'I still have plenty to give': Eamon Montgomery wants to make his mark on European Championships

RAISING THE BAR: Eamon Montgomery during the Gymnastics Ireland content gathering day at the Sport Ireland National Gymnastics Training Centre in Dublin. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Eamon Montgomery’s gymnastics career began with a wrong turn.

He remembers being a hyperactive child who was already doing flips on the trampoline in the back garden but, one fateful day when he was six years old, it wasn't the just-opened gym in Lisburn that his parents were planning to bring him to, it was the local swimming pool.

However, they went through the wrong door and found themselves in the brand-new facility and, since they were there, they signed him up for gymnastics lessons.

There was a long waiting list and it took two years for him to get started, but Montgomery has no regrets about the detour.

"When I started gymnastics, I just loved it, so hopefully it was the right door we went through, after all.”

Fast forward to now and Montgomery is preparing for a new challenge at the European Championships in Zagreb that starts on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old has already made his mark internationally, winning a medal at the FIG World Challenge Cup in Paris in 2022 in his debut senior season and a World Cup medal in Cairo the following year.

More recently, he won silver on floor in Antalya in March, a big result for him given that he was forced to spend almost a year away from gymnastics in 2024 after an ankle injury was compounded by back problems.

While frustrating, the long lay-off also changed his outlook on the sport and, when he returned, he decided he wanted to do more than specialise in one routine.

This week, he will compete in the all-around at the Europeans for the first time, taking on all six apparatus.

“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 recalled.

“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.”

His progress since returning has been encouraging, although he was "annoyed" with the scoring that ruled him out of the recent Commonwealth Games floor final.

Montgomery believes his best gymnastics is still ahead.

“I’m young in the general population sense, but in gymnastics I’m just coming out of the young phase into the middle," he assessed. "I still have plenty to give, I think. Yeah, it’s still ahead for sure.”

Eamon Montgomery during the Gymnastics Ireland content gathering day at the Sport Ireland National Gymnastics Training Centre in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Montgomery trains regularly with Rhys McClenaghan at their coach Luke Carson’s Origin gym in Newtownbreda and in Ireland camp at Abbotstown. It has provided him with a close view of his friend’s impact on Irish gymnastics.

McClenaghan became the first Irish gymnast to win a World Championships medal in 2019 and went on to become Olympic champion in Paris last summer.

“It’s not even the Olympic gold, although that’s obviously Rhys’ biggest achievement,” Montgomery claimed.

“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."

He compares it with Rory McIlroy’s influence on Irish golf and McClenaghan's influence is now visible within the Irish gymnastics squad.

“You see it in other sports, too," Montgomery said. "Somebody does well, like when Rory McIlroy wins a major, and the other Irish golfers think, ‘Hang on, I can do that’.”

Adam Steele, James Hickey and Montgomery himself have won international medals, with younger gymnasts including Oisin O’Connell and Chester Enriquez emerging.

Enriquez, 18, was selected for Europeans but has been ruled out through injury, but Hickey and O'Connell will compete alongside Montgomery, McClenaghan, Steele and Daniel Fox.

“Maybe five or six years ago it was only Rhys,” Montgomery said. “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.

“Everything Rhys has done has obviously been amazing for himself and for gymnastics in Ireland. It unlocks the path. Before that everyone’s thinking, ‘No way’.

"But once someone you know does it, it knocks the wall down."