Louis Smith accuses fans of ruining his Olympic silver with Twitter spat over Max Whitlock
OLYMPIC gymnast Louis Smith has accused fans of ruining his big moment at the Rio games by attacking him on Twitter over reports he shunned his teammate Max Whitlock.
The athlete was accused of failing to congratulate his teammate after Max pipped him to gold in the pommel horse final, and Louis has now revealed the drama marred his big moment.
Louis, 27, scooped a coveted silver medal and teammate Max, 23, took gold in event and fans had claimed he showed "unsportsmanlike behaviour" for failing to congratulate him after the win.
The disappointed athlete hit back and insisted the pair's hug was just not shown on camera, and now he has revealed the Twitter spat ruined his Rio experience.
During an appearance on This Morning today, he told hosts Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes that he spent so long on Twitter defending himself he did not have a chance to call his mum to tell her about his medal.
related stories
He said: "It's been a bit crazy trying to defend myself... It was more on the night... I'd been through this whirlwind competition, I'd got this medal...
"Everyone is so happy... then I get home and I start seeing all these reactions on social media and I just spent the first few hours just trying to defend myself and I just really should have been on the phone to my mum and everyone and just enjoying it."
He went on to insist the moment he realised he had missed out on gold was incredibly personal and he should not be judged harshly for being upset.
Louis said: "When I realised I hadn't got got the gold medal - I've been training over 20 years with the dream that I wanted to by Olympic champion...
"To know you hadn't got that gold medal - I needed a minute to let that sink in."
He also reiterated that the cameras failed to catch his tender moment with Max because the other athletes were being filmed at the time.
Louis said: "The cameras filmed me and then went back to the Russian [gymnast]...
"During this time I went over to Max's coach said 'Congratulations' then I saw Max and gave him a big hug...
"I said well done to some of the other guys then I went back to my seat...
"The cameras had gone back to the Russian to film their routine then the cameras came back down and it looked like I hadn't moved, that I'd just ignored Max."
