Tokyo 2020: Max Whitlock gets hero's welcome at gym club

Olympic gymnast Max Whitlock hopes his win will "inspire kids" to take up the sport as he met fans at a homecoming visit to his training centre.

Whitlock, from Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, retained his Olympic title at the Tokyo Games, winning gold on the men's pommel horse.

He performed backflips and walked on his hands in front of cheering crowds outside his gym in Basildon, Essex.

"It was incredible, amazing to come back to a welcome like that," he said.

"I think it just shows the impact it has on young kids - inspiring them, keeping them involved in gymnastics, but also getting involved if they've not done it before."

Asked about his overriding emotion having defended his title, he said: "Shocked, relief.

"I think so much goes into it, before I even landed that pommel routine, in my head, I was like 'oh my god'.

"Then I hugged Scott [Hann, his coach], and said 'I can't believe I done that'.

"I genuinely feel like it was so hard, I put myself under so much pressure with that."

He said as a gold medallist at Rio 2016, "expectancy was through the roof" in Tokyo, particularly after winning silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which he regarded as a "failure".

"You want to go out and do the job that you believe you can do, because you've done it before.

"I saw team GB athletes come in with medals, and I was watching them on TV and I could massively relate to them, that feeling of getting that medal around your neck.

"I feel like that piled the pressure on me - it's very easy to think if you've done it before the next time's a bonus, pressure's off, but it's actually the complete opposite.

"I knew my opportunity was coming, so the pressure was ramping up every single day, the nerves were going up and up and building and building.

"I think to pull it off under that pressure is something that gives me massive confidence, it really does."

He admitted he was "battling my head" ahead of his competition, and praised US gymnast Simone Biles for her decision to pull out of two events to focus on her mental health.

"I was having thoughts about things that could go wrong with the routine, but also positive ones about it paying off, and what that would feel like," said Whitlock.

"You're battling either side, trying to keep it on the positive side as much as you possibly can.

"I think what Simone did was an incredibly hard decision, and I think this will have a huge impact on a lot of people, on how they think and what is deemed as acceptable."

He said his latest gold medal possibly meant more to him because winning it was "so much harder than the previous ones".

"It was obviously a crazy time over the last year and a half, so the build up towards it has been difficult, really, really difficult.

"Actually pulling it off in that moment makes it so much more rewarding, so yes I'm massively proud of this one."

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