He not only bagged Team Ireland's third gold and sixth medal overall but also made history by clinching Ireland's first-ever gymnastics medal at the Olympics.
The 25-year-old two-time world champion lived up to expectations in a nail-biting final at the Bercy Arena, where his score of 15.533 bolstered by an impressive difficulty score of 6.600 and a stellar execution score of 8.933 narrowly edged out Kazakhstan's Nariman Kurbanov, who had set a high bar with 15.433 as the first of seven contenders.
American competitor Steve Nedoroscik, the reigning champ from 2021, delivered a solid routine but ultimately secured the bronze with a score of 15.300.
Emotions ran high for the Newtownards native as he executed an enhanced version of his qualifying routine from the previous weekend at the same venue, achieving a childhood dream and finding redemption after his seventh-place finish in Tokyo.
"It feels like a dream, it's a dream well-earned and I just can't believe it's happened," McClenaghan exclaimed. "It always felt like it was going to happen but I wasn't sure when."
"Listen, everybody at home, see this as an example of find a dream that you love, chase it and enjoy that journey - because I can tell you if I fell off that Pommel today I still would have loved this journey, every single second of it. But I didn't, and today I'm walking away with an Olympic gold medal! ".
"After the routine I was happy I wasn't thinking about medals. When the score came up I was proud of that score because it was mine and I wasn't thinking of the podium at all, I was just thinking I've done my job and I feel like that's where the main emotions came from today."
"I knew that this would also be the toughest Pommel Horse final of all time, and so to come out on top is incredible."
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