Inside Max Whitlock's Tokyo Olympics after 'crazy' third gold sees Brit join Team GB icons

The word crazy has multiple different definitions. Among them, crazy can be used to describe something out of the ordinary. And that’s exactly what Max Whitlock’s latest Olympic gold was – yet for all of the very best reasons. At this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, the Briton became the first man since Hungary’s Zoltan Magyar in 1980 to retain his pommel horse title.

Was it a shock result? Not in the sense that Whitlock is a phenomenally high-level athlete who has proven himself time and time again capable of such feats. But certainly it was out of the ordinary going by the fact that there had been nine Games between Magyar defending his gold and Whitlock doing so.

It is a historic achievement and one that underlines and emboldens Whitlock’s name in the list of the greatest ever British Olympians. No wonder he calls it a “crazy, crazy feeling”.

Whitlock, speaking on the set of #OMGB – DFS’s daily social media show from Team GB House in Tokyo, tells Express Sport: “I did the routine and literally before my feet even landed on the floor in my head I was like ‘Oh my god’, I literally got off the podium and hugged Scott and said, ‘I can’t believe I’ve just done that.’

“Then we sat there and I never usually watch any other competitors, but because I’m competing first up it was the first time watching a pommel final live like everybody else which was really, really cool.

“It was obviously nerve-wracking. But me and Scott sat there and I think Scott said, ‘You know what, if anyone does beat that, they’re the better man on the day.’ I feel like I couldn’t have done any more.

“It was the hardest routine I’ve ever completed. It was a clean routine, the cleanest that I’ve done in this whole build-up. I couldn’t have done more. I’m massively, massively happy with the performance.”

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Whitlock is now Great Britain’s most successful gymnast, and surely the country’s best ever. Only compatriot Louis Smith and Romanian Marius Urzica have as many pommel horse medals as him at the Olympics. Neither have more than one gold.

In fact only three others have won two golds on the pommel horse at the Olympics, Yugoslavia’s Miroslav Cerar, the Soviet Union’s Boris Shakhlin and Magyar. All are International Gymnastics Hall of Famers. It’s only a matter of time until Whitlock joins them.

A brilliant score of 15.583 in the final on Sunday ultimately gave his opponents far too much to do. Remarkably, though, Whitlock says it is not even the score that he and Scott Hann had set as a target beforehand.

He adds: “I nearly hit my target score which me and Scott were really trying to hit. I was so close to that. It was just the right time, right place, right routine on the right day.

“I couldn’t be happier with it really. It was definitely one of the best routines, if not the best routine, I’ve done. To actually do it at the right time and make it count is a crazy, crazy feeling.”

It’s remarkable to think Hemel Hempstead’s finest had never previously gone first to the apparatus, having gone second last in Rio on the previous occasion he claimed gold.

Whitlock insists that in the build-up he was as nervous as he’s ever been – but that didn’t show one bit. That’s why he is now a fully-deserving three-time Olympic gold medallist with six medals to his name overall. So what was the secret to keeping his composure?

Whitlock says: “It just doesn’t feel like it’s me. It’s really, really weird. A surreal and kind of strange feeling. I think naturally over the years I’ve put results and previous results to the back of my mind.

“I think that’s helped me move forward and get more results and hit more targets but to hear it now, it just feels crazy from a youngster who never even dreamed about the Olympics and just loved going to the gym and training and learning new stuff.

“If you’d have told me that back then, I’d never have believed you. I thought I was miles away from people like that! They’re legends of sport, legends of Team GB, people that have inspired me.

“It really does inspire me because chasing is ten times easier than retaining, it really, really is. I was fortunate enough to go from chasing as a youngster with nothing to lose to going all out and retaining it.

“It’s a completely different ball game. Those legends of those sports I’ve looked up to and been inspired by have all done that. That’s what’s incredible. To see my name on a list, on a medal tally, with legends like that is a massive honour, it really is.”

The Tokyo Olympics were of course vastly different to the Games before them, given that Whitlock’s friends and family could not join them. Instead Whitlock had to make do with video calls home to catch up with wife Leah and the gymnast’s sometimes disinterested two-year old daughter Willow.

“I’ve tried to FaceTime every day,” Max says. “Some days Willow isn’t interested in seeing me at all, and some days she is! Some days she’s been really missing me and asking for me to come home and that’s been hard.

“It’s been a long time away, just over a month. I absolutely can’t wait to get home but I would’ve loved to seen Joe [Fraser] and the girls do their finals.

“It’s been a lot harder than it used to be, having Willow now. I think with the time difference as well, I’ve had that chance to talk to them but it’s not been all day. I’ve had to wait the whole morning until 2pm or 3pm-ish to talk to them.

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“I’ve always struggled going away, even before I had Willow. I’ve loved being at home. I’ve always been that kind of person. Adding Willow into the mix is 10 times more difficult.”

A well-placed camera meant Max still got to witness Willow’s reaction to his latest triumph, though. “So good to see that. With them all together in their Team GB tops in Team GB bunting. It was quality,” he says.

“To see them and how happy they are and proud they are and to speak to them after was quality. I really, really liked that. I can’t wait to get home and see them all in real life. It’ll be a really nice feeling.”

Thankfully, Whitlock also had somewhat of a second family out in Tokyo. He explains: “It’s been chilling with the boys, going through the motions in terms of going to dinner and in between, all the recovery stuff.

“I spend so much time recovering my arms using ice machines, compression machines and everything and ice baths in the evening. That was our routine. It’s all fun! It’s good to be in a routine.

“The boys and the girls were such a great team. It was a team of four, a bit of a different dynamic. Usually it’s a team of five or even before that a team of six.

“It was a really small team and probably the first time it felt like one team, the boys and girls, which was really nice. I think everyone bonded really well because it was a small team. Everyone grouped together and enjoyed the experience.”

No-one enjoyed the experience more than Whitlock. And it might not even be his last experience of wearing gold at an Olympics, either. 

Becoming the first man ever to win three pommel horse golds in the French capital in three years’ time? Now that would be a whole new level of crazy. On this showing, no-one should be putting it past him.

Max Whitlock is an ambassador for DFS, the official homeware partner of Team GB