The twins from Azerbaijan secured UK women team’s first gymnastic medal at the Olympics since 1928.
Sixteen-year-old twin gymnasts Jennifer Gadirova and Jessica Gadirova won Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze for Team Great Britain on July 28.
Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova, together with Alice Kinsella, 20, and Amelie Morgan, 18, secured the UK women team’s first gymnastics medal at the Olympics since 1928.
Gadirova sisters are identical twins of Azerbaijani descent. Both of their parents are from Azerbaijan.
“In 2001, we moved to London. And in 2004, we moved to Dublin for a few months for work. As a result, the girls now have both Irish and British citizenships. And I’m a citizen of Azerbaijan,” the girls’ father Natig Gadirov told the Azerbaijani media in April, which was translated by gymnastics blog Gymnovost.
Although the Gadirovs family has relatives in Baku, the twins haven’t had a chance to visit Azerbaijan yet although Jessica Gadirov has said that she was hoping to visit her country of origin soon.
“Dad planned to take us to Baku several times but it never worked out. We want to come for a visit this summer. We’ll see if it works out. Although there are plenty of international competitions taking place in Baku, including artistic gymnastics, and we can come as competitors.”
When asked about whether they’d be interested in competing for Azerbaijan some day, Jennifer said: “Right now all our thoughts are about the British team and continuing our education here but anything is possible in the future”.
It should be noted that the twin sisters started artistic gymnastics at six years old.
