Jesse Moore

When Jesse Moore started performing gymnastics moves, such as the splits in the lounge room at home in Adelaide as a five-year-old, his mum and dad decided they might as well enrol him in a class. 

"Apparently, I could just do the splits and I had a lot of energy, so my parents chucked me into it," Jesse said.

“They sent me into kinder gym first, which is the pathway of going into elite gymnastics. Most people start in the gym and then stick with it. 

“From the get-go, I thought it was fun doing the flips. But within the first few years or so I fell in love because in those first few years, you don’t really compete too much. You just go in and have fun.” 

Jesse showed so much early talent at Ascot Park Primary School in Adelaide, where he was part of the school’s specialised gymnastics program, that he was quickly elevated to South Australia’s high-performance program. 

He won four consecutive all-around age titles at the national championships from 2015 to 2018 before his first international competitions in 2018, which included a bronze medal in horizontal bars at the Pacific Rim Championships.  

At the junior world championships in Hungary in 2019, Jesse finished seventh in the horizontal bars. Also in 2019, he was named Australia’s Junior International Gymnast of the Year. 

He finished fourth in the all-around at the Continental Championships in 2021, but missed out on selection in the Australian team for the Tokyo Olympics because he was too young. However, his consistent good results won him a place at the Australian Institute of Sport. 

At 19, Jesse was the youngest member of the Australian artistic gymnastics team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where he was sixth in pommel horse, despite suffering a labral tear in his shoulder, and was part of the men’s team that finished fourth. He also qualified for the horizontal bar final, but the shoulder injury ultimately forced his withdrawal, allowing teammate Tyson Bull to compete instead. 

Jesse ensured his place at the Paris Olympics with a sensational all-around win in the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Oceania Continental Championships in Auckland in May 2024. 

He posted a total score of 80.322 across six apparatus, highlighted by his routines on pommel (14.466) and vault (14.33). Despite coming off the high bar twice, Jesse finished ahead of Australian teammates Clay Mason Stephens (second), Heath Thorpe (third) and James Hardy (sixth). 

“I am pretty speechless right now, I don’t really know what to think,” Jesse said. “This has been my dream since starting gymnastics.”

At Paris 2024 Jesse was the first Australian since Josh Jeffries at London 2012 to qualify for the Individual All-Around Olympic final.

The then 21-year-old finished 21st in the final, scoring 80.430. His vault was especially notable, achieving a 14.333 with a stuck landing that helped secure an apparatus-high execution score of 9.533. Other highlights included 13.866 on parallel bars and an improved routine on pommel horse, his favoured event, earning him a score of 14.466.

Jesse is studying exercise physiology and rehabilitation at the University of Canberra and believes it will help his longevity in gymnastics as he learns more about how his body copes with the rigours of training and competition.

“I obviously want to keep on going to 2032 because that’s the home Olympics,” he said. “My whole life has been in sport … and I don’t really want to leave that.

“It’s a way not only to stay inside this community, but to give back to other athletes and just help them through their careers.”