The Sam Oldham Podcast

In 2008 Reece Pearson was part of the first men's British gymnastics team to ever win a major championships team Gold medal and beat Russia at the Junior European championships in Switzerland. He was a multiple English and British junior all around champion and is widely regarded as one of the best talents Great Britain produced of his generation. Reece walked away from the sport of gymnastic...

In 2024 Kensley Behel was part of the NBC broadcasting team covering gymnastics for at the Paris Olympic Games working as the data analyst. She is a journalist specialising in covering the sport of Men's gymnastics and runs the Neutral deductions social media channel. In this week's episode Kensely shares some fascinating data analysis her team put together focusing on the Team USA men&a...

In 2001 Sergey Sizhanov moved from Vladimir Russia to coach gymnastics at what was then called The notts School Of gymnastics in Nottingham. His incredible legacy is still being felt today throughout gymnastics clubs in Great Britain with many of his former athletes now coaching the next generation. Sergey is now the head of the Irish National team program and is based at the training centre in Du...

In November 2024 Shane Curtis travelled out to Texas to compete in the Main Character professional Jujitsu event which was broadcast live on Flo Grappling. Unfortunately Shane injured his knee in a freak accident and had to withdraw from the competition where he was hoping to test himself against some of the world's best athletes. The initial spark that inspired him to get into martial arts c...

In November the All Japan championships took place and this week I'm joined by Katharine Mills the very talented lady behind MAGNASTICS. She runs a twitter account and website focusing on mens artistic gymnastics, writing incredibly detailed articles by gathering competition data from the around the world. We both sit back and relive the Paris Olympic Games, sharing the big moments that stood...

In 2024 at the Paris Olympic Games Harry Hepworth made history winning the bronze medal on the vault and becoming the first British man ever to achieve that milestone. Harry started the sport at the age of eight after seeing a live gymnastics demonstration during a visit from a local athlete to his school. In the three years prior to that encounter Harry had been diagnosed with Perthes disease and...

In 2023 Heath Thorpe was crowned the Australian national all around men's gymnastics champion for the first time. Despite this achievement he was not selected ton represent team Australia at the World championships and Olympic qualification event later that year in Belgium. Heath has a large online following within the gymnastics community thanks to his unique style of gymnastics and ability...

In the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to share my story with a professional footballer, active British gymnast and a university student. Each of those conversations focussed of a different piece of the puzzle that makes of a professional sportsman's career. In this episode I'm going to talk about some of the key topics we touched on in those conversations. I've also ha...

In 2024 at the Paris summer Olympic Games Anthony Harding took the bronze medal alongside his partner Jack Laugher in the 3m springboard synchronised diving event. Anthony's international career was kickstarted at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aries where he won the individual silver medal and has since been on the podium seven times at major championships. He started diving at the a...

In 2024 Molly Thompson-Smith represented Team GB at the Paris Olympic games in professional climbing. She is a fave time UK national champion and in 2017 became the first British Women in history to win a World Cup medal. Molly took bronze at the 2020 European championships in Moscow and is a driving force within the sport, promoting diversity in the climbing community. Her career has spanned two...

In 2015 James Hall qualified for the Great Britain men's gymnastics team as the travelling reserve that went on to win a historic silver medal at the World championships. Since that senior team selection he has become one of the most consistent athletes within the British team, winning eleven major championships medals in the process. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games James achieved a top 8 fin...

In 2021 Joe Cemlyn-Jones finished second all around at the British Gymnastics championships and was selected to represent Great Britain at the World championships in Japan. The story of his first experience competing at a major championships is one of continuous setbacks and challenges. However he used those lessons to go on to become the Northern European champion just a few short weeks later whi...

In 2024 Felix Dolci was part of the Canadian men's gymnastics team that finished 8th in the Paris Olympic Team final. This was the first time Canada had qualified a full mens team for the Games since Beijing 2008. Felix has been a driving force behind the recent resurgence of mens gymnastics in Canada and their success internationally. In 2023 he became the Pan American all around champion fo...

