Rhys Joshua McClenaghan (born 21 July 1999) is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

artistic gymnast competing internationally for both

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He is the 2022 world champion on pommel horse, the first Irish artistic gymnast ever to win world championship gold. He was previously European and Commonwealth Games champion on the same apparatus. In

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, he became the first Irish gymnast to qualify to a world championships final and to also win a

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

, taking bronze on pommel horse. In addition to his world medal, McClenaghan is the first Irish gymnast to compete in a European final and also the first to win a European medal. He also competed for Northern Ireland at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

, winning the gold medal on the

pommel horse The pommel horse is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, the modern pommel horse has a metal body covered with foam rubber and ...

. He followed this by winning the 2018 European Championships, pipping the reigning Olympic and two-time world champion,

Max Whitlock Max Antony Whitlock (born 13 January 1993) is a British artistic gymnast. With fourteen medals and six titles in Olympic and world championships, Whitlock is the most successful gymnast in his nation's history, and the most successful pommel h ...

on both occasions.

Biography and career

He was born in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland to his parents Tracy and Danny McClenaghan. He is coached by Luke Carson. When he was still technically a junior, he won the bronze medal in the

2016 British Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2016 British Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held on 8–10 April 2016 at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, Merseyside. Background The 2016 event marked the sixth time the championships were held at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, and an ...

pommel final behind Olympic medalists Louis Smith and

. McClenaghan also won the first European Championships medal in history for Ireland, earning silver on the pommel horse at the 2016 Junior European Gymnastics Championship. At the

held at the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, McClenaghan won gold on the

, beating the reigning world and Olympic champion

by dint of higher execution score, after tying on overall scores. It was Northern Ireland's first medal for an artistic gymnast at the Commonwealth Games. At the 2018 European Championships, McClenaghan won the gold medal and became Ireland's first-ever European champion. McClenaghan formerly trained at Rathgael Gymnastics Club in Bangor until his coach was made redundant in June 2018. McClenaghan was forced to train in his back garden. He then relocated to Dublin, upon receiving funding and accommodation from Gymnastics Ireland and

Sport Ireland Sport Ireland ( ga, Spórt Éireann), formerly the Irish Sports Council, is a statutory authority that oversees, and partly funds, the development of sport within Ireland. It is located at the National Sports Campus in the townland of Sheephi ...

to train in the Sport Ireland Institute in

Abbotstown Abbotstown is a townland in the civil parish of Castleknock in Fingal, Ireland.Placenames Database of Ireland
- ...

. In October 2019, he won Ireland’s first

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

medal, bronze on the pommel horse, making him the most decorated Irish gymnast of all time. McClenaghan was awarded the

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...

(BEM) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to gymnastics. McClenaghan competed in the

Tokyo 2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, where he came in seventh place in the men's pommel horse final. In 2022 McClenaghan, along with fellow gymnasts Eamon Montgomery and Ewan McAteer, was banned from competing for Northern Ireland at the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

by the

International Gymnastics Federation The International Gymnastics Federation (French: Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, FIG) is the body governing all disciplines of competitive gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on July 23, 1881, in ...

(FIG) as he had previously competed internationally for Ireland. The FIG suggested the trio should renounce their Irish nationality on their gymnastics licences, or that the

Commonwealth Games Federation The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), currently known as Commonwealth Sport, is the international organisation responsible for the direction and control of the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games, and is governing body of the ...

remove the relevant event from that summer's Games programme. The decision was met with backlash from politicians including

Brandon Lewis Brandon Kenneth Lewis (born 20 June 1971) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor from September to October 2022. He previously served as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2018 to 2019 and ...

Deirdre Hargey Deirdre Hargey is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and former Department for Communities, Minister for Communities within the Northern Ireland Executive, and a former List of mayors of Belfast, Lord Mayor of Belfast. Hargey was Co-option, co-opt ...

and

Leo Varadkar Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to De ...

, as well as from Commonwealth Games NI, which accused the FIG of "completely disregarding" the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

(which gave Northern Irish people the right to be both British and Irish). The trio were ultimately given special dispensation by the FIG allowing them to compete in Birmingham.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McClenaghan, Rhys 1999 births Living people Irish male artistic gymnasts People from Newtownards Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games medallists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Gymnasts at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Recipients of the British Empire Medal Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships European champions in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts of Ireland Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Northern Ireland World champion gymnasts Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games