Cork teenager Mimi Moloney ready for major step up at European Championships
Mimi Moloney: 'I think the experience will be good. I'm just looking to go and do a clean competition.' Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
MIMI Moloney's steely focus was obvious right from the start of her life.
The future looks very bright for teenage Cork gymnast - in fact, it has already arrived in the shape of her senior European Championships debut in Zagreb today.
At 16, she is the youngest member of Ireland's four-strong team that also features Emma Slevin, Bláthnaid Higgins and Maeve McGuinness.
Second only to the trailblazing Emma Slevin for the national all-around title in May, the talented Moloney then struck gold in the senior all-around in the Šalamunov Memorial European Gymnastics event in Slovenia.
Her potential was clear for some time. She came to prominence when, despite being on her own while rival nations had full teams to support each other, she finished in the top 24 in the all-around in the 2024 Junior Europeans.
Moloney's versatility, skill and consistency across the floor, bar, beam and vault routines have been a major factor in her rapid rise, but so too has been her drive and determination.
Her mother, Jan, recalls Mimi pulling tubes out of her body as a tiny baby when she was confined to a neonatal unit having been born prematurely and weighing only 4.6lbs, as if she was telling her nurses it was time for her to go home.
Later, during her first national gymnastics competition, Moloney was left with a mark on her nose for a couple of years after running straight into the vault.
She got up and asked to do the routine again, despite knowing she wouldn't be scored for it. And she did it.
So while these Europeans are the next big step up, she's ready.
"I'm very excited since it's my first one, it's the biggest week of my career so far," Moloney said. "It's going to be a different experience to the Juniors, but all the past competitions have improved my confidence.
"It's great to be going with a team and having other people around - and we've a great team competing. We'll all be able to encourage each other and there's a good team spirit, it's very supportive. Everyone wants the best for each other.
"It's always good to have people like Emma around to encourage you, and we encourage each other."
Moloney also loved swimming and playing hockey - her parents' sport - when she was younger, but went all-in on gymnastics around four years ago. It was the variety involved, plus the versatility required, that drew her in.
"Having the four apparatus is interesting, there are so many different skills, like if one's not for you then there's more options," she said. "And I like to compete on the floor, it's definitely my favourite.
"I think the experience will be good. I'm just looking to go and do a clean competition. I don't have a lot of expectations, I know there's a lot of other people competing.
"Enjoying it is the main thing. If you enjoy it, it will all go well."
Praising the work that has gone into her by club Douglas, she also attends all the Ireland squad get-togethers - usually on weekends once a month in Abbotstown.
Last year she was in her transition year at Scoil Mhuire, so she had the time to do it - as well as visiting Paris, performing in a play and doing work experience, which included coaching in a gym and shadowing a physio.
"I have a lot of dreams and hopes, so we'll see where it goes," Moloney said. "I like to keep my school and gym quite separate, but they do know and they're very supportive."
It is also McGuinness' senior Europeans bow, and the 18-year-old Dubliner points to the overall aim of the team.
"The goal would be to qualify for the Worlds," McGuinness explained. "It's a hard task to do, but I think this is the best chance we've had."
She followed her two older sisters into gymnastics, along with her twin Sophie, just after their fifth birthday.
They were both scouted very quickly and progressed from there. While her older siblings stopped when they became teenagers, the twins went to the Junior Europeans together, and having that support was invaluable.
Maeve progressed still further and has graduated to the Ireland senior team. "It's a really nice environment that's created here. I love everyone that I train with, it makes it fun and light-hearted," she said.
"I also like the challenge that it gives me. It helps me in school because I don't have as much time and I have to prioritise being productive at home, so it's helped me with my time-management skills."
The Loreto College student trains at Abbotstown three or four times a week and then at her club - formerly Muckross Park, now Phoenix - for an extra day. A priority is getting her driver's licence to give her parents some relief from all the drop-offs from the family home in Portobello.
As for this step up, McGuinness said: "It will be nice to see where I sit against the rest of Europe, to see where I'm at.
"I've gone away twice this year as a senior and that has helped me not be as nervous going into this, but obviously this is a bigger deal than those competitions. So I'll definitely feel more nervous, but I won't let it affect my performance.
"I'm going to make sure it's not all based on how I do. I'm not going to let it affect me if I don't go as well as I hope to. I'm going to try to enjoy and savour the experience."
Heading into her Leaving Cert year in a couple of weeks, McGuinness' plan is to at least start college life in Ireland, perhaps in engineering or science, before perhaps following in Slevin's footsteps and competing in the NCAA down the line.
"Emma's definitely been a trailblazer for the sport in many aspects," she said.
"Showing younger gymnasts that there's an option to go away like that and still be able to come back here and have a career as an international athlete, I think it's really important for younger gymnasts to see.
"I wouldn't have thought about college gymnastics until she had done it, so it's been really helpful to see."
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