Less than a year before the 1948 Olympics, gymnast Joan Airey was a virtual unknown. A member of the Regent Street Gymnastics Club, she was coached by Lucy Desmond but one day, fellow club-member George Weedon spotted Airey’s talent and took her under his wing, and less than 12 months later, she was a member of the British team at the London Olympics. Thanks to Weedon’s coaching, she finished joint second in the vault. Weedon and Airey married a few weeks after the Olympics, and their granddaughter Lindsey Weedon was a triathlete and modern pentathlete.
Great Britain