The Sam Oldham Podcast

In 2012 at the Junior European Championships, Jay Thompson succeeded Louis Smith, Daniel Keatings and Max Whitlock to become the pommel horse gold medalist. Throughout his career Jay competed for team England and Great Britain winning over thirty medals both nationally and internationally. A combination of injuries and challenges in the sport led to him sharing his experiences publicly during the...

In August 2023 during a pre-season training session at Keyworth United football club I was involved in a collision that led to an all too familiar trip to the Queens medical centre hospital in Nottingham. An investigation into the shoulder and neck pain I was experiencing began. After multiple scans and an Arthogram the shoulder specialist revealed I had full thickness tears in three of my shoulde...

In 2023 at the Artistic gymnastics World championships Team USA took the bronze medal in the men's final. They are now favourites to finish on the podium at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games this summer for the first time since taking bronze at the Beijing games in 2008. Individually their squad is incredible strong and the impressive comeback after multiple knee surgeries in 2023 by Brody Malone...

In 2010 Luke Folwell made history becoming then most successful British gymnast at a Commonwealth Games winning five medals for team England in Delhi. Luke competed for Great Britain at the highest level and was start of the World championships team in 2007 that took the first steps towards the incredible success we see today from British men's gymnastics teams. He now plays a key role in tha...

In June 2024 my current coaching role at the Notts Gymnastics Academy is coming to an end. I've now been coaching gymnastics for three years and I'm in process of working towards my level 3 qualification. The opportunity to work alongside Josh Champion, who I consider to be my coaching mentor has been invaluable during that time. I have made mistakes, learnt some incredible life lessons...

In the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games the Russian Olympic Committee edged out Japan to claim the men's gymnastics team title. With Russia being shut out of the Olympic movement and the Japanese team being the reigning World champions. They are firm favourites heading into the Paris 2024 Games taking place this summer. Following the All Japan championships and the NHK trophy the five men that will r...

In May 2024 I was asked to be part of the Team England Men's gymnastics training camp at Lilleshall national sports centre. I was incredibly impressed with the level of gymnastics and how professionally the weekend was put together. I had the opportunity to share my experiences in gymnastics with a group of 30 hardworking and positively minded young athletes. At 2AM whilst feeding Ozzy I bega...

In 2021 at the Tokyo Olympic Games Amelie Morgan made history alongside her team mates by winning the first women's team medal in 93 years. She had an outstanding junior career taking five medals at the 2018 junior European championships and three medals at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. Amelie home schooled as a teenager in order to maintain her 35 hour a week training schedule. Ba...

In April 2024 many of the best gymnasts in the world competed nationally, internationally and globally in their preparations for the Paris Olympic Games. At the European Championships in Rimini the British junior men took the team final in dramatic fashion for the first time since 2016. In the senior event the Ukrainian team edged out GB scoring 255.762 which impressively would have taken the team...

In 2009 Whilst filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. David Holmes suffered a life changing injury that resulted in him breaking his neck during a test stunt. For a decade David doubled for Daniel Radcliffe in one of the most successful film franchises of all time. A documentary tilted 'David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived' was released in 2023 that shares his incredible story. As a ki...

In 2005 at the age of twenty, Gareth Timmins began the 34 weeks of training required to become a Royal Marine Commando. Prior to joining the military, Gareth was a professional rugby league player representing Leeds Rhino's, however he ultimately chose to walk away from a potential future career in elite sport. After a successful time serving as a Royal Marine he stepped away from military se...

In 2019 Dan Lonsdale launched his gymnastics strength and conditioning business which now supports one ten gymnastics clubs across the UK and Europe. He had previously worked as the senior strength and conditioning lead coach at the University of Durham supporting their top performance athletes. His background was in the sport of Rugby where he spent nine years developing his skill set. However th...

