Winifred Taylor

Winfred Taylor was a trailblazer for women’s gymnastics both in Britain and abroad. After failed attempts to get elected to the executive committee of the Amateur Gymnastic Association, Taylor made the breakthrough in 1936 when she won her place on the predominantly male committee. She followed that by getting elected to the committee of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), and was appointed assistant president of the FIG Women’s Technical Committee in 1946. Taylor later became the first Briton to become president, a post she held at the time of her death. Under her presidency, both the rules and standard of judging within the sport were improved.

Taylor was also an international gymnastics judge and officiated at the 1948 London Olympics, where she was a member of the jury of appeal for the women’s events. Taylor was also the England team manager in 1948, a position she also had at the 1936 Berlin Games, and was scheduled to be the manager again at Helsinki in 1952, but she sadly died at London’s Royal Cancer Hospital (now The Royal Marsden Hospital) a month before the start of The Games.