Ellis Jacqueline O'Reilly (born 23 February 1998) is a retired English-born female

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which assigns the '' Code of Points'' used ...

, who represented

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

at international competitions, most notably at the

2016 Olympic Games The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. She has competed at world championships, including the

2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held in Nanning, China at the Guangxi Gymnasium from 3–12 October 2014. The competition was the fourth time a World Artistic Gymnastics Championships has been held in the continent of Asia. ...

in Nanning, China. She was a three time silver medalist at the Northern European Championships. In 2017, O'Reilly announced her retirement from the sport, at the age of nineteen.

Career

Ellis trained in the Europa Gymnastics club, in

Crayford Crayford is a town and Wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in South London, South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bexley. It lies east of Bexleyheath and north west of Dartford. Crayford was in the Historic countie ...

, under coach Sam James."Sportswoman of the month: Ellis O’Reilly's Rio dream come true"
irishtimes.com. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2017. While competing in Ireland she represented Renmore Gymnastics Club in

Renmore Renmore () is a suburb of Galway, Ireland, around 2 km east of the city centre. Renmore runs east along the coast and south of the Old Dublin Road ( R338), from the shore of Lough Atalia on its west side to Lurgan Park on its east. The ar ...

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

. Ellis has a number of national titles to her name and was the 2014 & 2015 All Around Irish Champion. She made her International senior debut in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2014 at the European Championships. Since then Ellis has attended two World Championships (China in 2014 and in Glasgow in 2015). Another European Championships in Monpellier in 2015 and she competed at the inaugural Baku Games in 2015. At the Northern Europeans in Limerick in 2015, O’Reilly claimed a number of silver medals including Individual All Around and with the Irish Team.

Olympic Games 2016

At the World Championships in Glasgow in October 2015, Ellis secured Ireland their first ever place for an Irish female gymnast at an Olympic test event. In March 2016, she was selected as the gymnast to take that place and go forward to compete for a place at the Rio Olympics 2016. O'Reilly became the first Irish female gymnast to ever secure Olympic qualification at the Aquecce Rio Test Event, the final qualifying event for the

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

games.

Retirement

O'Reilly retired from gymnastics in 2017. In 2020, she revealed that due to health problems, including dislocated knees, broken wrists,

disc herniation A disc herniation or spinal disc herniation is an injury to the intervertebral disc between two vertebrae, usually caused by excessive strain or trauma to the spine. It may result in back pain, pain or sensation in different parts of the body, ...

and a broken neck, she had been forced to quit the sport or face the prospect of life in a wheelchair.

Personal life

Ellis took up the sport of gymnastics at age six. She qualifies for Ireland through her

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

-born grandfather. O'Reilly previously represented both Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Her older sister Jenna is a four-time amateur British boxing champion, who was given the honour of leading

Katie Taylor Katie Taylor (born 2 July 1986) is an Irish professional boxer and former footballer. She was the undisputed and undefeated lineal world lightweight champion from 2019 to 2024, and has held the undisputed and lineal world super lightweight ...

into the ring for her gold medal fight in London 2012. O'Reilly also has two younger brothers, Frank and Reggie, who are boxers.

References

External links