Who is Luke Whitehouse, Britain's history-making gymnastics champion?

Gymnastics Artistic 19 Jul 24

Luke Whitehouse is Great Britain’s newest and brightest European gymnastics champion.

The little-known 22-year-old twisted and tumbled his way to floor gold on his major championship debut in Antalya in April 2023.

He followed in the footsteps of Max Whitlock, Kristian Thomas and Dominick Cunningham to become Britain’s third European champion on that piece of apparatus.

But what is Luke’s story and his journey to the top step in Turkey?

First tango in Halifax

Luke is from Skircoat Green in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

According to the Yorkshire Post, his first taste in the sport came at an after-school club at Salterhebble Junior and Infants School.

Via Diamonds Gymnastics in his hometown, he moved to Leeds Gymnastics Club aged 15 - a club that has produced a number of Olympians including Kathy Williams, Team GB’s first black gymnast, and Nile Wilson.

Luke trains 30 hours a week at the club alongside a degree at Leeds Beckett University; named their Sportsman of the Year in 2022.

One of a kind

Aged just 19, Luke pulled off a world first.

At a World Challenge Cup event in Croatia last year, he became the first known gymnast in the world to complete a triple-back somersault.

His breakout year was 2019 when he represented Team GB at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan.

2022 was Luke’s first year as a senior gymnast and he reached the World Cup Final, as well as being selected as reserve for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Gaining momentum

Luke has made his name for his feats on the floor but he is a titled gymnast across a number of apparatus.

He trains and competes all six apparatus as an all-around competitor and edged Max Whitlock to the English title on parallel bars earlier this year.

In 2023 has banked his first World Cup medal, floor bronze, and in March earned one of the most significant results of his young career by beating world bronze medallist Jake Jarman to claim a maiden British title on floor.

Dream week in Antalya

Making his major championship debut at the Europeans, Luke played his part in the British men’s team that claimed bronze on the first day of competition.

The then 20-year-old produced the performance of his life to win gold in the floor apparatus final, wowing the judges and posting a massive score of 14.900.

The youngster claimed the scalp of Olympic floor champion Artem Dolgopyat in the process.

A year later, Whitehouse repeated his feat with back-to-back floor titles at Rimini 2024 and in the process, became the first male British gymnast to retain a European title.

Now set for his Olympic debut at Paris 2024, Whitehouse will be just one of the stars in a stacked men's team that includes the likes of Max Whitlock, Jake Jarman, Joe Fraser and fellow Olympic debutant Harry Hepworth.

Sportsbeat 2024

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