Rio 2016 gymnastics results: Max Whitlock wins gold medal in men’s floor exercise

Max Whitlock of Great Britain earned the gold medal in the men’s individual floor exercise event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Whitlock put up a score of 15.633, while Brazil earned both the silver and the bronze. Diego Hypolito and Arthur Mariano took silver and bronze, shocking everyone as multiple favorites struggled in their routines.

Whitlock took the top spot early and was clearly nervous while everybody else went up after him, trying to see if he would earn the gold medal. Every competitor only had one attempt at their routines.

American Jake Dalton could not stick his landings and had multiple short hops after said landings. He was one of the favorites in the event, but he wound up finishing his routine in fifth place, well out of medal contention. Mikulak finished in last at the end of the event.

Kohei Uchimura struggled in his routine. He went first and only managed a 15.241, stepping out on his first jump. Kenzo Shirai, also of Japan, had an incredibly difficult routine, but his execution left something to be desired. He had the most difficult acrobatics, but his execution was lacking, and he finished his routine in fourth place with a score of 15.366.

This event was Mikulak’s first floor exercise final at an Olympics or world championship event, while Dalton managed to finish fifth in the floor in London and won silver at the 2013 World Championships in the event.

Their toughest competition going into the event was obviously Uchimura and Shirai of Japan, the gymnasts who carried the men’s team in the all-around and who was the defending gold medalist going into the event.

Mikulak is also set to compete in the horizontal bar finals on Tuesday. Dalton’s only qualified event was the floor exercise. Fellow American gymnast Danell Leyva will compete on the horizontal bar and parallel bars on Tuesday, while Alex Naddour will compete on the pommel horse on Sunday.