Daniel Purvis

Daniel Scott Purvis (born 13 November 1990 in Crosby, England)[1][2] is a Scottish former international elite artistic gymnast, and three-time British all-around champion in men's artistic gymnastics. He trained at Southport YMCA and was coached by Jeff Brookes and Andrei Popov. He was part of the first British men's team to win a medal at a World Championships in 2015.

Daniel Purvis
Personal information
Full name	Daniel Scott Purvis
Nickname(s)	Dan
Country represented	Great Britain  Scotland
Born	(1990-11-13) 13 November 1990 Crosby[1][2]
Residence	Crosby in the uk
Height	5’7”
Discipline	Men's Artistic Gymnastics
Level	Senior International
Club	Southport Gymnastics Club
Head coach(es)	Jeff Brookes & Andrei Popov
Retired	18 February 2019
Medal record Men's artistic gymnastics Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 2012 London Team World Championships 2015 Glasgow Team 2010 Rotterdam Floor exercise European Championships 2012 Montpellier Team 2010 Birmingham Team 2014 Sofia Team 2016 Bern Team 2010 Birmingham Floor exercise 2011 Berlin All-around 2014 Sofia Floor exercise 2015 Montpellier All-around Representing  Scotland Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow Parallel bars 2014 Glasgow Team 2014 Glasgow Rings 2018 Gold Coast Team 2018 Gold Coast Floor exercise

Junior career

During his time as a junior he came 4th in the team for Great Britain at the Junior European Championships in Greece in 2006. Two years later in Lausanne he helped the British team win the gold medal, and individually won the all-around silver at the Junior European Championships again.[3]

Senior career

2010

In 2010, Purvis became the British men's all-around champion with Samuel Hunter. In the same year, he attended the European Gymnastics Championships in Birmingham, UK, and won a silver medal as part of the British team, and a bronze medal on floor. At the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, he won another bronze medal on floor.[4]

2011

In 2011, Purvis once again won the all-around title in the British Championships. He earned a bronze medal in the all-around competition at the European Gymnastics Championships in Berlin, Germany; and won the 2011 FIG World Cup Event in Glasgow, beating Philipp Boy who later pipped him to 4th place at the World Championships in Tokyo.[5] At the World Championships In October, Great Britain's Men's team hoped to qualify to the 2012 Summer Olympics but had a surprisingly awful time in the preliminary rounds. Despite his teammates making several costly mistakes and falls, Purvis was a steady rock for the team performing consistently in every event, qualifying for the all-around finals.[6] He came fourth in the all-around competition, missing out on a medal by 0.323 marks.[7] His performances in the World Cup competitions meant that he was the overall winner for the World Cup Series in 2011.[8]

2012

Due to the British men's team failing to qualify for the Olympics at the World Championships in Tokyo, they were able to send a team to the Olympic Test event in London in January. Once again, Purvis gave a strong performance to help the team to qualify to the Olympics. Their qualifying score of 358.227 would have put them in 4th place going into team finals had they given the same performance in Tokyo. Purvis also got the highest all-around score at the event, with teammates Kristian Thomas and Daniel Keatings taking 2nd and 3rd place respectively.[9][10] In the apparatus finals he tied with Tomás González for victory in the floor.[11] In May, Purvis led the British team in qualifications for the European Championships in Montpelier, despite having been ill with food poisoning the previous night. After only 3 hours sleep he started the competition on vault and fell into a judge's lap.[12] Echoing a performance given by US gymnast Paul Hamm at the 2004 Summer Olympics he rallied, and went on to qualify with the highest all-around score. The team went on to win Britain's first team Gold in the finals. Although Purvis made the floor finals, it was decided by the team coaches that he would not compete to give him a rest after having been ill earlier in the week.[13] In June 2012, Purvis won the British Artistic Gymnastics Championships for the third consecutive time.[14]

At the London Olympics, Purvis was part of the bronze medal-winning GB men's team, competing on 30 July 2012 at the North Greenwich Arena,[15] and competed in the all-around competition with team mate Kristian Thomas.

