"I'm not done yet."
Those were the words that six-time Olympic medallist Max Whitlock uttered as he announced his return to artistic gymnastics to target a fifth Olympic Games at LA 2028.
The 32-year-old is the most successful gymnast in British history and the best pommel horse worker in Olympic history, winning gold on the apparatus at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
Whitlock had previously announced that Paris 2024 would be his last dance, but finishes of fourth in both the team and individual events left an itch which he now wants to scratch.
"I said that Paris would be my last ever competition. But something is just not sitting right," he said.
"I remember getting off the train after Paris, which hadn’t gone exactly to plan and I remember sitting there with my family and saying 'I'm not done.'
"I want to go back in with a bit of a bang. I will never get the opportunity again."
Whitlock, who hails from Hemel Hempstead, made history at Rio 2016 when he won Great Britain’s first medal in the all-around event for 108 years, before becoming the first British gold medallist in artistic gymnastics with victory in the floor and pommel horse events.
A hat-trick of World Championship pommel horse titles was completed in 2019 but there is one landmark that has evaded Whitlock's grasp: a skill named after him.
To get a gymnastics skill in your honour, you must be the first person to perform a new, difficult skill in a major international competition.
Whitlock will be 35 when LA 2028 rolls around, 16 years after making his Olympic debut in the British capital.
But with plans to reach a fifth Games and finally write his name in the gymnastics Code of Points, Whitlock has teased that the best is still to come.
"In this three year stint up to the LA 2028 Olympics, I really want to push it further than I ever have before," he said."
"I'm aiming to do something on pommel where I can really push the boundaries and do something that changes the way that [pommel] is done.
"The opportunity that I have in front of me that will never come around again, outweighs every single risk with what could happen in coming back."
Sportsbeat 2025