Rhys McClenaghan, Olympic pommel horse gold medalist, to miss gymnastics worlds
'I'm disappointed to miss this year's World Championships, but my priority is to maintain my place as the best in the world on pommel horse,' he said, according to a representative. 'My goal is not only to retain my Olympic title in LA 2028 but to continue striving for gold in every major competition. This surgery was necessary to ensure I can perform at the highest level for years to come. Setbacks are part of elite sport, but my mindset is about turning challenges — as I have done before — into opportunities to raise my performance.'
McClenaghan, 26, became the first gymnast to win an Olympic medal for Ireland when he took pommel horse gold in Paris.
He's also the lone artistic gymnast to win a world championships medal for Ireland, taking pommel horse bronze in 2019 and gold at the last two editions in 2022 and 2023.
McClenaghan is from Northern Ireland and represents Ireland at the Olympics and worlds. Northern Ireland does not compete separately at those events, so athletes from Northern Ireland can choose to compete for Ireland or Great Britain.
He previously underwent left shoulder surgery in November 2018 after a labral tear.
The last gymnast other than McClenaghan to win a global pommel horse title was American Stephen Nedoroscik at the 2021 Worlds. Nedoroscik also took bronze at the Paris Games.
Nick Zaccardi,
behind McClenaghan and Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
31 minutes ago
- CNN
He's training for the biggest race of his life – but his family is trapped in starving Gaza
Palestinian para-cyclist Alaa al-Dali has long dreamed about representing his people on an international stage. Following months of grueling training, al-Dali – an amputee with one leg – is putting everything he has into training for the Para-Cycling World Championships in August, after he and teammate Mohamed Asfour became the first Palestinians to finish in the top 20 at the Para-Cycling World Cup in May, securing their place in the prestigious competition. But keeping his mind on training is challenging most days, and near impossible on some, as his thoughts go towards the war in Gaza, where distressing images of skeletal children are pouring out of the area, causing international outrage over starvation and mounting concern over restrictions on food and aid ordered by Israel. 'My family is in Gaza. My children are in Gaza. There is famine now. There's a genocide happening. We are going through a very difficult time now,' al-Dali told CNN Sports. 'Our people in Gaza, they are under bombardment, under threat of being killed all the time,' he said, explaining that he has lost over 30 friends and family to the war, with scores more injured. Meanwhile, his wife and two children are trapped in Gaza as health officials report more deaths from malnutrition and among people desperately trying to get aid from convoys and distribution sites. 'My children are starving, and all I can do is look at them on a screen,' al-Dali said. More than 60,000 people have died and over 146,000 have been injured in Gaza from Israeli strikes and military action after more than 21 months of fighting, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which does not differentiate between civilians and militants. The 28-year-old al-Dali's path to the cycling spotlight has been marred by injury and tragedy. In 2018, having qualified to be part of the Palestinian cycling team at the Asian Games later that year, he was shot during the first of the Great March of Return protests on March 30, and ultimately, had to have his leg amputated. Al-Dali is just one of 35,000 protestors who sustained injuries during the 2018 Great March of Return, according to research from The Institute for Palestine Studies, an independent nonprofit research and publication center, which notes that this was 'due to the deliberate targeting of protesters' limbs by Israeli snipers.' The Great March of Return demonstrations were protests to 'demand the end of the Israeli blockade and the right of return for refugees,' according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). One in five of those injured – over 8,000 people – were hit by live ammunition, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and 156 people had to have limb amputations as a result. At the time, the Israeli military said its snipers fired at the feet or legs of those who tried to penetrate into Israel, which they said followed international law. Looking back on that fateful day in 2018, al-Dali told CNN that losing his leg almost killed his dreams of being an athlete once and for all. 'I felt that I lost hope, as if I had lost my life and lost everything. And the amputation was a very big matter for me. I would not be able to complete and I was deprived of participating in Jakarta,' he said. But in spite of this, al-Dali pushed on. Determined to fulfill his childhood dream to represent his people in cycling, he slowly started learning how to ride a bike with one leg. In 2020, he founded the Gaza Sunbirds, a para cycling team that also distributes aid to those in need in the form of food parcels, hot meals, shelter, and a universal basic income scheme for those with disabilities. To date, the Sunbirds have distributed more than over $400,000 worth of aid, according to their website. 