Dec 23,2024
Olympic gold medallist Rhys McClenaghan is refreshed and recalibrated and as his dream year comes to a close, Los Angeles is already coming into view.
"That was weird, to take that much time off training, but it was always in the plan. I always imagined winning the Olympic Games, straight after that Olympics taking a big break and recalibrating.
"Right now is that recalibration stage where I am establishing these new targets."
For 2025, those targets will likely include gold medals at the Euros in Leipzig and the Worlds in Jakarta, but that hasn’t been rubber-stamped just yet.
"I'm yet to make definitive calls on whether to do the Europeans and Worlds but I really do want to aim for those," he said.
"I'm at a stage now where I want to establish myself as the greatest or one of the greatest to have ever done the pommel horse. What that takes is getting more titles, just stacking them up on top of each other. I've got them all; now it's time to do them again and again and again.
"I want to be doing as many major championships as I possibly can."
After achieving his lifelong ambition with a sensational pommel horse gold medal in Paris in August, McClenaghan worked intently on dealing with the aftermath – specifically the descent after scaling his personal Everest.
"I focussed a lot on learning from different athletes down through the years, watching interviews, seeing a reaction straight after an Olympic gold medal; that’s a very important thing for me to see and learn that there can be these lows after a very high of winning an Olympic Games.
"Because I stay conscious of that, I'm now avoiding those different lows and I’m starting to stay on top of my mental well-being, my physical well-being and keeping that moving slowly along.
"Establishing those new goals is very important."
The 25-year-old admitted that it did take time to adjust to fulfilling his ambition, but all being well, he'll have another gold medal to go with his 29th birthday celebrations in Los Angeles given that the Games will be run slightly earlier in the summer compared to Paris.
"I feel like after the immediate emotions of the competition when I got back to the hotel room, when I started to see my family, it was almost hard to believe that it was done.
"I feel like that’s because my family around me, my friends, everyone who has helped me along the way, it’s almost the goal that we’re always chasing and that we will always be chasing – but then for it just to be done, I'm Olympic champion, it was really hard to wrap my head around it and still is to this day.
"Now I'm starting to establish these new goals, these new targets, and I’m certainly wanting to be on top of that podium in LA as well."
And who knows? Maybe that podium could see multiple visits from the athlete as he ponders adding the floor event to his competitive repertoire.
"I would love to," he said when asked could it be an option.
"Again it's just based on how I'm training, how I'm performing. I won't add another event in unless it's got that medal potential.
"In an ideal world I'd be coming back from an Olympic Games with two medals, and that would be an absolute dream, but we've just got to see how we progress.
"I understand that is a really tough ask in this sport, but we've got to aim high. Just like I aimed high in the pommel horse, we've got to aim high in the floor too."