In 2012 following the London Olympic Games I began to struggle mentally after experiencing such an incredible high point. At times I felt completely isolated and turned to partying in an attempt to numb those feelings of loneliness. Many athletes go through a similar process which is often referred to as the Olympic Blues. Four years later I had a different experience after failing to qualify for...

In 2024 it's easier than ever to share your story if you're an aspiring athlete and build a brand thanks to social media and the internet. However in some ways it's more difficult to stand out from the crowd and build a successful career in professional sports. With national governing bodies ever increasingly focussing on smaller groups of athletes, funding and elite sportsman or sp...

In June 2024 just one month ahead of the Paris Olympic Games Edgar Boulet announced his retirement from the sport of artistic gymnastics. He was best known for his incredibly exciting performances of the High bar which earned him the nickname "the showman" and in 2017 he competed in the European final. In 2018 alongside his four team mates, France took the bronze team medal at the Europe...

In 2024 at the Paris Olympic Games the sport of gymnastics attracted a huge amount of attention thanks to American superstar Simone Biles and Stephen Nedoroscik, who went viral all over the world thanks to his performances on the pommel horse. USA gymnastics is in an incredible position thanks in part to athletes like Ian Gunther and Frederick Richard who are showcasing the sport to massive audien...

In 2028 the best athletes, coaches and support staff will make their way to Los Angeles for the Olympic Games. Paris 2024 was a mixture of incredible performances and massive controversy. The future of the Olympic movement has never been more unpredictable with the huge financial burden of hosting the Games and the integrity of sport coming into question. In this episode I breakdown my big takeawa...

In 2012 at the London Olympic Games Daniel Purvis was part of the British men's gymnastics team that made history winning the first team medal in a century. Between 2010 and 2018 Dan won a total of sixteen major championships medals for Great Britain and team Scotland. On many occasions his incredibly consistent performances at the very highest level played a key role in the success of the me...

In the final gymnastics events of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Six men's gold medals and four women's were awarded to the best specialists in the sport. Carlos Yulo made history winning two titles for the Philippines, Rhys McCleneghan performed one of the best pommel horse routines in arguably the greatest final on that event of all time. The Chinese men dominated on the still rings and...

In the men's Olympic all around final that took place on Wednesday night in Paris Oka Shinnosuke was crowned the all around champion ahead of the two Chinese athletes Zhang Boheng and Xiao Routeng. The top 24 gymnasts on the planet competed across the six men's gymnastics events in a very competitive final. Joe Fraser and Jake Jarmin performed  incredibly well to finish 5th and 7th for T...

In the Men's gymnastics team final that took place in the Bercy arena last night in Paris. The Japanese team took the title after the Chinese men threw away a three mark lead heading into the final rotation. America came out on top in the battle for bronze and Stephen Nedoroscik mirrored the performance of Sasha Artemev at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to secure team USA's first Olympic...

In July and August of 2024 the best male gymnasts on the planet will compete for eight gold medals at the Paris Olympic Games. The top eight teams, 24 all around gymnasts and eight individual specialists on all six apparatus will battle it out for Olympic glory. In this episode I'm going to predict my top three athletes ahead of each gold medal event. I'm going to talk about what it&apos...

In 2015 Kelly Simm was part of the British women's gymnastics team that won a historic bronze medal at the World championships in Glasgow. Kelly represented team England at three consecutive Commonwealth Games between 2014 and 2022 winning two gold, a silver and a bronze medal in the process. The World university Games is the second biggest global sporting event after the Olympic Games and in...

In June 2024 the Men's US Olympic gymnastics trials took place and the five men that will compete for a medal in Paris have been confirmed. Fredrick Richard, Body Malone, Paul Juda, Asher Hong and Stephen Nedoroscik are the team tasked with battling it out in France. I'm joined in this episode by Kensley Behel who has been doing an incredible job keeping the men's gymnastics communi...