The Olympics qualifying round is one of the most tense days of some gymnasts’ careers. While there are no medals on offer, the prospect of their dreams crumbling to dust on the first day of competition looms over them all. The pressure can feel even more overwhelming for specialists such as Max Whitlock, who now puts almost all his efforts into success on the pommel horse. It takes only one small mistake for the dream to die.
Throughout his glittering career, Whitlock has shown that he can handle that pressure and more. He did so again on Saturday afternoon, working through a tight, clean and difficult routine to qualify for next Saturday’s final in third on a brilliant day for British men’s gymnastics.
A relieved Whitlock described the competition as the hardest he has experienced. “It’s my last Olympic Games,” he said. “When it comes to qualifications, we’re in a sport that – I’m going to say it – I think we do one of the hardest sports. You get one shot and if that doesn’t go right on that first day, when the nerves are the highest and the pressure is through the roof, it could stop there. In your head, as a mindset thing, that’s so hard to deal with.”
Whitlock’s score of 15.166 put him behind spectacular routines from Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan, winner of the last two world championships, and the 2021 world champion, Stephen Nedoroscik of the United States, who both scored 15.2. Whitlock, however, can still increase the difficulty of his routine by .3 in the final, which could be the difference between a minor medal and gold. He is attempting to become the first gymnast to win three pommel horse Olympic golds in a row.
In addition to handling the pressure of being at his fourth and final Games, this is a different experience for Whitlock because of the presence of his five-year‑old daughter, Willow, in the stands, who is finally old enough to truly grasp what he does. “It’s one of the best feelings coming in here, this Olympics, knowing it’s my fourth one, but I can provide that experience to my family and Willow to come out here and watch, not just watch it on video,” he said.
“The boys didn’t want to distract me around parallel bars time but apparently she was screaming a lot.”
Beyond Whitlock, the five-man Great Britain team enjoyed an incredible day as they qualified for eight individual finals between them. Perhaps the biggest chance of an individual medal comes from Jake Jarman, the vault world champion. Jarman qualified in first place for the floor exercise with an enormous score of 14.966.
On the vault, Jarman actually qualified with Britain’s second highest score after Harry Hepworth produced two brilliant vaults, scoring 14.766, to qualify in second. In his excitement at nailing his first, incredibly difficult vault, Jarman overpowered his second and stumbled backwards for a mark of 14.699, qualifying in fifthwith significant room to improve. Hepworth also qualified for vault, while Luke Whitehouse made the floor final.
As a team, Britain outscored Ukraine and the United States by more than three points to qualify in third. That rivalry will probably be rekindled in the men’s team final on Monday when they battle for a medal.
Jarman and Joe Fraser also performed brilliantly in the all‑around qualification to finish in fifth and sixth, respectively. Zhang Boheng of China will be the man to beat in the final after qualifying three and a half points ahead of Japan’s defending champion, Daiki Hashimoto, who qualified in third.
