A day in the life of Rhys McClenaghan, a dream that was a decade in the making, and a crowning moment of glory inside the Arena Bercy on Saturday night.
It was his moment of destiny too. McClenaghan again balancing his incredibly cool nerve and towering ambition with another dazzling display on the pommel horse – Zen-like in execution, and also devastatingly good. His best routine ever. It needed to be.
He now stands as the first Irish Olympic medal winner in gymnastics.
Ronnie Delany once described destiny as knowing something about yourself that no one else does. Before joining him in that great sporting pantheon as the 11th Irish Olympic champion, McClenaghan had shared his destiny with one other person – his coach Luke Carson.
Together they drew up a 10-year plan that would have McClenaghan at the peak of his powers by 2024.
So it came to be. It was just before 6pm local time when the 25-year-old from Newtownards took centre stage for his routine, up fourth of the eight finalists. A flawless 47-second routine later – McClenaghan channelling every ounce of strength and skill and agility built up over that same decade – his score of 15.533 would be enough to seal the gold.
After he dismounted McClenaghan raised both arms in triumph and afforded himself a shout of relief, then briefly put his head in his hands as it all started to sink it. Then he embraced Carson.
“It was hard to make it seem realistic back then, but we saw a path,” McClenaghan said of their combined goal.
“Luke clearly saw a path. It’s not often I’ve heard him say, ‘I think this kid can be a world champion’, but he said it for me. I owe Luke a lot. This is our medal, and I’m proud it’s that way.
“I just think it has been part of this plan, part of what we’ve been aiming for so many years, since I started training with Luke. You know, that’s 10 years ago, and when I started with him, there was a 10-year plan to win an Olympic gold medal.”
Shortly after his routine, McClenaghan was standing on top of the medal podium, Amhrán na bhFiann being played out for the first time ever inside an Olympic gymnastics arena. That’s when the tears of joy started to fall.
“It feels like a dream, it’s a dream well-earned and I just can’t believe it’s happened,” he said later.
“It always felt like it was going to happen but I wasn’t sure when. I didn’t know that I’d won when I landed, but I knew that I’d done my job. I knew I went through my most difficult routine that I could do on this day. And that’s where the tears and emotions came from, really.”
Nariman Kurbanov from Kazakhstan was up first, the 26-year-old scoring 15.434 and laying down an early marker with his slowly soaring routine which clearly impressed the judges. It would be good enough to win him silver.
Then came Max Whitlock, the 31-year-old British gymnast producing an amazing handstand mid routine, yet his score of 15.000 appeared to slightly disappoint. He would finish in fourth. Whitlock was seeking to become the first gymnast to win three pommel horse Olympic gold medals in a row, adding to those won in Rio and Tokyo.
Up after McClenaghan was Stephen Nedoroscik, the 25-year-old from the US. The 2021 world champion’s one-handed twists mid routine impressed the judges too, but his score of 15.300 was not enough to trouble McClenaghan and it left him in third.
“I literally dreamed that I scored 15.5,” he said, “but I never dreamed that I’ve won, which is weird, but I’m not one to look into dreams like that.
“There’s the tiniest little hesitation during that routine where you can either go for the difficult skill towards the end of the routine, or you don’t, and do the routine I’ve done in qualifications. That would have been a 15.2. So, yeah, I had to suck it up, I had to get it done, put that new skill in, and it worked out because I came away with a personal best score. And, yeah, I can’t ask for more than that.”
McClenaghan’s hopes of making the Olympic podium in Tokyo ended after 10 seconds when he fell chest-first on to the horse and ended up seventh. There were no tears on that occasion, when there might well have been.
In the press conference afterwards, McClenaghan first took a seat and stared down at his medal.
“It’s better than imagined, and it’s got a piece of the Eiffel Tower. And I love Paris so much. It feels like it was just meant to be, on this day. I love seeing that Eiffel Tower. It never gets boring. And now I’ve got a piece of it hanging around my neck attached to an Olympic gold medal. That’s absurd to me.”
Seven years after announcing his arrival at age 18, beating Whitlock to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, McClenaghan has added to his eight championship medals (two World Championship gold and one bronze, three European gold, plus Commonwealth Games gold and silver).
He celebrated on Saturday with family and friends, and his first drink in seven months.
“All athletes have their own story, but of course I obviously pay close attention to my own, and I’m trying to write that in the happiest fashion I can and that isn’t medal-dependant.
“That’s enjoying the journey, enjoying going to competitions around the world, enjoying going training every day. Having gymnastics as my job never gets old, even just saying that, because that in itself is a lifelong dream.
“It’s something I dreamed of when I was in school, literally daydreaming when I was in class about gymnastics routines. The fact that is what I do, that I’m a professional gymnast, is already a win. But then of course the medals are the driving force, that’s the pinnacle of our sport, we’re always working towards that.
“I made it very apparent even after Tokyo that I wanted to enjoy that journey to the top of that mountain. Even if I didn’t come away with that, I still would’ve had that goal of trying to inspire as many as possible.”