'We are not only delivering aid to people, but we are also giving them a glimmer of hope in this life,' he told CNN Sports. 'The support that we are providing to our people is a small part compared to the suffering they are living through. 'The bike is not just a tool that I ride, to finish a race, or ride it for training. The bike for me is a big part of my life. It has become a part of my soul, and my soul is the bike,' al-Dali added. 'Despite this situation, and despite everything, we gathered ourselves as a team. We started training and going out to ride our bikes, short rides. But we were under bombardment, the danger of death, and threats at that time. 'We even used bikes there as a means of transportation because transportation had almost stopped in Gaza.' Members of the Sunbirds team are sounding the alarm about the desperate situation inside Gaza, with Karim Ali, the London-based co-founder of the Gaza Sunbirds, describing amputee athletes and staff as 'starving to death as they fight to continue delivering aid in the strip.' 'In what world is it acceptable that aid workers – who are supposed to be the ones feeding the starving – are deteriorating themselves and barely have enough sustenance to support themselves? How can a dying population be relying on people who haven't eaten for days at a time and struggle to get out of bed?' he told CNN Sports. 'We all have responsibility to put on the pressure and say enough to this forced mass starvation and enough to this genocide,' Ali added. Israel has vehemently denied any accusations that it is committing genocide and has consistently argued that it is acting in accordance with international law and that its war in Gaza following the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023 is one of self-defense. Al-Dali now lives in Belgium, where he is seeking asylum, after he and a delegation were evacuated from Gaza earlier this year in order to compete in races in Europe and Kazakhstan. Alongside a small team of athletes, coaches and support staff, al-Dali was evacuated into Egypt and got short-stay visas to race in the World Cup in Belgium. After traveling the world and competing in eight races, al-Dali returned to Belgium on his own to claimed asylum while the assault on Gaza rages on. He continues to wait for his asylum to be approved in Belgium. 'An athlete should be psychologically in comfort. They need to be able to sleep well. They need to be able to rest well. Psychological relief is essential for the sport,' he explained. 'We are trying to be champions, but we are not champions because we are going through very difficult times. 'I get worried. I get scared constantly. I have nightmares about the safety of my family. I'm always worried about losing someone new,' he said. That fear is not unfounded. On May 19, al-Dali's cousin and fellow Sunbird Ahmed al-Dali was killed in a missile strike on Gaza. Ahmed, he explained, was a father to three daughters and had recently welcomed a son. Ahmed was also an amputee, having lost his leg in 2014. Al-Dali told CNN Sports that his cousin was passionate about cycling and loved fixing bicycles. 'He was a great human being, very optimistic, always laughing, and making us laugh,' al-Dali said. 'His leg was amputated, but he continued his life. He challenged everything in his life, and he continued his future.' He said that his late cousin's bravery was one of the things that made him so admirable. 'Even when Ahmed was killed, he was going to save other people,' al-Dali recounted, explaining that his cousin was trying to help people injured by an airstrike, when a second attack came and ultimately claimed his life. 'So you can imagine how great of a person he is, while trying to save people's lives, only having one leg. He is a figure for me, and his memory should live on,' al-Dali said. 'I will try to deliver Ahmed's message. I will raise his voice with God's word in the international events, as much as I can, and also we will as a team.' Al-Dali will next cycle at the World Championships in Belgium in August, alongside teammate Mohamed Asfour. 'We exemplify that people with disabilities do continue their lives and they will also be able to continue with their lives.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Age no barrier as Peaty works towards new world record
Adam Peaty says age will not be a barrier as he attempts to break his own world records in preparation for a gold-medal raid at the Los Angeles Olympics. The three-time Olympic champion would become the oldest British swimmer to win gold if he was to add another title to his hoard at the age of 33 in 2028. Peaty will be looking to reclaim the 100m breaststroke crown, having finished 0.02secs short of making it three successive gold medals in the event when he was pipped for glory in Paris last year. With the 50m breaststroke added to the schedule of sprint events in Los Angeles, Peaty says it will be "an exciting Games" for him as the world record holder over both distances. "I'm going to try beat my world record along these next three years, just as a personal journey, but as you get older in these sprint events, you only get more experienced," he told BBC