The young British talent meets superstar – and two time FISU World University Games participant – Fabian Hambüchen for a fun and insightful mentoring session ahead of Whitehouse’s participation to the competition in Essen.
Luke Whitehouse feels at home inside Leeds Gymnastics Club, an oasis of sporting excellence within a north of England city better known for its perennially under-achieving soccer team.
Not least because hanging on a wall inside the huge hall is a banner image of Whitehouse celebrating above the text ‘European floor champion 2023’. Crudely drawn in marker pen underneath are two more years: 2024 and 2025.
While there is no more room to add 2026 to the banner, for now Whitehouse has his sights set on something else: the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games.
“I want to go out and prove that I can do what I do on a European level, at the world level,” the 23-year-old says while perched on one end of a gym bench inside the club, his Olympic rings tattoo just visible on the underside of his right forearm.
“I’ve heard that the uni games is one of the biggest multi-sport events after the Olympics, so I’m really excited to go out there.”
Whitehouse placed sixth in the floor final at his debut Olympics in Paris last summer. Resting on the other end of the bench in Leeds is one man who knows all about converting European dominance into global success: Fabian Hambüchen, Germany’s four-time Olympian and the horizontal bar champion at Rio 2016.
Himself a star of the Universiades in 2013 and 2015, the now retired athlete believes Whitehouse is in for an exciting ride at his debut FISU Games.
“I’ve been there twice and it’s really such an amazing event,” Fabian Hambüchen, 37, says. “After the Olympics, it’s one of my favourites because it is so much more communicative; it’s much more familiar. You’re allowed to go to every other competition, so you can support your teammates.
“And it’s huge and a high level – the teams there are almost the top teams, with the top guys. If you go out there to have fun, it’s pretty cool.”
‘Born ready’
Hambüchen is talking with all the fluidity of his career-high performance in Rio almost a decade before. Having seen Whitehouse train on the rings and the pommel horse inside the Leeds Gymnastics Club, he delivers his encouraging assessment.
“I think you’re ready to go. You’re born ready, right?”
Whitehouse is not so sure. Inwardly confident but outwardly pragmatic, he knows he must peak at the right time to beat a FISU Games field which also contains Shinnosuke Oka, Japan’s triple Olympic champion.
“I’m coming off the back of an historic European championships (but) I’ve always found it difficult after a big competition to get into a consistent routine of training,” he says. “I’m in a bit of a dip right now, but I’ll be gradually building back into my prep for the university games.”
For the Halifax-born star, routine has two meanings: how he executes his moves on the apparatus, but also how he balances his athletic career with his studies at Leeds Beckett University.
“There have definitely been times when I’ve been stressed out,” he says. “At my first Europeans, I was doing full-time uni and full-time gymnastics, but the uni gave me extra time to do assignments. I’m in my final year now and that’s why I’ve done it part-time, so I have time to do both.
“I’m studying sport and exercise therapy, so it works really well alongside the gymnastics. I’m learning about the different muscles, the anatomy, and some biomechanics as well.”
Student-sport-life balance
Hambüchen can see how this knowledge will help Whitehouse in a sport where the marginal gains can prove decisive.
“Gymnastics is developing so fast – it’s getting higher, faster – but the most important thing is your health and your body,” he says.
“I always recommend doing something besides sport. When I was done with high school, I just focused on gymnastics. But as soon as I started studying, I felt much more relaxed and kind of relieved that my life was not only about gymnastics.
“You make yourself dependent on this one thing, but you’re more than that.”
The artistic gymnastics competition begins at Messe Essen on Tuesday 22 July. To book your seats for five days of world class action, click here.
Eurosport x FISU Mentorship: Fabian Hambüchen and Luke Whitehouse
Both artistic gymnasts, both Olympians and soon both participants to the FISU World University Games! It will be Britain’s talent’s first Games, but his German mentor has already taken part twice. They share tips and experiences and part almost as old friends.
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