Rhys McClenaghan is marching into new territory on his pommel horse.
Still just 20 years old, the Down gymnast realised a childhood dream this month when he booked his ticket to next summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo after making the final of the World Gymnastics Championships.
McClenaghan went on to take world bronze in Stuttgart.
Last year he won the European title as well as the Commonwealth Games crown. A shoulder injury ruled him out of action for six months and denied him the opportunity to compete at the 2018 World Championships, but he has recovered from that setback in incredibly impressive fashion.
No Irish gymnast has ever had the sort of success McCleneghan has enjoyed, and yet he wants more; much more.
"I'm sitting here with a bronze medal and I'm incredibly proud of that, but I want that gold medal," he told RTÉ 2fm's Game On listeners.
"I want to keep chasing the best, I want to keep going."
He also wants to leave a greater legacy.
McClenaghan has been a strong advocate of the wider benefits of gymnastics. He got bitten by the bug as child and never looked back; now he's hoping his success can allow a new wave of talent to flourish.
"I really hope that I am some sort of role model for kids and I hope they beat my achievements by a mile," he said.
"I hope there's a team of them going to come through and compete at the Olympic Games one day. I feel like this is just a very good starting point for gymnastics in Ireland. There's so much more to come.
"I was always a very active kid. My mum and dad brought me to the local leisure centre. There was a low-level gymnastics club running at the time in one of the sports halls.
"I loved walking into that gym every day. I loved the fact I could unleash all energy and try to beat the other kids. I'm very competitive so I saw that as a channel to have my competitiveness put to work, essentially.
"The thing that's kept me going through the years is the enjoyment of the sport."
A score of 15.400 saw McClenaghan make history by becoming the first Irish gymnast to medal at the Worlds. It's a source of tremendous pride for the Newtownards man, who has not lost sight of the bigger picture.
"It was pretty incredible," he added. "I was the first Irish gymnast to make the world final. To come out with a medal around my neck and to have a physical thing to show for it, it makes me feel very proud and privileged to be in the place I am right now.
"If I finished doing gymnastics right now I would look back and see them as the best years of my life because I've enjoyed every second of it.
"I see myself going to the Olympic Games. It's been a childhood dream of mine to go but that's not necessarily what every gymnast needs to see. You don't need to have an Olympic dream to do gymnastics, you can do it for the pure enjoyment of the sport.
"What's great about medals like this is that it can bring the public attention to gymnastics and hopefully bring young kids and even adults into the sport.
"I hope I'm making everybody proud when I go out there and represent the country. I'm in an incredibly good place right now. I'm European champion, Commonwealth Games champion, a World Championship medallist.
"It's unheard of for an Irish gymnast to do this. I'm just happy that I'm breaking down these doors."
