Mc CLENAGHAN Rhys

Ireland

Artistic Gymnastics

Date of Birth: 21 Jul 1999

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Olympic Scholarship

Height (m/ft): 1.71/5'7''

Place of birth: ANTRIM

Birth Country:

Great Britain

Place of residence : NEWTOWNARDS

Residence Country:

Great Britain

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Artistic Gymnastics	Men's Pommel Horse	7

Schedule

Change

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Ariake Gymnastics Centre - Pommel	Men's Pommel Horse Final	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

Athlete:

World Championships

Year	Location	PH
2019	Stuttgart, GER	3
2018	Doha, QAT	113
2017	Montreal, QC, CAN	14

European Championships

Year	Location	FX	HB	PB	PH	SR	AA	Team
2021	Basel, SUI	-	-	-	5	-	-	-
2018	Glasgow, GBR	-	-	-	1	-	-	29
2017	Cluj-Napoca, ROU	80	79	55	14	67	36	-

World Cup overview - Best rank per season and event since 2017

Year	FX	PB	PH
2017/2018	1 x 33rd	1 x 20th	1 x 4th

World Cup - Ten best performances since 2017

Rank	Year	Event	Location	Result
4	2017/2018	Pommel Horse	Doha, QAT	14.333
10	2017/2018	Pommel Horse	Baku, AZE	13.966
20	2017/2018	Parallel Bars	Baku, AZE	12.400
24	2017/2018	Parallel Bars	Doha, QAT	12.600
33	2017/2018	Floor Exercise	Doha, QAT	12.400

Legend
FX - Floor Excercise, VT - Vault, HB - Horizontal Bar, PB - Parallel Bars, PH - Pommel Horse, SR - Rings, AA - Individual All-Around, DNS - Did Not Start, DSQ - Disqualified

Nickname:

Prince of the Pommel (fig-gymnastics.com, 26 Sep 2018)

Hobbies:

Golf, spending time with family. (bbc.com, 21 Oct 2019)

Occupation:

Athlete

Education:

Sport Studies - Bangor SERC, Great Britain

Languages spoken:

English

Coach:

Luke Carson [personal], IRL, from 2014

Debut:

2017 for Ireland, World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan (belfastlive.co.uk, 30 Mar 2017)

Injuries:

A labral tear in his shoulder, which caused fluid to leak out from the joint and harden into a cyst, affected his preparation in the build-up to the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar. He underwent surgery on the injury in November of that year after the championships. (independent.ie, 29 Apr 2019; bbc.co.uk, 16 Dec 2018; fig-gymnastics.com, 26 Oct 2018)

Start:

He took up gymnastics at age six at Rathgael Gymnastics Club in Bangor, Northern Ireland. (belfasttelegraph.co.uk, 27 May 2017)

Reason:

His mother encouraged him to try gymnastics as it complemented other sports he was already doing. "I was always climbing up on the rooftops, the highest tree that I could possibly find and my mum and dad would have liked me to channel that energy so they did bring me to a local gymnastics club." (punditarena.com, 29 Apr 2019; County Down Spectator YouTube channel, 03 May 2018; belfasttelegraph.co.uk, 27 May 2017)

Ambition:

To win a gold medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (irishtimes.com, 24 Apr 2019)

Memorable:

Gaining a qualification spot for the 2020 Olympic Games by making the final of the pommel horse at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. (independent.ie, 16 Oct 2019)

Hero:

British gymnasts Max Whitlock and Louis Smith. (fig-gymnastics.com, 26 Sep 2018; bbc.co.uk, 08 Apr 2018)

Influence:

Coach Luke Carson. (fig-gymnastics.com, 26 Sep 2018)

Philosophy:

"I don't let outside pressures get to me. I know that when I put up my hand for my routine, I'm in the zone. I'm doing my routine, I'm doing my job, and I don't let anything else disturb that. It's back to my own mindset." (intlgymnast.com, 05 Dec 2018)

Award:

He was presented with a British Empire Medal [BEM] in the Queen's 2021 New Years Honours list. (bbc.co.uk, 31 Dec 2020)

He was named the Raidio Teilifis Eireann [RTE] Young Sportsperson of the Year in 2018 and 2019. (bbc.com, 15 Dec 2019)

He was named Gymnastics Ireland's Gymnast of the Year in 2017 and 2018. (gymnasticsireland.com, 21 Nov 2018)

General Interest

General
EARLY DAYS
He admits that sometimes he was teased for taking part in what is considered to be a traditionally female sport. "Everybody gets teased in school. But I never saw myself as a victim. Anything that's strange or different, people are going to poke at it. I never fell into that box of being bullied. I knew that one day I was going to go to world championships, hopefully one day to the Olympics. So I knew myself what my goals were and I wasn't going to let anybody talk me out of them or have peer pressure be involved. I did sacrifice a lot when I was at school. I didn't do 'boy things' where I'd go out and play football too often. I had to turn parties down and stuff." (the42.ie, 20 Oct 2019)

Milestones

He became the first artistic gymnast representing Ireland to win a medal at the world championships when he won bronze on pommel horse at the 2019 edition in Stuttgart, Germany. (SportsDeskOnline, 29 Apr 2020)

He became the first artistic gymnast representing Ireland to win a medal at the European championships when he claimed gold on pommel horse at the 2018 edition in Glasgow, Scotland. (SportsDeskOnline, 12 Sep 2018; bbc.co.uk, 12 Aug 2018)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos