Great Britain enjoyed its most successful day of Olympics competition since 1920 yesterday, winning the first gymnastic gold medals in its history and a glut of others.
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The pommel horse is normally Whitlock’s favoured event, so fans were buzzing, hoping for even more success.
“Incredible performance. Can’t fault him”, Smith said.
“For me this is a gold”, said an emotional Hypolito, a two-time world champion who fell in Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
However, there really was no stopping Whitlock. Jacob Dalton of America could do nothing to displace the Brit and was well down the placings. Kenzō Shirai the world champion on the floor made a few small errors to falter and end outside of the medals.
Instead it was two Brazilians, Diego Hypolito and Arthur Mariano – who completed the podium places, to the delight of the home crowd. Max went for a hard routine to score 15.966 and take his second gold medal, with Louis winning silver.
“Louis has been an absolute credit”, said Whitlock, whose personal career tally of Olympic medals now stands at five after two bronzes in London. I am just so, so happy. “I’ll go back and keep it safe. To be one and two in the worlds previous year and again at the Olympics is great for our sport”.
Moving on to the pommel horse, Max had to very quickly refocus.
Louis congratulated me coming out which I really appreciated. He’s capable of a 7.0 total difficulty value for his routine, which is one of the top in the world.
So while it was Whitlock that made a mockery of that officials’ words by becoming Britain’s first Olympic gold medallist, it was Smith that helped raise the profile of the sport. The evolution of sport is that the next generation pushes it and takes it to new levels.
At the last world championships, four different gymnasts earned the exact same score in the uneven bars final.
“Today I felt a huge amount of pressure and expectation and it could be one of the last rides on Valegro”.
“I got so many messages asking why I was in the team because I’m not as good as Max and I only do the pommel, so to go through that routine and get a medal was special. The reason why I idolise him is he delivers every time”, Whitlock said. Hopefully, it will also enable him and Hickton, a gymnastics coach, to handle to an intensified spotlight as the couple’s media appeal may well see them put on a pedestal.
“The way they both compete is so relaxed and with such confidence”.
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Whitlock brushed off a similar suggestion on Sunday, and maybe the glare won’t be quite as bright as it was for Farah because he isn’t from track and field.
