Refreshed and recalibrated: Rhys McClenaghan sets new targets

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.

The County Down man, who will compete on RTÉ's Dancing with the Stars in early January, is coming back from the longest break of his career – and with that return comes a new focus.

"I took one month off training and that is the longest I’ve ever taken off gymnastics since I started when I was six years old," he told RTÉ Sport’s Evanne Ní Chuilinn.

"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