed to go out at the top and

return to university to embark on a second career in

physiotherapy.

Tweddle claimed Britain's first gold medal at the World

Championships in Denmark in 2006 and followed that up by

becoming the first Briton to win gold at the European

Championships the same year.

A serious ankle injury ended any hopes she had at the

Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, but she takes

inspiration from the way the likes of Kelly Holmes and Sally

Gunnell have recovered from serious injury to go on and be

successful in their chosen sport.

Despite the setback in Australia, Tweddle came third in the

BBC Sports Personality of the Year voting in 2006 and after

that pointed to the spirit and hard work shown by Holmes and

Gunnell among others to get back to the top of their game,

which she did by becoming world champion.

She said: "I remember watching the 1992 Olympics with Sally

Gunnell, Colin Jackson and Linford Christie and more recently

Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe.

"I've seen the injuries those sort of top people have gone

through and how they have coped, come back and been

successful.

"I've had a lot of injuries myself, but just knowing they

have managed to fight back has been inspirational. It left me

thinking 'if they can do it, so can I'.

"Did I ever think of quitting? There have been a few times.

The Commonwealth Games was the hardest injury I've come back

from, just because it was so painful.

"I knew I could have done well and I was ready to pack it

all in – but by the next morning those thoughts had gone, I had

got my head sorted out and I supported the team."

But no matter what happens in Beijing, Tweddle is ready to

cut down her training and turn her back on the sport next year

to move on to another chapter in her life.

She said: "We've got the Olympics and then the World

Championships in London in 2009.

"After the Olympics I would probably cut my training down. I

could specialise in certain disciplines, such as bars or floor

for the World Championships, so I wouldn't have to train as

vigorously."

Tweddle was born in Johannesburg and moved back to the UK

when she was 18 months old.

At the age of seven, she made the first steps into a career

of gymnastics at her local club, Crewe and Nantwich, before

moving on to the City of Liverpool Gymnastics Club.

Her first performance on the world stage came at the World

Championships in 2001 where she finished 24th in the all-round

competition.

But it was the following year where she really made her

breakthrough when taking a bronze medal on the uneven bars at

the European Championships in Greece. That was the first medal

by a Briton at the European Championships and in 2002 she

finished fourth in the same discipline on the world stage.

The 17-year-old Tweddle had an impressive Commonwealth Games

campaign in Manchester, taking gold medals in the all-round

event and uneven bars and added a silver medal to that haul

when England finished second in the team event.

She then won bronze on the uneven bars at the World

Championships the following year before winning silver at the

European Championships in 2004 and making her first appearance

in the Olympics, although she suffered disappointment in Athens

when she fell twice from the beam and missed out on a place in

the final of the uneven bars.

But it was in 2005 that she started to suffer from injuries

and she had to pull out of the European Championships and the

Commonwealth Games the following year.

Tweddle overcame the disappointment of missing out in

Melbourne later that year by becoming Britain's first world

champion.

She won on the uneven bars event with a score of 16.200 in

Denmark, beating the USA's reigning champion Nastia Liukin into

second place.

She took the World Cup title on bars to finish 2006 as the

World, European and World Cup champion on the uneven bars.

However, she failed to defend her world title in 2007 in

Germany as she finished fourth and she will be determined to

return home from China with gold as she comes towards the end

of a very impressive career.