TRIPLE gold medallist Max Whitlock will lead a 13-strong British gymnastics squad into next month’s Olympic Games in Paris.

Whitlock, who trains at the South Essex Gymnastics Club in Basildon, stepped away from the sport after clinching his second-straight pommel crown in Tokyo in 2021 but returned last year and recently announced he would make the 2024 Games his last.

Joining Whitlock in a five-strong British men’s team are Jake Jarman, the reigning world champion on vault, Joe Fraser, a former world champion on parallel bars, plus debutants Harry Hepworth and Luke Whitehouse.

Basildon born Alice Kinsella, who was part of a women’s team that won their first medal in 93 years in Tokyo, will be joined by Becky Downie, Georgia-Mae Fenton, Ruby Evans and Abigail Martin.

The women’s team’s hopes of repeating their stunning bronze medal in the Japanese capital have been hit by a series of injury withdrawals including reigning world champion Jessica Gadirova and Ondine Achampong.

Two-time Olympic medallist Bryony Page will bid to add an elusive gold medal to her collection and she will be joined in a three-strong trampoline team by debutants Izzy Songhurst and Zak Perzamanos.

Performance director Tracy Whittaker-Smith said: “With first Games debutantes alongside established Olympic greats like Max Whitlock OBE and Bryony Page, we feel we have a fantastic mix of athletes, all of whom have achieved major championship medal success this cycle.

“We head to the Games with medal ambitions across the board and more than that, with the aim to unite the gymnastics community in a celebration of our incredible sport with these inspirational Olympic role models at the heart of that.”