Gymnast Rhys McClenaghan's pathway to Olympic gold has fun at its heart but serious business looms with this week's Doha World Cup
The playful Team Ireland artistic gymnast has a serious mission ahead, adding Olympic gold to his pommel horse world title, but having fun on the journey is as key as hard work for the 23-year-old.
If there’s one person who is definitely having fun while on the journey to the serious business of winning Olympic gold, it’s trailblazing gymnast, Rhys McClenaghan.
The Northern Ireland-born 23-year-old has been making history throughout his career, culminating in becoming Ireland’s first-ever artistic gymnastics world champion.
“I've dedicated my life to this sport, and to be world champion makes it all worthwhile,” said McClenaghan after claiming the title on his favoured discipline, the pommel horse, at the Liverpool-hosted event in November.
Posting on social media following the championships, McClenaghan thanked those who had been part of his journey so far, giving a shout out to someone perhaps unexpected.
“To anybody who ever supported me. To my family and friends. To my younger self. Thank you, this one was for all of you,” he wrote in a tweet pinned front and centre, and at the top of his feed to this day.
That younger self also has another goal in mind, Olympic gold, as cited in one of McClenaghan’s YouTube videos in which 21,000 subscribers follow posts, podcasts and vlogs of his gymnastics journey: “I’ve been training for the Olympic games since I was six years old.”
The dream came true at Tokyo 2020, where McClenaghan made the pommel horse final, finishing in seventh place. It was an amazing result but perhaps not a true reflection of his global ranking due to a shoulder injury leading up to the Games, for which he was thankful to even qualify.
However, the journey to Paris 2024 has already begun with McClenaghan competing in the FIG Apparatus World Cup series, part of the qualification process in which ranking points are key. He has already competed in the first of four events in the 2023 edition, in Cottbus, Germany, coming fifth. The next event, in which McClenaghan will want to up his game, is in Doha, Qatar from 1-4 March.
Pommel horse kings
McClenaghan’s apparatus of choice is the very same discipline in which his near neighbour, Great Britain’s Max Whitlock is three-time world champion – the 30-year-old did not compete in Liverpool due to taking some time out from the sport.
Whitlock is also the reigning Olympic champion, winning his second consecutive gold medal on the apparatus at Tokyo 2020, and it is this title that McClenaghan now has in his sights.
“(The world title) just proves to myself, and many others, I'm still capable of going there and winning gold, which is a very exciting thought,” said McClenaghan. “I know I can perform under this immense pressure, and I can do the same in Paris.”
He’ll have to go some to beat Whitlock – should the Englishman make the five-person GB squad which has qualified for Paris courtesy of a team bronze at the 2022 World Championships – who is aiming for Olympic history himself with a record-breaking fourth medal on the same apparatus, having also bagged bronze in London 2012, aged just 19.
Rhys McClenaghan: Horseplay between World Cups
As much as McClenaghan has a serious goal in mind, the pathway is paved with fun.
Training techniques include one session in which he and his teammates agreed to shave their heads if they fell during a routine – cue a trio of bald heads post-training. Commentating on videos of his nine-year-old self doing gymnastics bring a nostalgic feel, a back flip on a paddleboard the wow factor, and a cold-water dip in a local stream… in mid-winter, a happy-to-be-watching-not-doing kind of vibe.
More than four million people watched a viral post in which McClenaghan demonstrated quite vociferously, while jumping up and down, that the cardboard beds at the Tokyo Games were sturdy, and not made in an effort to discourage any amorous activity as had been reported in the press.
A behind-the-scenes look at the Olympic Village garnered 700,000 views while his vlog on travelling to Tokyo detailed the minutiae of athlete life such as donning blue-light blocking sunglasses in the airport ahead of a planned sleep on the first half of the flight, in an effort to get into the Japanese time zone quickly.
Meanwhile, ahead of the World Cup series, McClenaghan and his Irish teammates put together their own version of the official trailer, incorporating Blue Steel-style model looks, gymnastics bloopers and slow-motion loving gazes at the apparatus.
Back to the serious business, and McClenaghan cites a Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games pommel horse gold medal he won for Northern Ireland as one of the most important in his career.
“At the age of 18, I beat the Olympic champion and we both completed clean routines, so it showed I was capable of being on top of the world and hopefully, one day, getting that Olympic gold medal.”
His six-year-old self will be behind him all the way.
What's next in the Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus World Cup series?
Cottbus, Germany was the location of the first of four FIG Apparatus World Cup events that will determine the 2023 FIG World Cup Series champions. A points system decides the winners, and, in addition, also serves as qualification for individual gymnasts to the Antwerp World Championships taking place 30 September to 8 October 2023. The next events in the series are:
- 1-4 March – Doha (QAT)
- 9-12 March – Baku (AZE)
- 27-30 April – Cairo (EGY)