BBC Sports Personality 2014 contender: Max Whitlock
- Published
"He has strength, power and balance - he's got the whole package" - former gymnastics world champion Beth Tweddle on Max Whitlock.
Year in a nutshell
Picked up a host of medals from the World, European and British Championships, and at the Commonwealth Games
Equalled the best all-around finish by a Briton at a World Championship, taking silver in Nanning, China
Took gold at the European Championships on the pommel horse
Won three golds, a silver and a bronze at the Commonwealths
The Inside track: Max Whitlock
Beth Tweddle, three-time world champion, gives her thoughts on 21-year-old Whitlock.
"Max is known as a specialist on the floor and pommel but he has all-round ability too - he's got the whole package," Tweddle said.
"In training he is so focused. He knows what he needs to do, but has a great relationship with his coach and has fun with it.
"He loves gymnastics, enjoys what he does and has strength, power and balance - there are so many different aspects he has to work on.
"He's a very determined, successful young lad. Olympic champion Kohei Uchimura, who beat him to world gold, is his idol. He looks at him and thinks, 'how can I improve to be like him?'.
"The experience of not qualifying in the world all-around final and then gaining a reprieve has taught him a lot.
"Myself and (triple Olympic medallist) Louis Smith have been around a while and been on things like Dancing On Ice and Strictly, but a cabbie asked me the other day about Max Whitlock.
"It was so nice to hear a British gymnast's name being mentioned off the cuff like that. His profile has really shot up and he's doing Britain proud."
Four facts about Max Whitlock | |
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Whitlock, who was born in Hemel Hempstead and trains at the South Essex club, won world silver after initially missing out on a place in the all-around final. He bounced back when he qualified after team-mate Nile Wilson withdrew through injury. | Whitlock and coach Scott Hann have a plan for the Olympics in Rio, which could include a "risky" new move on the pommel horse. They will delay a decision on whether to introduce what may become known as "The Whitlock" until nearer 2016. |
In the men's all-around event, gymnasts compete on six apparatus - vault, floor, pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and horizontal bar. | The gymnast is hoping to become the first British athlete to win an Olympic all-around gymnastics medal since Walter Tysall in 1908. |
Beth Tweddle was speaking to BBC Sport's Frank Keogh
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