Olympic Men's Gymnastics 2021: Pommel Horse Medal Winners, Scores and Results
August 1, 2021
For the second consecutive Olympics, Great Britain's Max Whitlock is a gold medalist in pommel horse.
Whitlock scored a 15.583 in the event at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo on Sunday, allowing him to edge out Chinese Taipei's Chih Kai Lee, who won silver with a score of 15.400.
Japan's Kazuma Kaya was the bronze medalist with a 14.900 score.
Nos. 4 through 8 were as follows, courtesy of Olympics.com:
4. David Belyavskiy (ROC): 14.833
5. Kohei Kameyama (JPN): 14.600
6. Alec Yoder (USA): 14.566
7. Rhys McClenaghan (IRL): 13.100
8. Sun Wei (CHN): 13.066
Whitlock carried on the recent tradition of British dominance in the pommel horse, as Team GB has won at least one medal in the event in each of the past four Olympic Games.
Louis Smith won bronze in 2008, Smith won silver and Whitlock won bronze in 2012, and Whitlock won gold and Smith won silver in 2016.
There were high hopes for the British men's gymnastics team in Tokyo after winning four medals in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, but things got off to a somewhat disappointing start at the 2021 Games.
Britain finished just off the podium in the team event in fourth and hadn't won a men's gymnastics medal entering Sunday, but Whitlock changed that in a big way.
Following his golden performance, Whitlock received congratulations from the British Gymnastics team and BBC Sports' Gary Lineker:
British Gymnastics @BritGymnasticsMax Whitlock MBE is the OLYMPIC CHAMPION 🏆🥇<br><br>WHAT. A. FINAL!<br><br>Absolutely amazing from Max. He defends the title he won in Rio! WOW!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tokyo2020?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Tokyo2020</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CelebrateAmazing?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CelebrateAmazing</a> <a href="https://t.co/UTNalDgxO2">pic.twitter.com/UTNalDgxO2</a>
Lee was the only gymnast who gave Whitlock a real run for his money on pommel, and while he fell short of gold, he still made history. By winning silver, Lee became the first gymnast representing Chinese Taipei to ever win an Olympic medal.
Kaya's bronze put an exclamation point on what has been a banner Olympics for the Japanese men's gymnastics team on home soil.
It was the third medal for Japan at these Games, as it won silver in the team event, and Daiki Hashimoto won gold in the individual all-around previously.
Team USA once again failed to secure a medal, as Alec Yoder finished sixth in the pommel horse with a score of 14.566.