After becoming the first Irish man to win gold on the pommel horse at the world championships in 2022, Rhys McClenaghan has gone back-to-back after claiming another world championship gold medal in Antwerp last week.
McClenaghan has been a pioneer for Irish gymnastics with his recent victories and looks to be one of Ireland's best chances at a gold medal in next summer's Paris Olympics. We caught up with him this week, where he espoused the benefits of switching off social media and training from home as he builds towards next summer.
Rhys on social media
Since his seventh place finish in the Tokyo Olympics the man from Newtownards, Co. Down, has driven himself to the top of his sport. However, it has not been a simple linear trajectory to the top. McClenaghan has documented nearly his entire journey through with Irish gymnastics on his YouTube channel. He has documented his training and competitions for around 8 years.
Speaking to Balls.ie on Monday. McCleanaghan who is an ambassador for PTSB, spoke about the main 'motivations' behind using YouTube.
"It's one of the main motivations behind me documenting my journey on YouTube. The main one is really inspiring young gymnasts. I would have absolutely killed to see a YouTuber going through their gymnastics career when I was younger. I didn't really see that because it would have been just at the start of YouTube. So I'm doing it for the younger gymnasts to be inspired in that way but also just doing it for myself.
I get to travel around the world doing what I love and the fact I can document my self going to Belgium or winning World Championships, means I can look back on these videos in years to come with a smile on my face.
Stepping away from social media
It is amazing for young aspiring gymnasts to be able to see, so intimately, the inner workings of Rhys' training schedule and competitions. However, McClengahan took time off from social media leading in to this year's World Championships after he described feeling like he didn't want to compete for the first time in his life,
"Stepping away from social media certainly helped and it was something that I'd never done before so that scares me a little bit going in to competitions, having not approached it like that before. But at the same time, I had never felt negative emotions like that before, especially at that Paris World Cup a few weeks before World Championships. I knew something had to change so that kind of eliminated any fears around too much change going to the competition.
Ultimately, stepping away from social media really helped. It really helped me stay grounded and focus on my job. It definitely down played the whole situation, when you are on social media everything seems bigger than it actually is.
The World Championships definitely has that illusion when you're on social media, you're seeing videos of Simone Biles and her come back, talk of me retaining the title and questions coming at me on social media which was all just taking away. It really made me feel like I was just at training, every time I was out there and that's exactly how we wanted it to be. That's how it felt during the competition days, it just felt like another training session."
Announcement of the new PTSB Brand & Customer Positioning with Rhys McClenaghan 16/10/2023
Pictured at the announcement of the new PTSB brand and customer positioning over the weekend is PTSB Ambassador & Team Ireland Gymnast, Rhys McClenaghan, who recently retained his world title on men’s pommel horse at the World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp. As proud title sponsor of Team Ireland for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, PTSB is proud to support Rhys McClenaghan on his journey to Paris 2024.
Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
Returning home
McClenaghan paid tribute to his coach Luke Carson who has been with him from the beginning of his gymnastics career. Carson and McClenaghan had returned back to Northern Ireland to train prior to the World Championships as Carson has opened Origin Gymnastics, his own club in their home town of Newtownards. McClenaghan spoke of the move home in the build up to the World Championships,
It was such a positive change but at the same time, it was a change. It was different, a new environment, being around new people outside of the gym.
I was still working with my coach Luke, my training partner Eamonn Montgomery, everything felt the same in the gym but life was happening outside of the gym and that wasn't necessarily happening in Dublin. It needed to be done and you need to be happy outside of the gym as well and I don't feel like I was fully getting that in Dublin. I'm really looking forward to preparing for the Olympic Games in my home town now at Origin Gymnastics.
McClenaghan has now qualified for next year's Summer Olympics in Paris, as one of Ireland's brightest talents sets his sights on a first Olympics medal for Ireland in gymnastics
