Rose became the first Olympic Games golf gold medallist in 112 years as he edged out 2016 Open champion Henrik Stenson in a thrilling showdown.
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He said: “To be here is brilliant in itself, to have messed up the team final, I was dealing with a lot, emotionally and mentally, to come and do that, it means the world”. “It feels a bit surreal and insane”.
The 23-year-old produced a flawless routine on the floor apparatus to score 15.633 and beat two Brazilians – Diego Hypolito and Arthur Mariano – into second and third.
The departure of his first coach Klemen Bedenik back to his native Slovenia left Whitlock, who was already showing significant promise in the junior ranks – in danger of drifting away, so he made the drastic decision to follow Bedenik and enrol in school in Maribor.
Despite the weight of his first gold in the floor exercises, he did not have time to enjoy the moment as his day was only half over.
“It hit me like a ton of bricks because I wasn’t watching the other scores”, he said. “This motivates me to do even more in the sport”.
A showreel highlighting her 24-year run in the Games got loud applause and she blew kisses after her hopes of becoming the oldest gymnast to win a medal ended with a forward roll on the crash mat after she over-rotated on her Produnova vault.
“I never go into competition expecting to get a medal, I go in to do my job”. This was my first floor final in the Olympics and the fact it only comes around once every four years makes it even more special.
“It was very romantic and I can’t believe how well he planned it”. “I was just doing it because i loved it”.
Whitlock made his global debut at 19 years old at the Olympics in his home country. Hours and hours, years and years in the gym come down to one minute.
Whitlock does have one regret from Rio, however.
Bolton-rider Kenny has now won the same number of Olympic golds as Sir Steve Redgrave and fellow cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins after overcoming Skinner, his room-mate in the athletes’ village, in the first two races in the best-of-three final.
“Then I felt that we were pushing each other s backs, propelling each other along”.
Yet with a great deal of modesty, he responded to the question of whether he could take pride as the trailblazer of the sport for Britain with “a little bit”. The potential has always been there in the pommel horse but the floor was different and gold didn’t seem possible so I am so pleased.
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“That’s going to take the pressure off the pommels now”, explained Keatings. And on the floor my start score can improve loads.
