2016 in Review - History made, success gained and growth all round

2016 was a very positive year for Gymnastics Ireland and indeed the sport of Gymnastics in Ireland. The organisation achieved a lot of it’s key targets and objectives along with many added bonuses.

Membership increased by a full 6000 members to hit 22,000 direct members in 2016 making Gymnastics Ireland one of the fastest growing sports in the country and establishing it as a one of the biggest traditional Olympic sports in this country.

There was high interest across all performance (National Series) and participation (GymSTART) programmes with over 6000 entrants in the Gymnastics Ireland events programme throughout the year. Interest in the sport in Ireland online grew massively too from just over 7,000 followers in January 2015 to just under 20,000 followers across all our social media channels.

History was made on the performance side of the sport this year. Gymnastics Ireland qualified two gymnasts to Rio 2016 including Ireland's first female gymnast, Ellis O'Reilly alongside two time Olympian, Kieran Behan. Gymnastics Ireland secured it’s first ever European medal in an Olympic discipline with Rhys McClenaghan taking the silver in the junior pommel horse final, just 0.1 from gold. 

On the participation side of the sport, the GymSTART events in Dublin and Cork saw just over 1700 gymnasts take part, watched by a live audience of 4000 over the two event days. In June, Gymnastics Ireland launched it’s new flagship participation event 'The Floor' bringing the x-factor to a gymnastics performance event with increased investment in event presentation. The GymEDGE programme brought us to UCD to work with Leinster Rugby and a chance to showcase the sport of Gymnastics to one of the largest sports organisations in the country.

On the sports administration front Gymnastics Ireland had a restructure of the Board to help balance competency with representation and also help to implement best practice principals in governance for sport. Gymnastics Ireland also launched it’s new Strategic Plan for 2016-2020. This 12 page easy-to-read document gives a clear and concise summary of where our organisation/sport is currently in 2016 and where we want to be in 2020. There are 5 key areas of focus... 

• Leading the Sport
• Growing the Sport
• Raising the Profile/Building the Brand
• Raising the Bar/Stepping to the Podium
• Securing the Future

To download a copy of the Strategic Plan 2016 - 2020 - click here...

As we move into 2017 there are a number of Key Objectives that have been set out  for the coming year.

The launch of National Gymnastics Training Centre in new National Indoor Arena will take place in January 2017 and Gymnastics Ireland looks forward to the moving our events programme to National Indoor Arena and to making a step up in event presentation. Gymnastic Ireland also looks forward embedding all National Squad programme in to the new National Gymnastics Training Centre. Lastly we will be launching a performance coaching pathway programme to support performance development in Ireland.

 Take a look at our Review of 2016 video below...

2017 will be an exciting year for the sport of Gymnastics Ireland and we look forward to further growth, progress and positivity around the sport here in Ireland