Most gymnastics fans know Peggy Liddick as Shannon Miller’s beam coach.  But Peggy Liddick has been making a name for herself as the woman who brought Australian women’s gymnastics to medal podiums in recent years.

Before she was a successful coach, Peggy was successful as a high school and NCAA athlete.  She competed in gymnastics and track and field in high school.  She was the 1972 High School National Champion in the 100-meter hurdles and the long jump. 

Peggy went to the University of Nebraska on a track scholarship, and also competed in gymnastics.  In 1978, Peggy became Nebraska’s first female athlete to win Big Eight titles in two different sports by winning the long jump, and vault.  She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in life science, physical education and art, and earned a master’s in exercise physiology.

Peggy coached at the Nebraska school of Gymnastics and at the University of Nebraska for five years before joining the Dynamo Club in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  In 1985, she became a member of the USA Gymnastics National Coaching Staff.  She was invited to attend the National Elite Judging Course in 1993 and was certified as an international judge.

During her time at Dynamo, she helped coach Shannon Miller to seven Olympic medals and nine World medals.  She also coached Jenni Thompson, Soni Meduna, Kerri Strug, Marianna Webster, Heather Brink and Mina Kim.

Peggy moved to Australia in 1997 to be close to her fiancé, George Tatai, whom she in 1994 at the World Championships in Brisbane.  When Peggy took over as the Australian women’s head coach, the team had just finished 11th at the 1997 World Championships.  Two years later at the World Championships in Tianjin, China, the team improved to finish fifth.  Allana Slater also became the first Australian to finish in the top 10 all-around.

As host to the 2000 Olympic games, Australia had a chance to capitalize on its home-field advantage.  The team struggled in preliminaries, however, and finished seventh to just miss a berth in the team final.  In 2001, the team finished seventh and qualified two gymnasts (Allana Slater and Jacqui Dunn) to the all-around final.

The Australians finally broke into the medals at the 2003 World Championships in Anaheim.  There was a catch, however.  The Chinese gymnasts received a two-tenth penalty for warming up on the podium, and the deduction was the difference between third and fourth place.  Regardless, Peggy stated that without the deduction from the Chinese, she would have been equally proud of her team had they finished two tenths behind China.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Australia qualified for the team final and finished eighth.  With Peggy’s support, Monette Russo made history when she won an individual all-around medal (bronze) at the 2005 World Championships.  At the 2006 World Championships, Australia had to rely on first-year seniors Daria Joura and Hollie Dykes to lead their team to a sixth place finish. 

Peggy credits her success with the Australian national team with simply making the girls believe they can win medals.  Peggy has also developed a National Team Training Center, much like the one in the United States.  She has ensured that the gymnasts are exposed to as much competition as possible.  With Australia being so far away from other competitive nations, it is important to get the gymnasts out to international competitions so they learn to adjust to the time changes.

Australia still has some untapped talent waiting to be unleashed at the 2008 Olympics.  Peggy believes her 2008 squad will be the best yet, and she certainly has the coaching skills to make them the best.