Whitlock hopes his glory bid does not go down the tubes
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He laughs, even blushes, when you compare the two and explain that they are now on relatively equal terms. Yet it appears that however confident Uchimura is, he, too, has been on the net... watching the Briton. “Sometimes on Thursdays I Periscope live streams of my training sessions,” said Whitlock. “We have a Japanese coach and he said that Uchimura actually watched one of my live streams, which is pretty incredible. The whole Japanese team have an aura about them. They are quite secretive and keep themselves to themselves but that’s why they have this aura about them. I feel so lucky and very fortunate for my name to be put alongside Uchimura’s. That is a crazy feeling. A few years ago I said if I ever come second to Uchimura it would feel like winning, and I got the chance to do that way before I thought it would happen.
“Now I’ve got to focus on my job and close that gap.
“It’s quite similar to why I idolise Usain Bolt – Uchimura goes out there and delivers every time and knows he’s going to win. It’s unbelievable to go in with that mindset. He came on to the team in Beijing pretty much unheard of, he came second with two falls and ever since then, he hasn’t been beaten. It is tough for an all-round gymnast to go for that long.”
If trying to upstage Uchimura in the allround competition will be extremely difficult, there is greater hope in the pommel and the team event with his British team-mates.
Britain are no longer the poor relation of men’s artistic gymnastics. Prior to this generation, spearheaded by Louis Smith’s sensational bronze pommel horse medal in 2008 and silver in 2012, there were brief glimpses of success. Before Smith made the breakthrough, the best men’s Olympic achievements had come from Andrew Morris (24th in Los Angeles in 1984), Neil Thomas (20th in Barcelona in 1992) and Craig Heap (32nd in Athens in 2004).
Now British men are creating headlines and turning heads. They won team bronze at London 2012 and world silver in Glasgow.
“Our team medal in London was our first medal in that event for 100 years,” said Whitlock.
“It was crazy to do it with that group of boys I’d been training with for 10 years. We’re such good mates, we really bond and I think that’s why we’re so successful.”
‘I’m inspired by watching Japan’s team’