Career
She formerly competed for the United States but decided in 2005 to represent Great Britain. She made her major international debut at the 2005 world championships in Melbourne. Though not fully recovered from an injury and severely out of competition practice, Church placed a respectable 20th in the all-around.
She trains in the gym run by Chris Waller of University of California, Los Angeles fame, and is also coached by 2000 Olympian Kristen Maloney.
Church"s best piece is the bars. Due to an injury to captain and world bronze medallist Beth Tweddle the team had to compete with only four members, and were unable to challenge Australia for the gold medal.
Instead, at the last rotation they were in a dogfight with Canada for the silver. Shavahn"s bars routine secured second place for the team
In the all-around, Shavahn was in medal contention until her beam routine, where a narrow save after a large wobble was not enough to prevent her from dropping behind, and she finished fifth.
In apparatus finals she bounced back, finishing second on bars to Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of Canada. She had hopes of more success on bars (her highest score would have qualified her to the European finals) but injury struck in the qualifying rounds and she was unable to complete the competition. Later in 2006, Shavahn underwent surgery, and the recovery kept her out of further competition that year.
She hopes to return in 2007, compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and eventually attend University of California, Los Los Angeles In 2009 Shaven Church announced her retirement from gymnastics.
Eponymous Skills.
