MAX Whitlock has declared his intention to come out of retirement and target a place at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Whitlock, whose three Olympic gold medals make him the most successful British gymnast in history, had initially announced that the 2024 Paris Games would be his last.
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But following his failure to add to his medal haul in the French capital, Whitlock - who trains at the South Essex Gymnastics Club in Basildon - admitted he quickly came to the realisation that he wished to give it one more shot.
Whitlock told The Times: “I was sitting in a station with my family in a cafe for a little bit (soon after Paris) and I said to them, ‘I’m not done, I can’t finish it like that’.
“It was the raw emotion of getting back to the UK and just feeling like I can’t end it like that. Something just didn’t feel right.”
Whitlock, who will be 35 by the time of the competition in Los Angeles, will aim to return to a GB gymnastics team boasting the likes of reigning world champion Jake Jarman – who is nine years his junior.
But he maintained: “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’.”
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