Following a year in which he became a back-to-back world champion, gymnast Rhys McClenaghan was named the RTÉ Sport Sportsperson of the Year on Saturday night, live on RTÉ One television and in front of a live studio audience.
McClenaghan will have to make room in his house for this trophy alongside the two he previously won as RTÉ Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year. He is the first to go on from that award to the main one since it was first introduced in 2017.
He is also the first Irish Gymnast to win a world title and the first to win this honour.
“I can’t believe I’m holding this in my hands,” he said collecting the award from Minister of State for Sport Thomas Byrne at the ceremony.
“It’s amazing. It’s just incredible that I’m an Irish gymnast taking home world titles and that’s never been done before. I’m so proud to be able to do that.”
“I want to thank all of all of the nominees for this award for inspiring me and every Irish athlete at the highest level in this country it’s incredible from Johnny’s beautiful leadership for the Irish rugby team to Katie’s undeniable success in the boxing ring and leaving a legacy unmatched is inspiring for me so I want to thank all those athletes.”
“Although it’s an individual sport there is a team behind us as individual athletes and it’s incredible that I have that support from Gymnastics Ireland, from everybody at Sport Ireland. It all works towards that ultimate goal to bring home medals for the country and hopefully we can go one further at the Olympic Games in Paris.”
“With multiple World Cup finals and medals, securing his second European title, second World title and booking his place for Paris 2024 Rhys further cemented his place as a global gymnastics star and Irish national sports star in 2023,” added Gymnastics Ireland CEO Ciaran Gallagher.
“Huge congratulations to Rhys, his personal coach and our Olympic Programme Coach Luke Carson, our Performance and Technical Manager Sally Johnson and of course Rhys’ family and friends.”
“Special thanks also to our partners in Sport Ireland and the Olympic Federation of Ireland in addition to Rhys’ agent Sinead Galvin – all part of the team that continues to support Rhys as we head towards Paris 2024.”
“This is a night for Rhys, his family, friends and support team to celebrate for sure.”
Brighton’s teenage sensation Evan Ferguson was named RTÉ Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year as 2023 saw him become only the fourth player ever to score a Premier League hattrick at 18 years of age.
Andy Farrell was revealed as the RTÉ Sport Manager of the Year as his Ireland team won the Six Nations Grand Slam in a year in which he was also named World Rugby Coach of the Year.
The all-conquering Limerick hurlers swept all before them again in 2023 and were this evening winners of the RTÉ Sport Team of the Year award.
Paralympic sprinter Jason Smyth was inducted into the RTÉ Sport Hall of Fame. The Paralympic and World Champion retired this year having never lost a competitive Para Athletics event throughout his entire career.
Jonathan Sexton was interviewed and a special show rell of his career was played as part of the evening and there were alos chats with the players of Dublin Men’s and Women’s Gaelic Football, Shamrock Rovers, Cork Camogie and with swimmers Daniel Wiffen and Róisín Ní Ríain.
“Yet again Irish sport not only competes but dominates on a world stage,” said RTÉ Head of Sport Declan McBennett.
“The scale of Irish success in a global setting is remarkable to the extent whereby we are now disappointed when our participation ends early in World Cup years, while the standards in domestic sport excel year on year. RTÉ Sport is in the privileged position of bringing more free to air sport than ever to our audience and we look forward to a phenomenal year of Irish sporting success in 2024.”
