Congratulations on your huge Olympic success. Has it sunk in yet?
No, it hasn’t! It still feels a bit weird. I haven’t been back in the UK long and it’s been quite busy – but it’s good. It will take a long time to really sink in.
You won two golds in about an hour: first on the floor where you weren’t among the favourites, and then on the pommel horse where you were. Were you worried that the surprise win would cost you in your strongest event?
No. I just had to forget about it. I still had a job to do.
Wait, you just forgot that you’d won a gold medal?!
Yes [laughs] – obviously that was really, really hard to do! My aim was to make the Olympic floor final, because that would have been a first for me, and I thought it would help me ease myself in for my strongest event, the pommel. So making the floor final was a huge bonus, and to then win the gold – it hit me hard. But I had 30 minutes to get back to the training gym and block everything out of my head, because I still had one more job to do.
When did you realise you’d won that first gold?
I saw my score and that I’d gone into first place, but to be totally honest I didn’t know what was going on. My team-mates and coaches were saying, “Max, do you want to know what soand-so just scored?” and I was begging them not to tell me! Then after the last guy went and made a slight mistake my coach nudged me and told me I was an Olympic champion.
Did you know you’d done enough on the pommel to win the second gold?
I got off and thought I’d done well, but I had no idea how Louis [Smith, Whitlock’s team-mate whom he beat into second place] had done, or anyone else who had gone before me. From a young age I’ve never watched any rival gymnasts perform when competing. All I can do is focus on my job of performing to the best of my ability, and I was happy because I’d done my job and got through my routine clean. I knew that if I did that I stood a good chance.
How did you cope with such intense pressure?
It was completely different to London 2012 because I was the young kid who wasn’t expected to do much. Rio was different. I felt like I had to deliver and the whole team were expected to come back with medals. So there was pressure and I was nervous, but I blocked that out. I’ve been training for years to deliver in critical moments, and all my hard training paid off.
Where do you get confidence from? A successful training camp?
Absolutely. That’s vital for me. If I have a good build-up before a competition then that really takes the pressure off. If you know deep down that there’s nothing more you could have done it gives you confidence that you’re ready. My build-up for Rio was great and I arrived feeling good, without any niggles, and my confidence was high.
Is training a case of practice makes perfect?
Yeah, it’s about muscle memory and putting in the hours until it becomes completely natural. I even practice making mistakes on purpose so that if it does happen, my muscle memory kicks in and I can get out of trouble straight away. Take the pommel: ideally you want the routine to be straight legs and pointed toes with a clean dismount. But I’ll do a routine scruffy, with bent legs, so I know what to do if that happens when it matters.
How you bounce back from competition disappointment?
You have to learn from the mistakes. There have been competitions where I haven’t done as well as I wanted and these are the times that I learned the most. You have to find a positive from every setback. You have to look deep inside yourself and when you do it moves you forward.
Max Whitlock is a Myprotein ambassador. Visit myprotein.com