Hilda 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 Ada Smith who, like Hilda was a member the Leigh Gymnastics Club and trained at the Marsh Gymnasium in Leigh yet, despite all the similarities, the pair were not related.
Hilda Smith was seven weeks short of her 19th birthday when she won a team bronze medal at the Amsterdam Games. The next time a female British gymnast would stand on an Olympic podium would be in 2012, when Beth Tweddle won the uneven bars bronze medal. Smith’s finest performance as an individual was in finishing second to Jessie Greenwood at the 1931 national championship at Liverpool.