DEFYING GRAVITY: Young SA gymnast has turned self-doubt into a winning routine

Daniel Mclean placed fifth in his debut Commonwealth Games and is now heading for his first senior World Championships.

For the 2026 Commonwealth Games, only six spots were allocated to South Africa in gymnastics. Because the women’s team had been so successful in 2022, finishing fourth, the decision was to send a full women’s team again this year. That left just one place open for the men. Determined to claim this spot was 20-year-old Daniel Mclean.

After an impressive showing at the 2026 African Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Cameroon earlier this year, where he won his first continental title, Mclean had an inkling the spot might be his. But with several talented young gymnasts vying for the same opportunity, he was careful not to get ahead of himself. Nevertheless, he continued to prepare as he awaited the decision of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc).

A month before the Commonwealth Games, Mclean was informed that he had secured the final place on Team South Africa. A wave of relief washed over him. It would be his Commonwealth Games debut and, heading into the competition, all he wanted to do was absorb the experience.

“It was exciting,” he said. “I just wanted to soak up the experience and enjoy it. I didn’t really set high expectations in terms of placings.”

But then he delivered an outstanding qualification floor routine, topping his subdivision and qualifying fourth for the final. Competing against Olympic and World Championship athletes such as England’s Luke Whitehouse and Canada’s René Cournoyer, Mclean held his own on one of the biggest stages of his career so far. Executing a clean, high-pressure routine, he announced himself on the international stage by finishing fifth overall on the floor.

“I was not stressed, just nervous. But it was a different type of nervous for me compared with African champs or nationals,” Mclean said. “It was just the environment. The crowd was huge; they were loud and encouraging, and it was different. But it was a good different.”

Although his Commonwealth Games performance announced his arrival internationally, it was his African Championship gold that secured qualification for his debut World Championships coming up in October in Rotterdam.

Mclean has been training at the same club in Roodepoort, Vision Gymnastics, since he was five-years-old. His older sister, Phoebe, was the one who initially received a free ­trial lesson at the gym.

“Everything she wanted to do, I wanted to do,” he said. “My mom claims that I was crying and said that I also wanted to do it.”

Eventually, Mclean got his own trial lesson and promptly joined the gym. It was not long before he was selected to join the high-performance programme, said his longtime coach Kevin Basson.

“He was quite flexible and just performed above the rest in his class,” Basson said. “It was only around 11 or 12-years-old that we could see this kid can truly make a difference.”

Mclean attended Cliffview Primary and later Reddford House Northcliff, all the while juggling the demands of elite gymnastics.