Max Whitlock announces return to gymnastics with LA 2028 Olympic Games target - 'I want to rewrite the end of my career'
Updated 24/11/2025 at 22:48 GMT
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Olympic gold medallist Max Whitlock has announced his return to the sport, with the goal of competing at the LA 2028 Olympic Games. Whitlock finished fourth in both the team and pommel horse events in Paris last summer and now returns with the goal of returning to the podium again. The 32-year-old is Britain's most decorated gymnast with six Olympic medals, three gold and three bronze.
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Olympic gold medallist Max Whitlock has announced his return to the sport and the goal of competing in the 2028 Games.
Whitlock, who won gold in both the 2016 and 2020 Games, announced his return on the One Show, as he bids to reach his fifth Olympic Games.
The 32-year-old, who also has three bronze medals to his name, is already Great Britain’s most decorated Olympic gymnast, and now targets one final podium finish and the opportunity to "rewrite" the end of his career.
Speaking on the BBC show, he said: "I'm back, it feels unbelievable. I'm officially back, I'm a gymnast again, and that feels crazy.
"Something was itching away at me constantly, it has been for the last year, it doesn't sit right, it feels unfinished, incomplete.
"I feel like I've got an opportunity in front of me, and I'll never get this again, so I'm going back in, a three-year stint, I want to make it to my fifth Olympic Games.
"I know it's a dangerous game to play, but I want to finish it on a high, I want to rewrite the end of my career.
"I would rather take the risk of taking that opportunity, rather than not taking the risk, because I think that's something that fast forward 10, 15 years, I'll look back and think that's something I regret.
"I really want to push it further than I ever have before."
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Whitlock originally retired from the sport following the Paris 2024 Games, where he finished fourth in both the team and pommel horse events.
Now the three-time gold medallist, who will be 35 by the time the LA 2028 Games come about, must get his body and mind back into shape after a year away from the sport, with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow the main target for 2026.
"I had a year out completely, I've come back in slowly," he added.
"The other week I picked up an injury. I wasn't even doing anything on the pommel horse, I was sitting next to it, I looked at my phone, I looked up, and my neck had gone.
"Who knows what's to come?"
In an interview with The Times, Whitlock revealed he was "on a mission" and is working on new skills in three different disciplines, the high bar and parallel bars as he bids to make himself as available as possible to add to his six Olympic medals.
The Times reported that British Gymnastics was "keen" but also "surprised" at the decision.
Whitlock will now compete at the English Championships in February, before the British Championships and then the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July, which has previously been a very happy hunting ground for him.
He last competed in the Commonwealth Games in 2018, adding gold in the team event and silver in pommel horse to his incredible form of three golds, a silver and a bronze in the 2014 Games in Glasgow and two silver medals and a bronze from the 2010 Games in New Delhi.
The 2026 Winter Games will take place from February 6-22, with the event shown live on TNT Sports and discovery+
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