The SmartScoring Shooting star award goes to … Tabea Zirnig (AUT) and Steven Nash (DEN)

At the conclusion of the 14^th European Championships in TeamGym in Luxembourg (LUX), Aida Shaliyeva, Project Manager of our global partner SmartScoring presented the SmartScoring Shooting star award to Austria’s Tabea Zirnig and Denmark’s Steven Nash.

Started in 2018, this award aims to put a gymnast with an exceptional story in the spotlight, someone who is an inspiration for the future generation of gymnasts and the general public alike.

Tabea – Tabsi as everybody calls her – Zirnig celebrated her ten-year European Championships anniversary in Luxembourg! After injuring her shoulder in July 2020, Tabsi was told by the doctors that she will not be able to ever perform on the tumble track again. Proving them wrong, she fought her way back and reached the Finals for a first time with an Austrian Senior Women Team in Portugal in 2021!

Besides competing as a senior gymnast in the Europeans for ten years, Tabsi started to help as a coach in her club in 2012, being an indispensable part of TeamGym in her club. As that was not enough for her, she took over the position “Head of TeamGym” in the Province of Carinthia in 2017, representing the position to this day. If you cannot find Tabsi in the gym, she is either busy with university, as she is studying Polymer Engineering and Science. In 2022 she moved to Sweden for a semester abroad, using the time as a thorough preparation for the upcoming Europeans, even flying back to Austria for the National Camps. Since 2017 Tabsi is – if she is at home – her own coach.

Steven Nash (DEN) has a long career in the sport of TeamGym and most noticeably is his participation as gymnast in both the EuroTeam of 2008 and at several European Championships, here counting 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018, and now again in the year 2022.

As the oldest gymnast in the Danish delegation this year, Steven is both a role model for the younger senior gymnasts as well as for our juniors. And with his ongoing high level of gymnastics performances, he shows the world that dedication, hard work and passion of sports makes it possible to continue to perform several years among the very best gymnasts in the world.

Besides being an excellent TeamGym gymnasts, his life around his training is fully dedicated to the sport. This by being both a TeamGym coach as well as going full-time in his working life as an instructor and consultant teaching other TeamGym coaches, both nationally and internationally, whereby he inspires both experienced as well as novel coaches.

A person as dedicated as Steven is hard to come by and his passion for this sport is out of this world. Not alone is he a great gymnast, he is and outstanding role model and inspiration for the sport.