2014

On 19–25 May 2014, at the 2014 European Championships in Sofia. Purvis along with his teammates (Daniel Keatings, Sam Oldham, Max Whitlock, Kristian Thomas) won Team Great Britain the silver medal behind Russia with a total score of 262.087 points. In event finals, Purvis won the bronze medal in floor (15.400).[16] At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, he won gold in the parallel bars and bronze in the rings, and helped Scotland win silver in the men's team event.[17]

2015

Purvis was chosen to be part of the British men's team at the 2015 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Montpelier, where he won his second European all-around bronze medal.[18]

In 2015 Purvis was given a berth to compete for Great Britain at the World Gymnastics Championships. Performing solid routines on all six events, Daniel helped the team qualify for a spot at the 2016 Olympic Games. He also qualified in 3rd for the men's all-around final ahead of British teammates Max Whitlock and Nile Wilson. On 29 October the British team went through all 18 routines without any falls, with Purvis and Whitlock anchoring the team's final score with magnificent performances on the floor. Purvis, Whitlock, Wilson, Kristian Thomas, Brinn Bevan and Louis Smith became the first British men's team to finish on podium at a World Championships securing the silver medal with a score of 270.345, ahead of reigning World and Olympic Champion team China (269.959) and behind the new World Champions, Japan (270.818).[19] Two days later Purvis competed in the all-around final and finished in 7th.[20] On 31 October he competed in the floor final, where he finished in 5th.

2016

Purvis has his own gymnastics club called Dan Purvis Gymnastics based in the NAC Netherton and Dunes Southport. The club's first sessions started 1/11/16.[21]

2018

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Purvis won bronze in the floor and helped Scotland win bronze in the team event.[17]

2019

On 18 February 2019, Purvis announced his retirement from competitive gymnastics.[22]

2020

In January 2020, Purvis was inducted into the British Gymnastics Hall of Fame.[23]

References

1. "Crosby Olympian Dan Purvis shows support to Cancer Challenge Can-u set to take place at Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre". Southport Visiter. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
2. "Daniel Purvis". Archived from the original on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
3. "British Gymnastics". Archived from the original on 24 April 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
4. "Daniel Purvis takes bronze at the World Gymnastics Championships". Southport Visiter. 29 October 2010. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
5. Glasgow 2011 Results Archived 8 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine FIG ART World Cup 2011, Glasgow (GBR) 2011 Apr 14–17, Artistic Gymnastics Results, Men and Women
6. "BBC Sport - World Gymnastics 2011: British men fail to qualify for London 2012". BBC Sport.
7. "Daniel Purvis narrowly misses out on world gymnastics medal". The Guardian. 14 October 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
8. "BBC Sport - Daniel Purvis wins 2011 World Cup series after taking bronze in the Tokyo Cup". BBC Sport.
9. "BBC Sport - Olympic gymnastics test event: Britain's men qualify for London 2012". BBC Sport.
10. FIG Test Men's Results Summary – Retrieved 11 Jan 2012
11. British Gymnastics London Prepares test event – Apparatus finals day one
12. "BBC Sport - GB gymnast Daniel Purvis ends up in judge's lap". BBC Sport.
13. British Gymnastics: MAG Euros day five – apparatus finals 27 May 2012
14. "British Artistic Gymnastics Championships". Retrieved 27 June 2012.
15. "Olympic gymnastics: bronze for GB as Japan win silver on appeal". BBC News. 30 July 2012. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
16. "Ablyazin, Wilson Dominate European Finals". international gymnast. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
17. "Artistic Gymnastics | Athlete Profile: Daniel PURVIS - Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games". results.gc2018.com. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
18. "European bronze for Dan Purvis". British Gymnastics. 17 April 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
19. "GB men win historic team silver at World Championships". BBC Sport. 29 October 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
20. "Whitlock 5th and Purvis 7th in men's all-around world final". British Gymnastics. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
21. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 January 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
22. "Dan Purvis announces retirement". British Gymnastics. 18 February 2019.
23. "Louis Smith MBE and Dan Purvis inducted in to British Gymnastics Hall of Fame". British Gymnastics. 26 January 2020.

External links

• Daniel Purvis at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Daniel Purvis at British Gymnastics