Paul O'Neill

Paul O'Neill (May 8, 1965 – January 22, 2021) was an American gymnast most noted for his work on rings.

Early life and education O'Neill was born to Evelyn and John O'Neill, the third of four sons. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School for two years and Aurora Central for one. He was a two-time Colorado high school wrestling champion and started gymnastics before his junior year. as well as holding the highest qualifying average record (9.93) in 1987 and 1989. After college, he went on to compete internationally.

O'Neill tore his bicep in 1990 and required an eight-month recovery period. He won the national rings title at the 1995 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships.

He retired from competition in 1997.

He was the owner and coach at Dakota Star Gymnastics in Mandan, North Dakota. In July 1997, he became program director at Technique Gymnastics outside of Sacramento, California which had 118 competitive team members and 850 total gymnasts.

USA Gymnastics placed O'Neill on its permanently ineligible list between early-2000 and May 2001.

Competitions World Championships, Brisbane, Australia - Silver Medalist World Championships, Paris, France - 4th (Rings) D.T.B Pokal, Stuttgart, Germany, 1995 - 3rd (Still Rings) D.T.B Pokal, Stuttgart, Germany, 1994 - 5th (Still Rings) Swiss Cup, Zurich, Switzerland, 1995 - 7th (Still Rings) Swiss Cup, Zurich, Switzerland, 1994 - 8th (Still Rings) Kosice Cup, Kosice, Slovakia, 1993 - 1st (Still Rings)

Eponymous skills O'Neill has one named element on the rings. It was initially given an E (0.5) difficulty score, but was lowered to a D (0.4) in 2024. +Gymnastics elements named after Paul O'Neill Apparatus Name Description Difficulty Added to Code of Points Rings O'Neill "Straight double felge bwd. to hang."D, 0.4 Named in 1993. Performed at the 1992 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

Personal life O'Neill was married to Kristi Kasprzak O'Neill and had three children.

He owned his own personal training company, and he has also done some acting and modeling. His hobbies include singing in a band. Paul died 01/22/2021.