Newport Gymnastics chief makes royal roll-call with MBE
He has spent 27 years working towards the success of British Gymnastics and now Martin Reddin, from Newport, has been recognised by the Queen.
Mr Reddin, 62, was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for his services to gymnastics.
He spoke of his pride at receiving the accolade, which came after he was nominated by the board of British Gymnastics.
Based at Lilleshall, home to the British Gymnastics, Mr Reddin is executive director of sport at the organisation.
Mr Reddin joined them in 1992 as an education development officer, and has held numerous roles, including as head coach for the Sydney Olympic Games 2000 and the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002.
He told how he was proud and thrilled to have received the award.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked and over the moon really,” he said.
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It is the second high profile honour for the family after Mr Reddin’s wife, Amanda, who coached Olympic medallist Beth Tweddle, previously received an OBE for services to sport – specifically relating to the results at the London Olympics and World Championships.
Mr Reddin is well respected internationally and holds a position on the FIG – Federation of International Gymnastique – Executive Committee, the sport’s equivalent of FIFA. Asked about the the best moments of his time at British Gymnastics Mr Reddin picked out the London 2012 Olympics.
He said: “I think a home games is always a highlight and obviously in our lifetime we had not had a home games before and it was such a good event and all the other countries were very positive about it so that was a definite highlight.
“And Rio was just the icing on the cake, that we went there and did even better.”
Mr Reddin said the success of British Gymnastics, which has been transformed over the past 30 years, had been down to everyone at the organisation.
He added: “It is great that even our staff who sit on the phones advising customers in customer services feel part of the journey and they have contributed as well.”
He also picked out the success at Glasgow’s 2015 World Championships as perhaps his favourite moment, citing the big wins.
He said: “I would say probably the Glasgow World Championships in 2015. The men and the women both won team medals which is huge in gymnastics.
“The event was a massive success for Scotland and British Gymnastics and the fact the result mirrored that was absolutely fantastic.”
