Don’t tell Max Whitlock he’s an Olympic elder statesman – he’ll get on his high (pommel) horse.

Whitlock is one of just 18 members of Team GB’s 300-plus squad who competed at London 2012, where aged 19 he won the first of his six Olympic medals with a pair of bronzes.

Double gold and another bronze followed in Rio, while three years ago in Tokyo, he became the first British gymnast to defend an Olympic title with pommel horse gold.

However, with three newcomers in the British men’s team in Paris – Jake Jarman, Harry Hepworth, and Luke Whitehouse – plus former world champion Joe Fraser, Whitlock has no desire to be the team Dad.

“I’ve already got a five-year-old,” he joked.

“I try not to dwell too much on the past, but I didn’t know there were just 18 of us from London, that’s a cool stat.

“I don’t see myself as a leader in the team; everyone has respect for each other, irrelevant of experience. They’ve not been to the Olympics, but they’ve been to plenty of major championships.

"I just want to see myself as another one of the team members. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past in sport, and I really feel like we’re all learning from each other, even if I’ve got ten years on some of these years.

“I don't try to forcefully put myself into it, but the boys ask a lot in terms of comparisons from previous Olympic Games compared to this one.

"I'm obviously happy to give that insight and hopefully I can help them in any way possible, and I think it's also a time where I'm learning a lot from them as well.”

Whitlock and co start their Olympic campaign on Saturday, where they'll look to earn qualification for the team final 48 hours later and cracks at medals in individual apparatus finals.

He has already announced this will be his final Games, having initially stepped away from the sport following Tokyo, only to return two years later. In the past, he’d steadfastly refused to make medal predictions, but as he prepares to take his final curtain call, he's not hiding from his ambition in the name of sports psychology.

"I was adamant that I was done with gymnastics but here I am, back at a fourth Olympics," he added.

"My only motivation comes from retaining titles. It would be silly to say I don’t think about medals, I try not to, but it fires me up.

"When I’m in the gym and training, it’s about keeping that title. It’s a massive challenge, and I chose to come back because I feel like I've got more to give.

“Retaining titles is ten times harder than chasing them though."

Eight years ago, Whitlock was the best in the world on the floor, winning Britain's first-ever Olympic medal in the discipline with a gold in Rio.

Now, he admits, he'd struggle to make the podium at the national championships.

Whitlock was part of the British team that won bronze at London 2012, but they've not cracked the podium since, finishing fifth and fourth in Rio and Tokyo.

"Jake, Harry, and Luke can be world-class. If they nail it, we’ve got the strongest three floor routines of any nation. The difficulty they are going for, the risks they are taking, it’s absolutely crazy.

"Our floor has got stronger and stronger as a team, and they’ve all got tremendous potential. If all three give us clean routines in the team event, that could bump our score up massively.

"We know we’re a top five country in the world. The team result is the important one to us, we’ve got huge potential.

"We’ve proved our top five potential time and time again and I genuinely feel these medals could be anybody’s. A team medal would be unbelievable."

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