THERE ARE SIX apparatus in men’s gymnastics and Rhys McClenaghan, Newtownards pommel horse specialist, is the world’s undeniable best on one of them.
However, with back-to-back world championships and an Olympic gold medal, the 25-year-old is expanding his horizons.
His sights already set on the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he intends to compete on all six apparatus in the all-around competition, with hopes of medaling in at least one other individual final.
He confirmed, following a question from The 42 today, that not only will he contest the floor competition but that he will attempt vault, horizontal bar, parallel bars and rings as well.
“Yeah doing floor, doing all-around – all six of the events in gymnastics – I want to do that mostly for fun,” he explained, gold medal hanging around his neck, after meeting journalists at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris.
“I enjoy it and I feel like, I’m glad I’ve accomplished this in pommel horse now and I can switch my focus a little bit to the other events and possibly help out a gymnastics team in Ireland and contribute in as many ways as possible.”
He acknowledged that floor, where competitors do a range of tumbling lines, is his second strongest event but that once he mounts any of the apparatus, he wants his routines to be medal worthy.
“So floor definitely has that possibility but there’s a lot of work to be done on it so hopefully I can start that soon,” he continued.
Floor would have some crossover with pommel given between tumbling passess, the athletes will show off a strength hold, flairs or other circle elements like those perfected by McClenaghan yesterday in the Bercy Arena.
Asked by The 42 if he had watched that 15.533 routine back yet, he admitted it looked better than it felt.
“I felt like there was a couple of areas where I was a little bit off balance and I had to adjust a little bit but when I watched the routine back I disguised those little off-balance moments very well and kept my tight body, kept my legs together and kept my focus throughout the routine,” he said.
“I think the score was definitely right for me, it was a personal best performance for me, as well as a personal best score.”
However, he knows LA 2028 will be an even more difficult task given all the finalists, bar retiring 31-year-old former Olympic champion Max Whitlock, will still be vying for medals.
“Max is now retired but I think everybody else in that final will continue and that’s an exciting prospect because it means we’ll all be back battling it out for years to come now. Certainly the other two guys on the podium, they both said they’d continue to LA so I look forward to other competitions where we’ll be battling it out.”
Written by Sinead O’Carroll and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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