PARIS -- Team GB's Max Whitlock missed out on a pommel horse medal on Saturday, failing to make the podium in the discipline for the first time in his Olympic career.
Whitlock won bronze on his debut at London 2012, following up with golds at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. He had stepped away from gymnastics after Tokyo amid mental health struggles before returning to competition last year.
In Paris he was aiming to become a three-time champion, Whitlock was second up in the event, although his score of 15.200 was less than Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan who scored 15.433 to open the competition.
Ireland's Rhys McClenaghan, who took the gold medal, and Team USA's Stephen Nedoroscik later topped Whitlock, pushing him out of the medal positions.
It marks the final Olympic performance of Whitlock's career after he announced in April that he would retire following these Games.
"It is very raw at the moment and I would have loved for it to end in a better way here in Paris," an emotional Whitlock told the BBC after the event. "But I do not want anyone to look at the way I am feeling now and think that it is a reflection of my career, I am so proud standing here today.
"It was a challenge getting here. I could have quit after Tokyo and I decided to come back ... I am proud to be here. Of course I would have wanted for it to end better but my decision to come here was not based on the outcome. It was based on just being here at my fourth Olympics and to have that fourth Olympics in my journey.
"It is gutting and disappointing, of course it is, but I am proud. I am done now, I am not a gymnast any longer. I have done my final routine and I can be very happy."
Earlier on Saturday, Whitlock's compatriot Jake Jarman, 22, claimed bronze in the men's floor event for his first Olympic medal.