Luke Whitehouse explained that he was marked down due to his difficulty score after being surprisingly marked down in sixth place in the Olympics men’s floor final, behind his Team GB team-mate Jake Jarman who took bronze.
After what could have been the 22-year-old’s best routine of his career, Whitehouse was marked down by the judges and understandably dejected over what could have been.
BBC commentator Craig Heap had tipped Whitehouse to be in contention for gold, leading to confusion when the British gymnast was well off the medal places.
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“For me that was the best routine we have seen from Luke Whitehouse,” two-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist gymnast Heap said. “I am absolutely tingling with goosebumps. That has got to be the gold medal performance.”
Then once Whitehouse’s score of 14.466 was confirmed, Heap was perplexed and said: “I just can’t get my head around that. They have dropped his difficulty down by 0.2.”
And speaking to the Beeb shortly after the disappointing verdict, Whitehouse confirmed Heap’s theory: “I was down on my difficulty score because I landed my second tumble roll at 90 degrees. They take quite a lot of marks off for that so I was way down on difficulty.”
Whitehouse refused to be too downbeat, however, having enjoyed his first Olympic Games and hopes that the experience will lead to success four years down the road in Los Angeles.
“That was probably the best floor final I have ever witnessed,” he added. “Going up last as well I had all the pressure on me. I gave it everything but I really enjoyed it out there.
“I just came here to try and enjoy it really. I am European champion and I knew I was capable of being champion here but it wasn’t meant to be.
“It’s been such a crazy experience and I am still so young, I have got many more to come hopefully. I have just enjoyed every single second. Definitely (got more hunger now) I can see the competition there and I know where I can be, it’s given me a lot of inspiration to go back and keep working.”
Then when asked if he can reach a final score of 15 at an Olympics, Whitehouse replied: “Oh, definitely.”
Whitehouse’s target of 15 was the score to beat this year, claimed by Philippines’ gold medal winner Carlos Yulo. He beat silver medallist Artem Dolgopyat of Israel, followed by Team GB’s Jarman.
