Cooking. (thetimes.co.uk, 15 Jul 2022)

Athlete

Wife Leah, daughter Willow [2019]

English

Scott Hann [personal], GBR

His wife Leah has worked as an artistic gymnastics coach at South Essex Gymnastics Club in England. His coach Scott Hann is also his brother-in-law. (theguardian.com, 11 Apr 2018; southessexgym.co.uk, 18 Jul 2017)

A virus caused him to withdraw from the Great Britain squad for the 2016 European Championships in Bern, Switzerland. (bbc.com, 20 May 2016)

He did not compete in the all-around event at the 2015 European Championships in Montpellier, France, because of the effects of low-grade glandular fever. He did participate in the floor exercise and pommel horse events. (SportsDeskOnline, 18 Apr 2015; bbc.co.uk, 15 Apr 2015)

He took up the sport at age seven. (hellomagazine.com, 10 Mar 2019; olympic.org.uk, 01 Dec 2009)

He got into gymnastics through a friend. "I wasn't born into gymnastics. There are no grainy home videos of me, aged two, balancing on a bench or jumping off the sofa doing a routine. In fact, it wasn't until I was seven-years-old, and a friend at my local swimming club suggested I try it, that I ever really focused on gymnastics at all." (tes.com, 14 Aug 2019; olympic.org.uk, 01 Dec 2009)

In 2016 he became the first athlete representing Great Britain to win a gold medal in artistic gymnastics at the Olympic Games when he was victorious in both the floor exercise and pommel horse events in Rio de Janeiro. The previous year he had become the first British male to win an artistic gymnastics world title when he triumphed in pommel horse at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. (dailymail.co.uk, 15 Aug 2016; SportsDeskOnline, 14 Aug 2016)

To compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and to have an element named after him in the Code of Points. (standard.co.uk, 23 Mar 2020; teamgb.com, 01 Aug 2021)

Successfully defending his Olympic title on pommel horse at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, which was his third Olympic gold medal. (teamgb.com, 01 Aug 2021)

Japanese artistic gymnast Kohei Uchimura, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. (telegraph.co.uk, 17 Mar 2016; bbc.co.uk, 17 Oct 2014)

"What you love doing, you do more of - and what you do more of, you get better at." (myprotein.com, 01 May 2019)

He was named British Gymnastics Most Outstanding Athlete of the Year for 2019. (echo-news.co.uk, 2020)

He was named Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire [MBE] in the 2017 New Year's Honours list. (intlgymnast.com, 30 Dec 2016)

He received the Prize for Elegance at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. (fig-gymnastics.com, 31 Oct 2015)

General
RETIREMENT THOUGHTS
He took a break from training and considered quitting the sport following the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. He won gold on pommel horse in Tokyo, but then struggled with his mental health. "I fell into a place, into this rut where I just lost all motivation for everything. I felt sluggish every single day. I even got a blood test because I was just feeling awful every single day. The blood test come back and I was absolute fine. I think that is what proved to me that it was all in my head. Ten to 20 years down the line if I was explaining my career to Willow [his daughter] and said I have done this and that and then I stopped after Tokyo, I think her next question would probably be why did you stop? And I wouldn't want that to be because I'm scared of failing in Paris [at the 2024 Olympic Games]. Any time off takes you a very, very long time to come back. But I'm excited, like I'm genuinely excited for the challenge. I feel almost refreshed. I feel like I've almost reset everything and I think the fear of failing has gone." (bbc.co.uk, 28 Sep 2022)

FATHERHOOD
He and his wife Leah became parents to their daughter Willow in February 2019. "Willow is definitely my proudest achievement. I wanted to have children young, when I was still doing gymnastics, because I want them to see what I do rather than for them to just hear the stories. Standing out in an arena in the middle of a competition with thousands of people watching - the thought of taking her onto that stage and giving her that experience is amazing. It will 100% spur me on knowing she and Leah are in the crowd. Going into Tokyo [the 2020 Olympic Games] and being a dad, it's actually chilled me out more. That doesn't take away from the sport, but I think it enhances it." (eurosport.com, 24 Jul 2019; hellomagazine.com, 10 Mar 2019)

EARLY DAYS
At age 12 his Slovenian coach decided to return to Slovenia. Whitlock had the choice of going with him, or remaining in England and quitting the sport. "I found that I had a choice to make. Follow my coach and move away from my family, or quit gymnastics. I didn't want to stop gymnastics, so in order to continue I moved out to Slovenia to live and train there. That was the decision I made when I was just 12 years old. I think because I was so young, getting one flight there but not knowing when I'd return, was very, very difficult. And not just for me, but for my family as well. But it was the right decision." (myprotein.com, 01 May 2019)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
He worked as a pundit for the BBC at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. In 2019 he released a health and fitness book called 'The Whitlock Workout: Get Fit and Healthy in Minutes'. In 2018 he and his wife Leah launched Max Whitlock Gymnastics, which has several locations in England. "I want to help kids get a foot in the door in the best sport in the world. Gymnastics has brought me a lot of confidence, it's a sport that can do that for kids. It teaches them about their bodies, and about respect and discipline. And if I can give something back to the community too, that's an amazing feeling." (bbc.co.uk, 28 Sep 2022, 31 Mar 2018; express.co.uk, 02 Jan 2020; thebookseller.com, 08 Aug 2019; hellomagazine.com, 10 Mar 2019)