gymnastics

“A little bit sore and a little bit stiff but that is to be expected,” Langton said of his condition.

“I can’t really complain too much.”

The teenager did not receive his medal until he returned to the team hotel on Saturday evening, with the other members of the team gathering to applaud him.

Whitehouse said the team wanted to do that in order to replace videos of his fall, which were circulating widely on social media over the weekend, with something more positive.

“That was incredible,” Langton said of the moment.

“Seeing all of the team-mates, coaches and getting my medal. I saw my personal coach from Birmingham. It was so nice.”

These things are, of course, relative, but Whitehouse’s Sunday was a disappointing one. He came seventh in an all-round final won by Scotland’s Reuben Ward.

His response on Monday was almost immaculate.

Malaysia’s Muhammad Sharul Aimy, Australia’s James Hardy and Ward all made mistakes in the early rounds of the competition, giving Whitehouse – the fifth gymnast to enter – an opportunity.

He barely faltered, scoring 14.566 to take gold – a score that was not bettered by the remaining three competitors.

“The last few days have been about regrouping after everything that’s happened and then coming out and delivering a good performance,” he said.

There was a similar story later in the women’s vault when England’s Abigail Martin, who finished 11th in the women’s all-round final, took silver behind Canada’s Lia-Monica Fontaine.

“Yesterday didn’t really go to plan the way I wanted it to, but I’m really pleased that I managed to pick myself back up today,” Martin said.

“For me, I just had a little cry about it, but then I thought about all the things that had gone well.”

Whitehouse and Martin will be back on Tuesday in the vault and floor respectively. Langton will again be in the stands.

He plans to “take it easy for a couple of days and do the rehab” before returning to training in the near future.

“I trust in my gymnastics capability,” Langton said.

“It was really just a freak accident.”

A sickening injury to England’s Gabriel Langton overshadowed his team’s silver medal in the men’s team gymnastics final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The 19-year-old, from the City of Birmingham Gymnastics Club, needed lengthy treatment on the mat after a horrible fall in the final rotation of the evening at The Arena.

Langton fell head first to the floor after missing his catch on the horizontal metal bar, three metres in the air, leading to a lengthy delay to the action as he was tended to by up to a dozen medical staff.

He was eventually led away on a trolley after being moved on to a stretcher with his head and neck braced and left to huge applause from the packed crowd who had spent much of the previous 10 minutes in hushed silence.

Langton was seen to be conscious and moving his legs and arms before leaving the arena floor, while team officials later said he was moving and speaking to doctors.

In a statement, Team England said: “We are grateful to the medical teams who responded immediately to provide assistance.

“He has been taken to hospital and we will share more information when it is available.”

When competition resumed, his England team-mates were unable to overhaul their deficit to Canada who claimed their first gold medal in the event in 20 years, having finished second to England at the past two games.

Langton, a late call-up to Team England in the place of the injured six-time Olympic medallist Max Whitlock, was unable to join his teammates on the podium as England collected their silver medals.

Team-mate Luke Whitehouse, who was first on to the apparatus after the competition restarted and posted a relatively low score of 11.700, said: “When something like that happens, you’ve just got to forget about it and reset. I just had to focus on my routine one skill at a time.”

Whitehouse added: “From what we’ve heard, he’s doing OK. Gymnastics is such a dangerous sport and things like this remind us of that. It’s one of those things you have to put out of your mind.”

Felix Dolci, who helped Canada to gold and led qualifying for the all-around competition, said: “It’s terrible but it goes to show that gymnastics is a very, very difficult and complicated sport. It’s dangerous you know sometimes.

“All our thoughts go to Gabriel and the team. Pushing through this is definitely not easy, England stayed focussed, they stayed in the zone, a huge shout out to them because that’s not an easy one.

“For any gymnast that was on the field of play, seeing this not only is difficult, but something you never want to see. It goes to show how hard the sport is.”

Hamish Carter from Team Scotland – who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal to Australia in the final rotation – said: “I didn’t actually see what happened. I’m just so happy that he’s alright and, having experienced that, anything could have happened.

“We’ve walked away with no medal but I’m thinking of Gabe in this moment.”

Katelyn Ohashi has gone viral for her gymnastics routines.

She has won two ESPY Awards.

She’s a former national champion and All-American who earned 11 perfect scores of 10 during her time at UCLA.

She once took first place in the all-round at an elite national competition, with the now-legendary Simone Biles finishing as runner-up.

But Ohashi apparently has some unfinished business in the sport, as the 29-year-old athlete announced her return to elite gymnastics Tuesday on Instagram.

“After a few years of contemplating whether I wanted to continue chasing a dream I had as a little kid, I have decided to go for it,” Ohashi wrote. “I’m taking it one day at a time; one skill, one event, one dream. I don’t have any regrets in my career and I want to be able to continue saying that no matter what happens. So here goes nothing!”

Katelyn Ohashi accepts the trophy for best play during the 2019 ESPY Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

(Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

Ohashi thanks Pacific Reign Gymnastics, a U.S. national training center in Woodinville, Wash., “for taking a chance on me.” Her post also includes a video of herself at the gym performing a couple of floor skills — with her signature broad smile across her face. The clip uses the same audio of a phone buzzing and ringing as the video Serena Williams posted earlier this month to announce her return to competitive tennis.

Also on Tuesday, Pacific Reign posted on Instagram several photos of Ohashi working out at its facility, along with the caption, “Queen Kate trains to reign.” The gym also announced on its Instagram Story that Ohashi would compete Saturday at the American Classic event in Minneapolis.

Little else is known about Ohashi’s comeback plans. The Times reached out to an agency that represents the gymnast but received no immediate response. Pacific Reign referred questions pertaining to Ohashi to the same agency.

Born in Seattle, Ohashi made her senior elite gymnastics debut at the 2013 American Cup, where she outscored U.S. teammate Biles for all-around gold. Later that year, Biles would win the first of her record six world championships in the all-around.

Ohashi became a fan favorite while competing for the Bruins from 2015 to 2018. She earned nine perfect scores on the floor and two on the beam, with video from a January 2019 floor routine reportedly garnering 240 million views across various platforms (including a repost from future Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris).

UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi’s viral floor routine.

The same routine won Ohashi two 2019 ESPY Awards, for best play and best viral moment.

In 2018, Ohashi was the co-national champion in the floor exercise and helped the Bruins win their seventh and most recent NCAA title. The 10-time All-American last competed in the 2019 national championships, where she placed third on the beam and helped UCLA finish third in the team competition.

“We can’t wait to see you back on the floor, Kate!” UCLA gymnastics posted Wednesday morning on X.

Ohashi was a featured performer in Biles’ “Gold Over America” gymnastics tours in 2021 and 2024.

World Gymnastics has lifted all restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes with immediate effect.

Athletes from both countries were banned from international competition in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

They were subsequently permitted to compete as neutrals towards the end of 2024 but will now be allowed to return to international competitions under their national flags.

World Gymnastics confirmed the decision in a statement, external following a meeting of its executive committee in Egypt last weekend.

The reversal applies across all five disciplines governed by World Gymnastics, including artistic, rhythmic, acrobatic and aerobic gymnastics as well as trampolining.

Russia has historically been one of the strongest countries in gymnastics.

They won two golds and 10 medals overall at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, competing under the Russian Olympic Committee banner, before being banned from Paris 2024.

The move to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part under their flags follows a similar decision by World Aquatics in April while the International Judo Federation lifted its ban last November.

The International Paralympic Committee removed its suspension on athletes from the two countries competing last year and they took part in the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milan-Cortina.