Max Whitlock on creating his own pathway

Paving the way forward on his own terms has always been the Max Whitlock way since emerging as a spiky-haired 19-year-old at London 2012.

Winning two Olympic bronze medals – in the men’s team event and the pommel horse, at his home Olympic Games as a teenager was quite the way to start his Olympic journey.

At Rio 2016, the longed-for gold medal on pommel horse was preceded by top spot in the floor exercise just moments before, while bronze in the all-around competition marked a three-medal haul for the young Brit.

Tokyo 2020 in 2021 saw the defence of his pommel horse title, while Paris 2024 was an opportunity to make Olympic history as the first gymnast to claim four medals on the same apparatus.  

Having qualified for the final in third place, that moment was all too possible. Yet such are the miniscule moments with huge impact in sport that a minor error on the apparatus meant he and Hann could only wait and hope as six more gymnasts competed after him in the eight-gymnast final.

“All we could do was just sit there and watch other competitors go, and me get bumped further down. It was just a tough moment where me and Scott just sat there and watched it happen.”

With media interviews straight after that disappointment, plus the immediate retirement after nearly a quarter of a century in the sport, it’s no wonder Whitlock was emotional.

But it’s an exuberant Whitlock Olympics.com spoke to 16 months later as he eyes a competitive return early next year.

The English Championships at the end of February, followed by the British Championships 19-22 March have been cited as first potential competitive appearances for Whitlock. A first international competition could come at either the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow or the European Championships in Croatia, in July and August, respectively, followed by the World Championships in Rotterdam in October.

Whitlock is aware there’s also the little matter of an increasingly strong British men’s squad, which he’s aiming to re-join in January, but with all his experience, he knows how to plan a route to success.

“Ever since that first day back in the gym, it was like, ‘Right, I’ve got a mission, I’ve got a target now, let’s work back from that, let’s set a plan and let’s build everything around it. So yeah, I’m quite strategic with that.”