'My femur was fractured. The doctors hadn’t experienced anything like that with a stump'

BARRY MCCLEMENTS LOOKS down and counts seven tattoos across his arms.

There’s a Paralympics symbol and one in honour of his Commonwealth Games medal, while he has an extremely detailed half-sleeve dedicated to to Tokyo 2020.

“I haven’t got one for Europeans yet because you need two weeks out of the pool,” the Down swimmer grins.

Surely there’s one planned for after Paris this summer?

“This one,” he points to his Tokyo half-sleeve, “I want to get finished but it’s very expensive.

“The story of the koi fish in Japanese culture, it gets rewarded (and turns) into a golden dragon for when it jumps up a waterfall so it’s a story of perseverance and never giving up. The plan was after Paris to get the dragon.”

It’s fitting, given his rocky road to the French capital and his second Paralympic Games.

McClements broke his femur last September. The dream almost went up in smoke there and then.

It was an innocuous incident. He was walking down a steep hill with his friends, and one part of his prosthetic leg came off.

“It just wasn’t fitted correctly,” the 22-year-old says. “It’s not supposed to come off.

“I think the momentum did it. I was with two friends at the time who put their arms around me (to get him home).

“My femur was fractured just at the bottom. The doctors hadn’t experienced anything like that with a stump. Some of them were saying, ‘You might not be back until April,’ and I was crying and stuff, obviously.

“But it healed way faster than they expected and didn’t need any surgery. They were (initially) talking about screws and that.”

He escaped with a clean break and a hematoma, or bad bruising and swelling.

McClements was out of full training from mid-September until the end of December — and on and off crutches for the most part — but he kept ticking over in the pool

“The doctors were like, ‘Stay out of the pool,’ but I said ‘I can’t not!’ I was just doing 15 minutes, just my arms really, trying not to move my legs.”

Thankfully, his qualification for Paris was all but rubber-stamped, though on top of the obvious sporting setbacks, McClements was down a walking prosthetic leg. He had to be re-cast, with a new one — complete with colourful flowers — purchased.

He made a stunning return to swimming, bagging a bronze medal and clocking a personal best in the 100m Backstroke at European Championships in April, and coming close to adding another in the 100m Butterfly.

They’re his two events for Paris this summer, assessing himself closer to a medal hope in the latter stroke.

“Tokyo for me was about making the finals,” he recalls. “Getting into those big finals and experiencing it. I did it in the 100m Backstroke in Tokyo and I really wanted it in the 100m Fly as well and I was left disappointed.

“I think I’m just more mature now, I’ve got an European medal to my name, a Commonwealth medal. More motivated really. When I was 19, I was doing it more for enjoyment but in my head, I was more stressed about the goals.

McClements (right) with the first athletes who have been announced to represent Team Ireland at the Paralympic Games this summer. Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE / SPORTSFILE

“My training wasn’t very good in the lead-up — that was on me, I didn’t show up when I should have shown up and things like that. Again, the immaturity. Now I’ve put the work in and I’m going to continue to put the work in. 

“You can enjoy it while going through the process and whatever comes with that is a bonus.”

McClements’ chilled, laid-back attitude is key — and it’s something he reckons separates himself and other Ulster swimming stars like Daniel Wiffen and Danielle Hill from the rest.

Having previously been based in Dublin for a year, the “home bird” is back on the beautiful Ards Peninsula under the tutelage of Canadian coach Kevin Anderson.

“He’s probably my favourite coach I’ve worked with,” the former Sports and Exercise Science student, current full-time athlete smiles.

“He gets the lifestyle/swimming balance, knowing that swimming isn’t everything, you need to enjoy your time outside the pool as well.”

McClements does that by not thinking about it whatsoever; playing snooker with his former semi-professional Dad, Barry, going for walks and drives with his friends and spending time in nature. 

“I think we’re a bit different to people from Dublin,” he concludes on the “mental attitude” he shares with Wiffen, Hill and co. in Bangor.

“I think we’re more relaxed.We’re all sort of laid back, I think.

“Even Patrick Flanagan who went to Tokyo with me, he would have said that all the time, he wishes he could approach swimming like me. I think we just know once you put the work in, nothing else can really change.

“A month out from the Games, your training can’t really change anything.”

The countdown is well and truly on.

Time for the koi fish to turn into a golden dragon.