Dominick "Dom" Adam Cunningham (born 9 May 1995) is an English-born elite artistic gymnast representing

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

since 2022, having previously represented Great Britain and England. He won a team gold at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, ...

, and the Individual Floor Gold at the

2018 European Championships The 2018 European Championships were the first edition of the European Championships. It was a multi-sport event which took place in Berlin, Germany, and Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (with Edinburgh hosting the diving events and Glene ...

in Glasgow.

Early life

Cunningham was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

and is from

Kings Heath Kings Heath (historically, and still occasionally King's Heath) is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, four miles south of the city centre. Historically in Worcestershire, it is the next suburb south from Moseley on the A435, Alcester road. ...

, a suburb in the south of the West Midlands city. He attended Bishop Challoner Catholic College in Birmingham until 2013. As a child, Cunningham played football and ice hockey but was captivated by gymnastics the most. His parents supported his interest despite struggling to pay his gymnastics fees. His mother took him to his first gymnastics session aged 5. He started competitions at age 7. He also took some boxing lessons. Cunningham was regularly bullied at primary school for participating in gymnastics and was subjected to name-calling. Labelled "gay" and accused of taking up a "girls' sport", he has said he felt humiliated and hid in his mother's car, refusing to go into school. Cunningham said "I was only about 9 or 10 years old at the time and I didn't want to go to school because people were calling me names because of what sport I did. I felt humiliated really. I remember just coming home and crying about it." Cunningham has trained at City of Birmingham Gymnastics Club in Perry Barr and the Earls Gymnastics Club in Halesowen.

Career

Cunningham had success at the junior level at the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival and the 2011 European Youth Olympic Festival. Cunningham was a member of the British team for the 2017 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in April 2017, advancing to the floor exercise and vault event finals.

2018

At the

held in Gold Coast, Australia, Cunningham was part of the team that won gold on the men's all-around event. Although he finished third in the all-around team event behind Nile Wilson and James Hall, he did not qualify for the individual all-around as only two competitors from each country may qualify. He won a bronze on the

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

. Cunningham attended the official handover ceremony at the 2018 Commonwealth Games as an ambassador representing his home city of Birmingham, which will be hosting the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

. At the

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

, Cunningham won gold in the

floor exercise In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, which is considered an apparatus. It is used by both male and female gymnasts. The gymnastics event performed on the floor is called floor exercise. The English abbreviation for t ...

. He also won a silver as part of the team. In his first World Championships at the 2018 World Championships in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the c ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

, Cunningham narrowly missed out on a bronze medal by 0.009 marks in the men's vault final.

2019

Cunningham sustained a leg injury at the 2019 European Championships in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

, which left him on an 18-week rehabilitation programme to be able to walk again. At the

2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held in Stuttgart, Germany from October 4–13, 2019. The championships took place at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, and was the third time the city of Stuttgart hosted the event following ...

held in

Stuttgart, Germany Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the S ...

, Cunningham was part of the team that finished in fifth place in qualifications, qualifying the Great Britain team a place at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Cunningham and the team went on to retain their fifth place in the team final. Individually, Cunningham qualified to the

final where he placed eighth (13.566) and the vault final where he placed fifth (14.566).

2020

During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, Cunningham revealed he was struggling to train without use of gyms during UK lockdown periods. Describing the training situation for gymnasts as "impossible", he took to training at a stable in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is t ...

to prepare for the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics being held in Tokyo in 2021.

2022

In early 2022 Cunningham officially switched nationalities and began representing Ireland, his father's birth nation. Shortly thereafter he was selected for his first Irish team at the

2022 European Men's Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 35th European Men's Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held from 18 to 21 August 2022 in Munich, Germany as part of the second multi-sport European Championships. There were 38 nations that sent athletes. Gymnasts from Russia and Belarus ...

in Munich.Dominick Cunningham on debut for Ireland: ‘Exciting is the word’
John Crumlish, ''International Gymnast Online'', 23 September 2022

References

External links

*
Dominick Cunningham
at

British Gymnastics British Gymnastics, also known as the British Amateur Gymnastics Association (BAGA), is the sports governing body for gymnastics and Trampolining in the UK. History It was founded in 1888 as the Amateur Gymnastics and Fencing Association. Gy ...

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Dominick 1995 births Living people Irish male artistic gymnasts English male artistic gymnasts Commonwealth Games medallists in gymnastics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Gymnasts at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Birmingham, West Midlands Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games English people of Irish descent Citizens of Ireland through descent