A medal at the Olympic Summer Games is a dream that could become reality this summer for young Irish gymnast Rhy McClenaghan.
Team Ireland Olympic Sponsor Indeed, who are also our Sport for Business partners on our Olympic coverage through 2020, have this morning released a special piece of video content telling Rhys’s story.
A lifetime of dedication and preparation will hinge on one shot in Tokyo and a routine which lasts under 60 seconds.
This is the first episode in what will be a #TalentUnleashed content series that indeed will share across Ireland and around the world.
It is an intimate portrayal of the 20-year-old Newtownards gymnast, delving into the highs and lows of his career to date and the performance mindset that has made him determined to take home Ireland’s first ever Olympic medal in gymnastics.
“My parents taught me about belief at a very young age,” said McClenaghan. “But even as a young gymnast I always had that belief like I was going to nail this routine.”
“My first competition of 2018, I went and beat the current Olympic champion, that was crazy.”
The wins were then brought tumbling down by a shoulder injury in the World Championships.
“I fell off the pommel horse twice. All the negative thoughts were flooding in. There was a tear in my labrum. The only solution was to get surgery.”
“We could either take it as a very negative thing that we were going back to basics, or we could take it as a positive. We chose the positive.”
With the help of his Gymnastics Ireland coach, Luke Carson, Rhys made a comeback from his shoulder injury and took home bronze at the 2019 World Championships becoming the first ever Irish gymnast to medal at a Worlds.
But the celebrations were short-lived as he quickly switched his focus to Tokyo.
“We want to be that far ahead of the field that we’re undeniably the best in the world. We want to go out there to the Olympic Games and come out with a gold medal.
Indeed partnered with the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) in April 2019 to become a sponsor of Team Ireland for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics through its campaign #TalentUnleashed. The Dublin based workforce supports four Team Ireland ambassadors: first time Olympic hopeful, gymnast Rhys McClenaghan, two-time Olympic Pentathlete Natalya Coyle, 400m hurdler Thomas Barr and reigning two-time world championship gold medallist, Sanita Puspure.
Read More: Olympic Rule 40 Sponsorship Rules Explained
Read More: Indeed On Board with Team Ireland
Image Credit: Billy Stickland, Inpho.ie
