Australian Artistic Gymnasts Georgia Godwin and Emily Whitehead have had their Olympic dreams come true as both debutants took to the floor in the All-Around competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, putting together consistent routines across all apparatus.  

Godwin, who has close ties to Japan thanks to her Japanese Grandfather who still lives in the Host Nation, came out strong alongside Whitehead, with both athletes facing the difficult task of competing in the tough division against the star-studded ROC and USA and who secured the top rankings.  

Despite neither athlete making the finals, Godwin finishing with an all-around score of 52.865 to rank 37th and named the third reserve and Whitehead earning 52.298 coming in 44th, an emotional Godwin admitted that she was elated with what she had achieved.  

“I’m still processing it.” Godwin said. “This whole experience, the lead up has been very hard. There’s been a lot of obstacles that we have both had to overcome so just to be here is an incredible achievement for both of us.  

“There have been so many sacrifices, it means the world to me and I couldn’t have done it without so many people. I’m really happy with how I went out there. I hit four from four, there were a few sketchy moments, but I got through, and I saw some amazing Aussies up in the stands and I’m so grateful that they were there and that we had a little bit of Aussie spirit in the crowd.” 

Starting on Beam in the first rotation, Emily Whitehead was the first athlete on the apparatus and scored a clean 12.666 before Godwin immediately followed with a 12.900. With Floor then in the second rotation, Whitehead again was first in the rotation and put up a score of 12.566. Taking to her favourite apparatus for the day, Godwin was strong throughout her performance and earned a 13.166. Vault also proved to be a great scoring opportunity for both athletes with Whitehead earning a 14.000 and Godwin 13.766 before finishing their competition with Uneven Bars earning 13.066 and 13.033 respectively.  

Having struggled with injuries over the last year, Whitehead shared Godwin’s humbled excitement, soaking up the reality of stepping onto the competition floor to compete at the Games. 

Whitehead said, “All the apparatus were amazing, getting out there and hitting four from four having trained pretty hard, it was nice that it paid off. I’m pretty happy with my vault. I’ve earnt something I’ve strived very hard to achieve, and I know that that score counts so that was pretty exciting.  

“If you had of asked me 18 months ago, did I think this was possible, I would have said no way. To actually be here and achieve this is incredible.” 

“I can really just have fun with it and that’s what I did.” Godwin said.  “That was my main goal coming in to today, just to have fun. There’s always going to be nerves and stresses but at the end of the day as long as I feel like I did have fun then I’m happy.” 

Walking away from the competition venue, it’s clear that the result didn’t matter to Godwin and Whitehead, the emotion of their achievement bringing wide smiles and happy tears to their faces.  

“After Beam, I came off and went over to Em (Whitehead) and just was like ‘Bro we’re OLYMPIANS. We made it, this is amazing!”  

Shannon Knaus