East Midlands Today. "I want to show that just because you are older and just because people think you have reached your peak and are past your peak, that doesn't mean you can't win. "You just need one good swim, and I'm clutching on to that. And hopefully we've got a lot more than just one good swim." Peaty targets four gold medals at 2028 Olympics Peaty has 'unfinished business', says coach Main 'Don't give up' - why Peaty was convinced to go again Peaty had previously admitted he was not convinced he would carry on competing after an emotionally and physically draining silver-medal finish at Paris 2024. But the multiple world, Olympic, European and Commonwealth Games gold medal winner now talks of "unfinished business" at the Games, having ended up in second place despite catching Covid-19. "I finished that race and even though I was happy and felt I had a great performance, it wasn't enough for me to have that as my last race or one of my last races," he said. "I prepared for Paris and didn't get what I wanted, so I have that in the back of my mind now. And sometimes you need that fuel, you need a loss to appreciate it and go for the win next time. "That's not going to define who I am for my whole career. I just know there is so much more in there." Discovering what sort of swimmer he can be at 30 is something Peaty is doing with new coach Jamie Main at his new training base at Repton School in Derbyshire. His decision to leave Aquatic GB's performance centre at Loughborough University came after his long-time coach Mel Marshall decided to take a job in Australia. "I was fortunate enough to have Mel as my coach for the last 15 years," Peaty said. "We pioneered things, broke world records and won all these golds, and almost rewrote that stroke in terms of sprint breaststroke, which is incredible. "But now the real challenge for me comes from growing in certain aspects of accountability, learning how to do it as an adult, how to do it as a father, how to do it faster. "Also working with Jamie and the coaches at Repton, with all the facilities here, how can we do it in the way we most love and in a way we thrive every single day? "It's a very different campaign, a very different mission this time around." 'Training smarter not harder' It is a mission that has started with Peaty being omitted from the group of 57 elite British swimmers being supported by Aquatics GB throughout 2025. He has taken a break from competition, and while his rivals and compatriots are in Singapore for the World Aquatics Championships, he talks of being in "pre-season" and juggling a family holiday to Disney, planning his wedding with fiancée Holly Ramsay and training for his triathlon debut at the T100 in London next month. Peaty's first real competitive focus after that will be the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in London in April 2026 where he aims to qualify for next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the European Championships in Paris. "For my whole career, the past 20 years, it's been 'let's go hard and see what we get'. Go as fast as we can and hard as we can," Peaty said. "Beat the body down, then taper it and rest it so when you perform, you are going to swim out of your skin. "We still need that and we still need to work extremely hard, but now it's a little bit more clever around my age. "My recovery time is a little bit slower, but also at the moment my risk to injury is a little bit higher as well because I'm so busy doing everything else. "There is no magic way to do anything as you get older, you just have to be a little bit smarter around the training and know that you can't be every single day at the wall because it's not how I want to train anymore. I want to train smarter."
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Nets to host preseason game against Israeli team
Brooklyn will have more than just two Israelis on the floor at Barclays Center this season. The Nets — who drafted Israeli citizens Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf in the first round — will now host a preseason game against Hapoel Jerusalem on Oct. 4. Advertisement The news was first reported by Basketball News Australia. It's not the first time the Nets will host an Israeli team, playing an exhibition game against Maccabi Ra'anana in the 2023-24 preseason. But this one may be a little different. Advertisement The Nets selected Saraf with the 26th pick in the June draft, then took Israeli-American big man Wolf minutes later at No. 27. It was the first time Jewish players had ever been picked by one team in the same round, and they will be only the second Israeli teammates in the league after Sacramento's Jordan Farmar and Omri Casspi back in 2016. The Nets — who drafted Israeli citizens Ben Saraf (above) and Danny Wolf in the first round — will now host a preseason game against Hapoel Jerusalem on Oct. 4. NBAE via Getty Images Advertisement Now the news comes amidst the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks, and with a French-Saudi-led conference this week at the United Nations calling for a rekindling of the two-state solution. Brooklyn will also face the Suns in two preseason games in Macao on Oct. 10 and 12, in the NBA's return to China for the first time since 2019.
