Back to basics does the trick for Rhys McClenaghan

The ‘new’ routine which won World Championship gold last week was in fact an old one that offered slightly less reward for difficulty but much less risk in the form of points deductions

GOLD STAR: Rhys McClenaghan poses for a picture with his gold medal beside the sign 'Ireland is Beam-ing with Pride'. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

Rhys McClenaghan’s holidays kicked in the moment that gold medal was raised around his neck in Liverpool on Saturday but it’s hard to keep a good man down. Not least when there is a trampoline in the building.

Tuesday started with another blizzard of media interviews and ended with what must have been a memorable trip home to Newtownards but there was still time for a bundle of tumbles and rolls at the National Gymnastics Training Centre in between.

Up, down. Up, down. That’s the gig, basically.

You don't clock in and out at that level. The job spills over life’s normal boundaries. McClenaghan moved down to Dublin and its state-of-the-art facilities four years ago to be a global champion. He did that on the pommel last weekend.

Hours in the gym are only part of it, complemented by the research he puts in after hours at home, the meals he cooks, the social life he has sacrificed. None of this is shared in an ‘oh woe is me’ way. This is his life and he’s living the best one he can.

It's a consistency of focus and application that allows him to do things others can't. His score of 15.300 in Liverpool was the best on his apparatus by anyone this year. That includes a World Cup series, a Commonwealth Games and a European Championships.

In layman’s terms? He won by a country mile.

It’s a success that comes after the disappointment of those Commonwealths, where he had to settle for silver, and the Europeans where his failure to qualify for the finals was scarcely believable. A long year, then, and his wishlist for the break to come is simple.

“It’s being human. Eating pizza when I want, having a drink. I haven’t done those things. I haven’t touched alcohol in seven months now. It’s going to be nice just to socialise with friends, go home and spend time with family.” 

If the physical side of this chapter has been exacting then the emotional payment that went into years of training and dedication was obvious after he won when he burst into tears during a live interview with the BBC.

The journey to that point was anything but linear and he found himself having to, effectively, go backward to move forwards after the routine he had adopted in recent years led to those unsatisfactory showings at recent championships.

The ‘new’ routine last week was in fact an old one that offered slightly less reward for difficulty but much less risk in the form of points deductions. He’ll stick with that going forward while adding some bells and whistles.

“So, this is like our baseline routine, and it’s good to have a baseline routine that will take home a world title, but we can add more to that,” he insisted. “Gymnastics is constantly improving.

“There might be a gymnast that comes along next year and might be even better and of course Max Whitlock might be coming back. The Chinese-Taipei gymnast is up there challenging.

“I’m definitely not in the clear, even though I won that competition by half a mark, which is a huge victory. There are still people that can come along. It takes one person.” 

One helluva person.

It’s the confidence that Liverpool can act as a starting point rather than a finishing line that excites here. McClenaghan is still only 23, but he’s already seven years removed from his first major senior medal and there’s so much more to come.

There was a beautiful symmetry to his latest gold medal in that the National Series Gymnastics Team Championships were ongoing back in Abbotstown on the same day and 1,500 athletes paused in the middle of it all to watch him perform on a big screen.

McClenaghan has shown youngsters in his sport that the sky is the limit but there is still one medal missing from his parent’s mantelpiece and he understands the value that Olympic success in Paris in 2024 would carry in terms of the country at large.

“I know that in the general public an Olympic medal is more valuable in a sense but there are people with Olympic medals have never had a World gold. It’s just as difficult, it’s everyone in the world competing for this medal, same as in the Olympics, but I also want that Olympic medal.”