Victory in Antwerp 10 days ago made McClenaghan, 24, a back-to-back world champion.
Rhys McClenaghan suffered a panic attack for the first time just weeks before his latest World gymnastics gold medal triumph.But the Antrim man admits that he had to work hard on his mental approach with his coach Luke Carson and sports psychologist Jessie Barr after a difficult time at the Paris World Cup, where he plans to compete for Olympic glory next summer.
"It's not something I want to do again. With sport at a high level, with anything at a high level, there does come that mental pressure - and it's not so much pressure from anybody outside the sport that I feel it, it's from myself. Afterwards, Carson and the gymnast agreed to forget about the result, although it showed him what he was capable of even on a bad day.
Winning the Worlds last year accentuated McClenaghan's own struggles. "That's what we're hypothesising really," he said. "Although winning the Worlds was a giant high in my life, it was one of my major life goals that was ticked off my list, it was such a big step. It was definitely going to take something out of me."
But McClenaghan wanted that one Olympic qualifying spot on offer. "We knew it was going to be a battle," he said. "That’s what is exciting about this sport."
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