Paris 2024: Luke Whitehouse and Harry Hepworth play major role alongside Max Whitlock to reach gymnastics team final
LUKE WHITEHOUSE admits it is ‘crazy’ to be able to call himself an Olympian after delivering a nerveless first day display alongside childhood Leeds Gymnastics Club friend Harry Hepworth in Paris.
Whitehouse, 22, and Hepworth, 20, joined forces with Max Whitlock, Jake Jarman and Joe Fraser to safely book their place in Monday’s team final at the Bercy Arena.
And that capped an emotional rise to the summit for the close-knit Yorkshire duo, who both started their gymnastics journeys together aged five and eight respectively and are now strutting their stuff on the biggest stage of all.
Whitehouse, who also qualified for the floor final, knows he has now entered an exclusive club and cherished sharing the moment with his long-term training partner.
“It was crazy – I’m now an Olympian and there are only a small amount of people in the world who can say that!” he said.
“I’m super proud – the Olympics is the pinnacle of sport and to share it with Harry, a guy that I train with and how much hard work we put in each day, I couldn’t be more proud of what we did today.
“It’s super special sharing this experience with him.
Hepworth, who also reached the final in both the vault and the rings, added: “It was absolutely amazing – being there with your brothers that you’ve trained with for ages makes it so special to share that moment with them.
“The energy was up the whole time and we just encouraged each other to do our best.
“There are still some improvements here and there but we’ll do that in the final and we saved it.”
Whitehouse and Hepworth showed no signs of debut nerves and firmly held their own in front of a packed-out Parisian crowd.
That included hundreds of travelling Brits in attendance, with Union Jacks visible and every somersault, twist and turn being celebrated by a strong contingent who had made the trip across the Channel.
Team GB’s men racked up an overall haul of 256.561 points and will now turn their attention to Monday’s final.
Whitehouse, who is loving learning from three-time Olympic champion Whitlock, said: “I was surprised [about the number of Brits] – people have been traveling to the UK, so thanks to everyone that travelled.
“Max is the experienced guy in the team and we have such a great camaraderie – we really come together and I’m super proud of what we did today.
“From the performance we did today the team medal is 100 per cent possible.”
Whitlock, who is competing at his last Games, scored 15.166, placing him second behind Stephen Nedoroscik of the US after the first qualifying rotation, a result that means his place in next Saturday’s eight-man apparatus final is effectively assured.
The 31-year-old, who won the pommel title in both 2016 and 2020 but has struggled with injury since reversing a retirement decision in the wake of his success in Tokyo, believes he is still capable of plenty of improvements.
“The relief is crazy,” admitted Whitlock, who also did his bit to help the team with routines on horizontal and parallel bars. “I had to wait a while to present that routine, so I was mega pleased.
“Of course there’s some increases I can make, some bits that I can clean up a little bit, difficulty I can increase on. But it’s a huge relief to come out and do it successfully.”
A successful team performance saw Great Britain top the standings after first rotation ahead of the US and Germany, and they eventually qualified for the team final in third position behind China and Japan, giving them a good chance of landing their first team medal since bronze at London 2012.
Fraser, the former world parallel bars final whose all-around score of 84.666 was only eclipsed by team-mate Jarman in the first rotation, paid tribute to his team’s ability to deliver under pressure.
“Me and the team really just gave it our all out there,” said Fraser. “We really put our necks on the line and just gave it our all.
“We weren’t really focusing too much on the finals, it was more about trying to put out our best work today. And I think we did as much as we could. I’m proud of each and every one of us.”
Jarman was the top-scoring qualifier on floor with a score of 14.966. Whitlock qualified in third place on pommel after Ireland’s reigning world champion Rhys McClenaghan matched Nedoroscik’s score of 15.200 in the final rotation of the evening.
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