Max Whitlock has announced he will come out of retirement to pursue a place at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Whitlock, Britain’s most successful gymnast with three Olympic gold medals, had said Paris 2024 would be his final Games but reconsidered after failing to add to his medal tally in France.
Speaking to The Times, Whitlock described an emotional moment soon after Paris that clarified his decision. He said he found himself at a station café with his family and realised he could not finish his career the way it had ended in 2024: “I’m not done, I can’t finish it like that.” He added that the feeling of unfinished business convinced him to return.
By Los Angeles he will be 35 and hoping to rejoin a Great Britain squad that includes younger stars such as reigning world champion Jake Jarman, who is nine years his junior. Whitlock summed up his motivation simply: “Unfinished is the exact word. My career’s just not complete. I thought, ‘It’s the right time for me to retire but it’s not the right way.'”
Whitlock rose to prominence at London 2012, where he won two bronze medals on his Olympic debut — contributing to the host nation’s team success and earning an individual medal on the pommel horse. He became Britain’s first individual Olympic gold medallist in artistic gymnastics at Rio 2016, taking golds on pommel horse and floor and adding a historic all-around bronze, Britain’s first in the event for 108 years. He then retained the pommel horse title at the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021.
Across his career Whitlock has amassed 32 major international medals, including three World Championship golds, four European titles and four Commonwealth Games victories. After Tokyo he also stepped away from competition for 18 months to focus on his mental health, a period that played a role in how he later approached retirement.
Whitlock’s decision to aim for 2028 sets up the prospect of a veteran comeback alongside a rising British team. He says the drive to finish on his own terms — rather than the abrupt ending he felt after Paris — is what convinced him to return to elite competition.