Tokyo Olympics: Max Whitlock wins pommel horse on golden Sunday for Team GB

Great Britain's Max Whitlock celebrates after winning the gold medal in the Men's Pommel Horse Final at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre on the ninth day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan. Picture date: Sunday August 1, 2021.
Great Britain's Max Whitlock celebrates after winning the gold medal in the Men's Pommel Horse Final at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre on the ninth day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan. Picture date: Sunday August 1, 2021.
Mike Egerton
Charlie Bayliss

By Charlie Bayliss


Published: 01/08/2021

- 12:33

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 11:09

Whitlock topped the podium after former cook Charlotte Worthington secured gold for Team GB in the BMX freestyle earlier in the day

Max Whitlock’s successful defence of his Olympic pommel horse title made it a doubly golden Sunday for Team GB in Japan.

The 28-year-old gymnast from Hertfordshire became a six-time Olympic medallist, as his young daughter watched on from home.


Whitlock topped the podium after former cook Charlotte Worthington secured gold for Team GB in the BMX freestyle earlier in the day.

Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington on her way to winning a gold medal in the women's BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the ninth day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington on her way to winning a gold medal in the women's BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the ninth day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
Mike Egerton

A pommel gold medallist at the Rio games in 2016, Whitlock has since married his childhood sweetheart Leah and welcomed now two-year-old Willow into the world.

Shortly before his victorious performance in Japan, his wife shared a photo on Twitter of their daughter sitting alongside her cousins ready to watch her father compete on TV.

Earlier on Sunday, Worthington, from Manchester, landed the first-ever 360 backflip to be performed in women’s competition, having worked in a Mexican restaurant as she trained for this year’s Games.

The 25-year-old’s gold was followed by a bronze for Declan Brooks in the men’s freestyle, while a British quartet won a silver in the last swimming event in the pool, the 4×100 men’s medley.

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