Max Whitlock intends to leave his imprint on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and other Games beyond. More golds would be nice. Yet in addition to defending a pair of gymnastics titles two years hence the 25-year-old wants to carve out an alternative role within Team GB.

“I’d like to design the kit,” he says. “I had the insight into how it was made for Rio, seeing Stella McCartney’s designs and everything. So that opportunity would be incredible.”

This week the Englishman would ideally like to be accessorised with three medals from the European championships in Glasgow, with the men’s competition commencing with team qualifying on Thursday.

At the team hotel by the Clyde, he is as likely to be crunching business plans or pondering the mix and match of colours and fabrics as part of an empire he expects to grow in the years ahead.

His wife of one year Leah, a former gymnast herself, is involved in a chain of gymnastic clubs to which Whitlock is lending his name and his insights. An obvious brand extension. His wildest enthusiasm is reserved for an idea about footwear – “how about a trainer with a hole in it?”

The life cycle of a gymnast decrees Whitlock is nearer the end than the start of a career that has brought 10 major titles. There is so much more awareness now of readying for an athletic afterlife.

He has seen others struggle away from their familiar routine. “They don’t have a clue what they want to do,” he says. “They carry on and on until they get to a point when they’re not sure what they want to do any more. Then they retire and they have to start from scratch. That’s a horrible position to be in.

“If you’re mid-twenties or 30, that’s tough. A lot of athletes struggle. I feel gymnastics has helped me be this driven person. My parents are very driven, I have driven individuals in my family. So I’ve always moved in that direction. And this is the right time now to think about that.”

He is approaching almost a decade in competitive gymnastics, a career which burned brightest with his floor and pommel triumphs in Rio. They will be his events of choice again – qualification permitting – this weekend but he will enter the fray under a more probing spotlight than usual in the wake of April’s Commonwealth Games where, by his own admission, he fell shy of his best and was outshone by the young Northern Irishman Rhys McClenaghan.

Echoing the refrain of Adam Peaty that defeat in Australia can bring renewal, he used the lengthy flight back from Gold Coast to sketch out a reactive plan. “I would usually have taken a couple of weeks off, but I had three days off and I was straight back in the gym,” he says.

His approach has been refined and streamlined to ensure no pattern of defeat emerges. “But that is sport. It was one of those competitions, I still take loads of positives about it. If I look back on my routines I can be happy with them. They were new, they have upgraded skills. I was trying something different. It’s about looking at the big picture and building confidence and experience towards the Olympic Games.”

Glasgow’s Hydro Arena is a venue where he has had success. Three Commonwealth golds in 2014 and a world title, plus two silvers, three years later. McClenaghan will await once more.

“There will be a lot of people coming out with massive scores and I’m fully prepared for that,” Whitlock says. “You have to be. That’s why I keep pushing, that’s why I’m not standing still and putting new skills in. One of the best times I’ve competed is when I’ve been under the most pressure. So it’s nice to have people pushing you.”

Resource: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...-championships