Ada Smith was one of two members of the inaugural British women’s Olympic gymnastics squad at Amsterdam in 1928 born in Leigh, Greater Manchester. The other was Hilda Smith who, like Ada was a member of the Leigh Gymnastics Club and trained at the Marsh Gymnasium in Leigh yet, despite all the similarities, the pair were not related.
Ada went into the Olympics having finished third in both the 1928 Northern Counties and national championships behind Carrie Pickles and Annie Broadbent on both occasions. In Amsterdam Smith won a bronze medal with the British team, and the next time a female British gymnast won an Olympic medal was in 2012, when Beth Tweddle won the uneven bars bronze. After ending her competitive career, Ada Smith coached gymnasts at the Marsh Gymnasium.
Great Britain