‘Rhys showed you can do it’: Gymnast Eamon Montgomery inspired by McClenaghan success

Move to all-around has given Irish competitor’s career a new lease of life ahead of European ChampionshipsEamon Montgomery represents Ireland in the all-around at the European Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, on Wednesday. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho One day when he was around six years old, Eamon Montgomery’s parents were bringing him to the swimming pool in the local leisure centre in Lisburn.They went in through the wrong door and into a brand new gym that had just opened, but decided to sign him up for lessons anyway. There was a long waiting list and a couple of years passed before a space opened up.“It was the same story as everyone else,” said Montgomery, smiling at the memory. “You’re hyper and your parents decide they need to bring you somewhere.“I was already doing flips on the trampoline in the back garden. When I started gymnastics, I just loved it. Hopefully it was the right door we went through after all.”READ MORENow 23, Montgomery has been a senior Ireland gymnast for the last four years and recently competed in his second Commonwealth Games, where he generated headlines for criticising the scoring of his floor routine.That aside, this is a really big month for him. He is graduating in computer science from the Open University, having switched from Queen’s in Belfast. He did this because of the time involved in training between his coach Luke Carson’s Origin Gym in Newtownbreda, Belfast, and the National Gymnastics Training Centre in Blanchardstown, Dublin.On Wednesday, he will compete in his first all-around as part of the Ireland team at the European Championships in Zagreb. Whereas previously his focus was on the floor exercise, now he will compete on all six apparatus.Eamon Montgomery says he is getting better. Photograph: Ben McShane/Sportsfile via Getty Images He has won medals on the world stage before, notably at the FIG World Challenge Cup in Paris in his debut senior international year, in front of 13,000 spectators, and his first World Cup medal in Cairo the following year.A timely boost to his confidence ahead of these Europeans came when he won silver at the Antalya World Cup in March with an exquisite floor routine, having qualified fifth. Montgomery lost almost a year to the sport in 2024 because of ankle and back problems. When he finally returned, he decided he wanted to try the all-around again.“I was thinking I’d like to do as much gymnastics as possible before I retire instead of just doing floor all the time,” he explained. “It opened up doors in my head to enjoy pommel, even though I’ve always hated pommel. I enjoy it a bit now and I enjoy high bar too.“That time off made me love gymnastics as a whole more instead of just one piece.“Then I started training all-around, building that up alongside my floor, and 2026 has been good so far. The stuff I’m doing now is the best I’ve done yet. It’s not like I’m going backwards at all. It seems to be getting better year by year.Eamon Montgomery competes in the floor exercise at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, Germany. Photograph: Ben McShane/Sportsfile via Getty Images “I’m young in the general population sense, but in gymnastics I’m just coming out of the young phase into the middle. I still have plenty to give, I think.”Montgomery trains with Rhys McClenaghan at Origin and they often travel together to Ireland training sessions. Seven years ago, McClenaghan became the first Irish gymnast to win a World Championships medal. Montgomery believes his friend, who is three years older, has been a major source of the upsurge in Irish gymnastics, with a host of young talent now emerging.James Hickey and Oisin O’Connell are among the exciting new breed, and both are in Croatia this week. Chester Enriquez was going, too, until injury ruled him out. McClenaghan, Adam Steele and Daniel Fox are the most experienced members of the team.“It’s not even the Olympic gold, although that’s obviously Rhys’s biggest achievement,” said Montgomery. A prolonged injury layoff in 2024 gave Eamon Montgomery a new-found desire to compete in all gymnastics disciplines, not just the floor. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho “Back in 2018 when he won his Commonwealth medal, and then in 2019 when he got his first world medal, I thought, ‘He can do it’, and that started the cogs turning in my head and made me believe I could do it too.“Maybe five or six years ago it was only Rhys, then Adam started coming through with his all-around, which was impressive, then I came through with medals. Now James has come through and there are others. Chester’s the youngest and he was with us at the World Cups, where he did very well.“You see it in other sports too. Somebody does well, like when Rory McIlroy wins a major, and the other Irish golfers think, ‘Hang on, I can do that’.“It unlocks the path. Before that everyone’s thinking, ‘No way’. But once someone you know does it, it knocks the wall down.“It’s only a matter of time. Rhys showed you can do it and then it just takes a while for people to catch on. Everything he’s done has obviously been amazing for himself and for gymnastics in Ireland.”IN THIS SECTION