Portugal Colonial - Gymnastics great Whitlock ends retirement in quest for 2028 Olympics

Whitlock, whose three Olympic gold medals -- two on the pommel horse and one on the floor -- make him Britain's most successful gymnast, appeared to have ended his celebrated career following the 2024 Paris Games.

But a failure to add his medal tally in France left Whitlock feeling unfulfilled.

"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'," Whitlock told The Times.

"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 next Olympics, is bidding to return to a GB gymnastics team boasting the likes of reigning floor world champion Jake Jarman, nine years his junior.

But he added: "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'."

P.Sousa--PC