A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE
These games set Max on the road to gold
MAX WHITLOCK says he has the Commonwealth Games to thank for going from monkey business to Olympic champion.
In Rio, two years ago, he not only became the first British gymnast ever to win an Olympic gold medal, he entered the history books as the first Briton in any sport to win two individual golds (right) on the same day.
It catapulted him from little-known gym bunny to national hero status.
Whitlock traces the self-belief that powered him to global fame back to the chaos of the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.
“It was my first Games and all sorts were going on,” he said, recalling a trip in which snakes were found in athletes’ rooms, ceilings and bridges collapsed – and the chief medical officer contracted typhoid.
“My coach always reminds me of the monkeys that got into the village and the even bigger monkeys they sent in to scare them off.
“Driving to the gym there were elephants just strolling around, five or six people sharing a moped. It was unbelievable.
“Yet I learned so much from that competition. I look back on that as the starting point for me.”
Whitlock returned home with three medals – impressive for a 17-year-old. But what pleased him most was how he kept his concentration amid the turmoil.
“It taught me that I could shut out distractions and deliver a performance,” added the 25-yearold, who starts his campaign in the team final in the early hours of Thursday morning. “That gave me such confidence.” He proved the point by returning to the Commonwealth stage four years later in Glasgow and winning five medals, three of them gold. Nobody need tell him he is a marked man out here, but the Essex-based star relishes having a target on his back. “A lot of my motivation comes from retaining titles,” he warned. “Some of my best competitions are when I have the most pressure on me.”