Time can feel like another dimension for Olympians, at least for those studying at university while competing in their sport.
British gymnast Luke Whitehouse, who is competing at the World University Games 2025 in Essen, Germany from Tuesday (22 July), will finish his three-year course in sport and exercise therapy at Leeds Beckett University in 2026, having started in November 2021.
That’s five years for those counting.
But when you are an elite gymnast aiming for your first Olympic Games in what was supposed to be the final year of your degree, something’s got to give.
“I actually took a year out last year (in 2024),” Whitehouse told Olympics.com at the first British Championships of the new Olympic cycle in March. “So, I did two years, took a year out for the Games and then I went back.”
Whitehouse’s sabbatical from his studies proved successful.
Initially not quite in contention for a place on the five-person men’s team for Paris 2024 after not being picked for the same year’s European Championships squad in May, Whitehouse made the most of a series of opportune moments that presented themselves.
Whitehouse had just placed second in the Doha World Cup at the end of April when he got the call to say that three-time Olympic champion Max Whitlock was injured and would not be competing at the continental championships.
Flying straight from Qatar’s capital to Rimini on Italy’s east coast, Whitehouse joined up with the team.
Days later, he won his second consecutive European floor title and two months after that was announced as part of the group boarding the train to Paris as part of Team GB.
Finishing sixth in the floor final at his debut Olympic Games and just off the podium in fourth in the men’s team competition at the Bercy Arena, Whitehouse had just achieved a childhood dream.
“It was actually absolutely incredible,” Whitehouse told Olympics.com of the experience at Paris 2024.
“I didn’t know what to expect going into it but the Olympics is something that I’ve always dreamt of going to since being a little boy, so to achieve that dream, compete in an Olympic Games, compete alongside my childhood hero, Max Whitlock, that was unbelievable, and yeah, the floor final was incredible as well.”
And yet, despite all these successes, it was a relatively low-key moment that made his coach, Andy Butcher, particularly proud.