DAVID EATON

Playing football at the local park was one of my favourite things to do, however, the only toilet around happened to be at a building tucked to the side, it happened to by Hinckley Gymnastics Club. I noticed a school friend in a class one day when I was 8 years old and the following week I went with him. My first memorable step into the world of competitive gymnastics was making the East Midlands regional team to compete at the NDP’s at Lilleshall National Sports Centre. I still remember the moment walking into the vast hall that would later become somewhat of a second home, the bright lights, the loud crowd, and action everywhere – I was hooked!

In 1992, my long-time coach Trevor Low invested in me and my teammates by bringing over a coach from Moscow, which coincided with the Barcelona Olympics and Britain qualifying a full men’s team that year. I still don’t know to this day how Trevor pulled it off as Vitaly Lomtiev was part of the Soviet coaching staff and personal coach to various national team members. It was that summer that gymnastics went from something I did, to who I was. I was all in! Later that year we visited him for a week of training in Moscow and made the British national team for the very first time.

Year after year, I kept my head down and worked hard, and each year my ranking improved until I was a key member of the British squad. In 1994 I represented Great Britain for the first time, I was so excited to get to travel to a fantastic junior competition in Kiskunhalas, Hungary. I also remember watching the Commonwealth Games that year whilst at my Grandparent’s house in Wales, and decided I too wanted to compete for Wales and made it my goal to be there at the next one. Over the years, Trevor Low gave me and my club teammates everything in terms of allowing us to reach our goals. Hinckley Gymnastics Club, a small industrial town with a gym that didn’t even have a full floor, went on to become the British Team Champions at all levels, including picking up the Adam’s Shield three times in a row. We were fortunate to travel the world, training, competing, watching major international competitions, and meeting gymnastics loving folk all around the world. My debt to Trevor is incalculable.

Back in California, things were going well. I felt at home with my teammates and felt fulfilled in my studies. We had an exciting team that boasted junior USA team members and even a former World Champion from China in Jinjing Zhang. Every summer I returned home to compete, and in 2002 had my toughest experience in getting injured two days before the competition began at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Wales had surprisingly never won a medal at the Commonwealth Games and going in as British Champion I had high expectations of changing that, unfortunately in life, we get given setbacks and lessons to learn from and four years later, with Trevor there as my coach, I found myself on the podium collecting a silver medal in Melbourne.

In 2003 I got to compete at the World Championships in my adopted state of California. Many of my friends had organized to come and support us. The summer training was grueling, and the team suffered two injury setbacks in a team that was extremely thin on manpower as it was. The significance of the competition was clear; qualification to the 2004 Athens Olympics or British Gymnastics loses its funding from UK Sport. At this time, qualifying at the World Championships was the only chance; finish top 12 for a team in Athens, 13th-15th for two gymnasts, after that it was a handful of wildcard spots for individuals. If we didn’t qualify we knew this would have great impacts on the funding of British Gymnastics, the coaching and administrative staff, and the centralized training set up at Lilleshall would all be hugely effected, which added to the pressure that we already placed on ourselves personally. Training in Anaheim was mixed, but we had an excellent podium training and we were confident, but for many reasons, every one of us fell short of our capabilities as a team. We were crushed and the whole experience to this day feels like a blur. Our life goals and work had been quashed within hours. We finished 23rd and wouldn’t even have an Olympic trial to contend as we would send no one to Athens.

From this low, a clean slate was able to be formed. We did badly enough as a team that many necessary and long overdue changes were made. From this point, I felt my career clearly straddled two major chapters in British Gymnastics history, and it was this latter half of my senior career that I could see how impactful these changes could be (if only they had been in place a decade previously!).

Having graduated in 2006, I returned to the UK to finish my career. I decided to live in London and train essentially on my own in Camden – a life decision which ultimately was not the best gymnastics decision. I found my goal of one final push for a place at the Olympic Games was fizzling out, as the quality of training was nowhere near the level it needed to be. I also had to work and found British University Sports Association accommodating to my training and competition needs, but it inevitably became draining to work and try and maintain elite gymnastics. During this period I enjoyed two seasons competing professionally in Germany for FC Bayern Munich and had a fantastic time competing with them as I searched for a similar team environment I grew to love in California.

List of Coaches:
Hinckley: Trevor Low, George Prodescu, and Alexander Sheryeyev
California: Barry Weiner and Kip Simons

List of Major International Competitions:
4x European Championships (1996 & 1998, 2004, 2007)
3x Commonwealth Games (1998, 2002 & 2006)
3x World University Games (2001, 2003 & 2005)
2x World Championships (2001, 2003)

by David Eaton
July 2018