Golden girl Claudia Fragapane is tipped to become Britain's greatest gymnast... and to win a SPOTY gong

• Claudia Fragapane tipped to win BBC Young Sports Personality of the year
• 17-year-old gymnast won four gold medals at 2014 Commonwealth games
• She is now targeting Olympic glory in Rio in under two years time

In the cloakroom of the Bristol Hawks gymnastics club, 10 pairs of tiny shoes are lined up. They belong to toddlers making their first foray into a world of tumbling and soaring leaps in the ground-floor gymnasium. Not so long ago Claudia Fragapane was among them.

Still only 17, she now trains alone on the top floor of this huge warehouse-style building in Easton, an inner city area of Bristol. The roofs of the neighbouring back-to-back terraced houses are visible from the windows as she bounces across the sprung floor, keenly observed by coaching duo Helen Potter and Rory Weaver.

Gymnastics still holds the same magic for Fragapane as it did when she first left her shoes at the door more than a decade ago, but it is serious business, too. 

Claudia Fragapane receives the SJA Committee Award in the SJA Sports Awards in December 2014

Fragapane in action during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow earlier in the year

The 4ft 6in powerhouse, is tipped to evolve into Britain’s greatest gymnast. This summer she became the first Englishwoman in 84 years to win four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and at the World Gymnastics Championships in China in October she made four individual finals.

‘I’ve been amazed by it all,’ says Fragapane, words tumbling from her mouth as quickly as she spins through the air. ‘If someone asked me before I would have said “No way will I do all that”. It’s not so much the feeling of winning I love but the feeling of doing something to the best of my ability.’

In Glasgow she won vault, floor, all-around and team gold. She has been recognised with a dizzy whirl of award nominations and is a strong favourite to follow Tom Daley and Wayne Rooney by winning the BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year today, from a shortlist of three with para-cyclist Sophie Thornhill and golfer Bradley Neil.

‘The awards are a nice chance to dress up,’ says Fragapane. ‘In training I don’t make an effort at all, I just chuck my hair up. We’ve got a rule that we can be as scruffy and vile as we want and nobody will mind.’

Here the focus has already turned to the Rio Olympics in 2016. Fragapane is taking advantage of a break between sessions, leaning against the wall of the gym demolishing sandwiches from her lunch box. She has spent the morning working on a new, more tricky vault. By the time Rio comes round, they want to challenge North Korea’s Hong Un Jong, currently the world’s best on the apparatus.

Talk about Olympic medals is kept to a minimum but Potter, herself a former Great Britain gymnast, acknowledges that Fragapane has the potential to deliver four medals in Brazil, when she will still be just 18.

‘At the World Championships (in Nanning in October) you could sense countries like Russia were watching us in the gym,’ says Potter. ‘They have seen what we’ve done at the Commonwealths and in Europe and they now know we’re a legitimate threat.’

Fragapane on the beam during the 2014 Commonwealth games 

Fragapane is only 17-years-old and is four foot and six inches tall but being smaller can be an advantage

It is not until you see Fragapane in the flesh that you get a sense of the phenomenal power she generates with her bulging thighs and rippling shoulders. 

Gone are the days of Soviet Bloc domination where only those built like classical ballet dancers, Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci, among others, could succeed. The reigning world all-around champion, Simone Biles, of the United States is a stocky 4ft 7in, while Shawn Johnson, a 2008 Olympic champion, is a similar build to Fragapane.

‘Gymnastics is one of the few sports where being small can be an advantage,’ says Potter. ‘Claudia has an advantage when it comes to doing multiple somersaults. She’d probably have been a good diver. Or the Cirque du Soleil would love her.’

At 5ft 1in, Claudia’s father Paolo is the tallest of the entire Fragapane clan, so she is unlikely to grow into a giant over the next few years, much to her disappointment. ‘I’d like to grow so people don’t look at me twice and be like “How old is she?” because I do have an older face,’ says Fragapane.

Paolo, who migrated to England as a schoolboy, and Fragapane’s mother Teresa met in Bristol and swiftly discovered they both originate from Sicilian villages just 40 minutes apart. They now have five daughters and Claudia falls in the middle.

‘I love my women,’ says Paolo, whose accent is a curious mix of Italian and Bristolian. ‘They are all positive people and I think Claudia has always been a performer. She’s not a show-off but we are not quiet people.’

Fragapane (centre) celebrates a gold medal with Ruby Harold (left) and Hannah Whelan (right)

Fragapane pictured competing in the floor final during the Commonwealth games

After Fragapane’s success at the Commonwealth Games, Paolo held a party at the Noah’s Ark play centre in Brislington which he owns and runs with daughter Lorenza, 26. 

‘We got all the families together, about 300 people, we Italians like the big gatherings, I can name you up to my third cousin. Back in my home village of Santa Elizabetta, the consulate spread the news to the locals about Claudia being a descendant of the village.’

Paolo is a genial character but he puts his foot down when it comes to boyfriends. 

‘I don’t get close to the boyfriends because I’d like them to get married or at least know they’re properly together before that,’ he says. ‘Claudia is not having a boyfriend until she’s 35. She says 18 but I’ve said it has to be a prince, not an actual prince, rather a good bloke, but she doesn’t have to know that yet.’

Having finished school in the summer, Fragapane spends 35 hours a week in the gym. 

Both Potter and Weaver spend twice that amount, factoring in time spent searching for floor routine music, devising new moves and keeping an eye on her competition. 

Fragapane has set her focus upon success during the Olympic games in Rio, Brazil in 2016

Fragapane is one of the favourites to win BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year

Her floor routine in Nanning broke new ground with break-dance style moves interspersed with traditional but exquisitely executed tumbles and twists.

‘We didn’t think of it as break-dancing,’ says Weaver. ‘It actually came about because she was resting her feet, but it fitted well with the music. Claudia has this cheeky grin which she flashes the judges and you can’t take your eyes off her. Her sister Chiara is exactly the same.’

Fragapane is coaching eight-year-old Chiara as part of a group twice a week. ‘She treats me like a coach,’ she says. ‘I like the fact I can relate to them (the children) because I’m doing it at the moment. If they’re tired I understand and can advise them.’

It is still a learning process for Fragapane, too. At the World Championships, she slipped during her opening tumble, breaking her fall with her arms. To her credit she barely flinched, getting to her feet and completing her routine with panache.

‘I was trying too hard,’ she says. ‘I was tired and my legs were like jelly beforehand. I was trying to be positive. As soon as I fell I was disappointed. But I just smiled at the judges and tried to give them a good time. It was still pretty impressive as a whole competition considering I was 16.’