Rhys McClenaghan has already earned a host of medals and accolades in his career.

He's already won gold on the pommel horse at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships, both in 2018.

But with the 2020 Olympics in sight, the Irish gymnast has gone a step further.

He recently became the first Irish gymnast to win a World Artistic Gymnastics Championships medal.

That bronze in Stuttgart this month in the World Final sets him up nicely for Tokyo 2020. And given his self-confidence, he believes he can medal on the biggest stage of all.

"There's not many gymnasts that have ever qualified at the Olympics. But the fact that I'm a medal hopeful now, that's very exciting," he said.

So Close

"The Top 3 guys that were in the final, any one of us could have taken the gold medal. There was 0.1 separating us.  It's such a small margin. I knew it would be close. The current Olympic champion, Max Whitlock, he took the gold. But he went before me and I knew he had put in a good performance and the score was huge. So I had to focus on my job. I went out there and put in the best performance I could. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to over-take him. But it was so close. It's going to be an exciting Tokyo for sure."

He suggested that the Olympics will not be too dissimilar to the World Championships when it comes to the final shake-up. Which means he's in with a great shout of medalling or even more.

"We're the Top 3 guys that are trying to fight it out for that gold medal," he said.

McClenaghan also showed us his medal which can light up... provided it's been charged.

You can also watch the full Rhys McClenaghan interview above via our YouTube channel.