Emily Whitehead

After seeing how much fun her sister had doing Gymnastics, Emily Whitehead decided to start the sport at the age of four. Her first club was Waverley Gymnastics Club. She soon started to prove herself as one of Australia’s youngest and brightest talents.

Emily’s Australian Gymnastics Championship track record speaks for itself; since 2011 she’s been a regular top-five finisher. Her consistent performances at the competition also saw her win five consecutive team gold medals.

At the national level, 2015 was Emily’s breakthrough year. She won the All-Around Junior International title after finishing on the podium in all five of her events, she claimed gold on the uneven bars and floor.

In 2016 she was due to attend the Pacific Rim Championships as well as the Olympic test event. However, after she suffered a torn calf muscle, she was ruled out of competing, which meant she’d miss her chance to qualify for the Olympics.
Once recovered from her injury, Emily started to produce her best results to date.

This started with her performance at the 2017 L’International Gymnix, the Senior International cup was held in Canada and there she placed 10th in the all-around. In 2018 at the Melbourne World Cup she triumphed further with a silver medal on vault.
Deservedly, Emily was selected for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. An excellent performance on home turf earned her a bronze medal for the vault and in the team competition. The event also saw her come away with fifth place on the balance beam.

At the 2021 Australian Championships, Emily finished second in all-around, uneven bars and the floor.

She made her Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games fulfilling a lifelong dream to represent her country on the world’s greatest stage.

Emily was consistent across each of the four apparatus, but it was the vault where she was strongest. Her clean Yurchenko 1.5 twist landed her a score of 14. Her Beam performance featured an acro series, punch front and a 1.5 twist dismount, which earned her an impressive 12.666 from the judges.

Emily’s scores from across the four apparatus totalled 52.298 for an overall ranking of 44th.

Emily finished second in the all-around title at the 2022 Australian Championships, first on the floor, third on the balance beam and was tied for fourth in the uneven bars. She defended her all-around title at the 2022 Oceania Championships and also won team, vault and floor exercise gold, silver on uneven bars and bronze on balance beam.

At her second Commonwealth Games, in Birmingham in 2022, Emily won a bronze in the floor exercise and silver in the team event. She also qualified for the all-around and vault finals.

In October 2023, Emily was part of the Australian women’s artistic team that booked its ticket to the Paris Olympics, securing a team place at the Artistic World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.

Needing to finish in the top 12, the team – Emily, Georgia Godwin, Kate McDonald, Breanna Scott and Ruby Pass – came ninth, with an incredible score of 157.896. It was the first time Australia had qualified a team spot since London 2012.

The team won silver at the EnDW DTB Pokal Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, in March 2024. Each member of the team recorded a top-12 finish in at least one apparatus.