It has always looked like a practical choice, which is often the way with people from NI.
Rhys was GB as a junior. He's also a one eventer on an apparatus where GB have been strong throughout his entire elite career. So even though he beat Max at 2018 CWG and has done so on a number of occasions since, Rhys probably still wouldn't have made many GB teams. There's never been enough clear water between him and Max to justify taking him when Max contributes elsewhere too.
Moving past facts to assumptions, which is always dangerous with NI, Rhys afaik is from a Protestant background (so I have giggled at some of the coloniser anaologies!). People from that culture are less likely on the whole to choose Ireland over GB as a matter of principle/preference, hence it doesn't surprise me that Rhys defaulted towards GB at first. Some do, like Carl Frampton, but as a generality. It's more likely to be a practical choice when they do it. Those who pick Ireland through heart or belief are more usually from the other side of the divide, and again some of them go for GB if it suits them better and they don't hold sufficiently strong beliefs to outweigh that. Most of my husband's family are Catholic, and the ones that I could see competing for Britain would do so because it would improve their options rather than anything else.
But Northern Ireland is changing, and it's all to the good. I have five little nieces and nephews there from mixed marriages. They're all too young to have thought much about identity yet, but I hope when they do, people like Rhys will show them they don't have to put themselves in one box, unless they want to, and that they can have the best of both worlds. Having spent a lot of time in NI, I can personally attest there's a great deal of best to be had.
I’m privileged to have watched them perform well for so many years and it hurts that neither are leaving Paris with a medal or their best performance.