In the space of seconds on the 11th of February at 8:15PM 2024 I went from what felt like the scariest moment of my life to unquestionably the very best. Ozzy Arthur Oldham was born three weeks early after a forty hour labour by a category 1 emergency C section. Becoming a Dad has been the single greatest achievement of my life and this was made possible thanks to Connie Elizabeth Moreland. Not so...

In the summer of 2024 the biggest event in the sport of gymnastics will take place. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games is a culmination of four years of hard work and sacrifices made by the athletes and their coaching teams. The competitive season is well underway and this month the final individual apparatus spots for the Olympic Games will be up for grabs at the final World Cup in Doha. The English an...

In 2006 David Eaton won a silver medal on the High Bar at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne for team Wales. He represented Great Britain throughout the 1990's and early 2000's and competed at the gymnastics world championships in 2001 shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place in America. Dave's career bridged two generations and he was part of the British team that faile...

In 2023 Fred Richard became the youngest male gymnast to ever win an individual World championships medal for team USA in Men's gymnastics. The US Men's team also took the bronze medal putting them in the driving seat ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this summer. Fred only competed in his first elite level national championships in 2019 and in that short space of time he's alre...

In 2022 Felix Coomber began a four year course studying international social science at the university of Tsukuba in Japan. Felix started gymnastics at the age of five and has won multiple individual medals nationally in recent years. He is the first British gymnast to train full time in Japan and now represents the university team.  In 2002 at the Salt Lake City winter Olympic Games Felix's...

In 2023 Will Foden completed his first ironman with a collapsed lung and proved not for the first time that he was someone with the mental capacity to overcome huge challenges. He played professional and semiprofessional rugby for over ten years. Whilst played for the Doncaster knights a freak accident led to him having his leg snapped in half by a horse. Incredibly after this his career took him...

 In 2009 after competing at the English gymnastics championships and walking away with Sven out of seven gold medals. I made the monumental mistake of leaving my gym bag at the competition arena. The following morning Sergey picked me up early to leave for a training camp at the national centre with the GB team. This was by far the biggest telling off I ever received through the entirety of my who...

In January 2024 I sat down with former TeamGB Olympic medalist Nile Wilson to talk about his gymnastics career and explore topics outside the world of sport.  We have both recently started going to Jiujitsu classes and explore the challenges of starting a new sport. Gymnastics is a bodyweight sport and many athletes can get caught up in trying to control their weight to the detriment of their perf...

In the summer of 2024 athletes, coaches and support staff from every corner of the globe will compete at the Paris Olympic Games. Millions if not billions of sports fans around the world will watch their nations sporting superstars go for gold in 32 different sports. A total of twelve teams will battle it out in the men's team event. Great Britain have finished fourth in the last two Olympic...

In 2019 Ashley Watson retired from the sport of Men's artistic gymnastics after nineteen years of competing at the highest level. Shortly afterwards he was recruited by the world famous Cirque Du Solei to be part of a brand new show. The company closed down production and cancelled the new show during the global pandemic and Ash returned home from Canada.  He is now a successful content creat...

In Autumn 2023 I started to notice a gradual increase in stress levels woven into the world around me.  People seemed to be driving more erratically, they were under more pressure at work and the cost of living crisis was hitting everybody's pockets. In November I went out to celebrate my brother's birthday and seemed like every conversation I was having revolved around mental health or...

In 2012 Kristian Thomas performed the final floor routine that secured Great Britain's first Men's Olympic team medal in a century. He won a total of fourteen major championships medals throughout his career and was coached by Michelle Bradley at the Earls gymnastics club in the West Midlands. In 2013 he recovered from a knee ligament damage injury in the spring to win Britains first eve...

In 2013 Jack Blake was called up to the Nottingham Forest first team squad and shortly afterwards signed for Mansfield town on loan making his professional debut against Bury town. He spent the following season back playing for the Forest under 23's team, the club he'd joined as a ten year old and captained in the FA youth cup. After a decade at the club, Nottingham Forest released Jack...