Max Whitlock

Max Antony Whitlock, born 13 January 1993 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, is an English artistic gymnast. With fourteen medals and six titles across the Olympic Games and World Championships, he is the most successful gymnast in British history and the most successful pommel horse worker in Olympic history, where he has won two gold medals and one bronze. Overall, Whitlock is a six-time Olympic medallist, a five-time World Championship medallist on the pommel horse, a four-time European champion, and a four-time Commonwealth Games champion representing England.

Whitlock was introduced to gymnastics at age seven and trained at Sapphire School of Gymnastics while attending Longdean School. At twelve, he briefly trained in Maribor, Slovenia, before joining South Essex Gymnastics Club in Basildon, coached by his brother-in-law Scott Hann. In his personal life, Whitlock married Leah Hickton in July 2017, and the couple established the Max Whitlock Gymnastics Club in 2018. They welcomed a daughter in February 2019, and Whitlock published the fitness book The Whitlock Workout in January 2020.

After winning medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2010 European Junior Championships, Whitlock made his Olympic debut at the 2012 London Games. He won a bronze medal in the team competition—Great Britain's first Olympic men's gymnastics team medal since 1912—and an individual bronze on pommel horse. In 2013, he won silver in the all-around at the European Championships, tied for Great Britain's first European floor exercise title, and won pommel horse silver at the World Championships.

Whitlock won three golds, a silver, and a bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, followed by all-around silver at the 2014 World Championships. In 2015, despite battling glandular fever earlier in the year, he became the first British man to win a World Championship gold medal by taking first on pommel horse, alongside team and floor silver medals. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Whitlock earned individual all-around bronze before becoming Great Britain's first Olympic gold medallist in artistic gymnastics by winning gold on both floor exercise and pommel horse.

In 2017, Whitlock became the first British gymnast to defend a World title when he won pommel horse gold. He added a team gold and pommel silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, a World silver in 2018, and another European and World pommel gold in 2019. At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he focused on pommel horse and won his third Olympic gold medal.

Whitlock returned from a training break at the 2023 World Championships and announced the 2024 Paris Olympics as his final Games, where he placed fourth in both the team event and pommel horse final before retiring. In November 2025, Whitlock announced he was coming out of retirement to target the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was named to the British senior squad for 2026 and selected for the Commonwealth Games, though he later withdrew due to a hand injury.

Whitlock was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2017 and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2022 for services to gymnastics. He won the Longines Prize for Elegance in 2015, was named an ambassador for the 2022 World Championships, and placed among the top eight for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 2014, 2015, and 2016.