Rio 2016 Profiles: Team Ireland Gymnastics Manager & Coaches

Men’s Gymnastics Coach, Simon Gale:

Simon has been a full time coach for 20 years. He coaches out of the Tolworth Gymnastics Club where he coaches Ireland's two time Olympian Kieran Behan and Ireland's Jack Neill, Dan Fox and Chris O'Connor. Over the course of his career, he has coached National Champions at a variety of international competitions and championships. He has also coached for Ireland at five World Championships, six European Championships and two Olympic Test Events. This will be his second Olympics coaching Kieran, who he has now coached for 8 years. Women’s Gymnastics Coach, Samantha James:

Samantha has been coaching elite gymnastics for 16 years. She coaches out of the Europa Gymnastics Centre where she coaches Ireland's first female Olympian in gymnastics, Ellis O’Reilly. Her first international competition was the European championships in Montpellier in 2015 for Gymnastics Ireland and Team Ireland and she has since coached for Ireland at European Championships in Bern, the World Championships in Glasgow and the inaugural European Games in Baku. Samantha has also coached Ellis to a number of Irish National Championships titles. Her coaching highlight to date is having the first ever Irish female gymnast qualify for an Olympic Games.