The Sam Oldham Podcast

In 2023 I've experienced twelve months of what I would describe as my fullest year of life to date. I turned 30 in February and by the time that milestone arrived I'd already suffered the loss of a loved one. The podcast was born and I embarked on the journey of building a career after gymnastics. Following four amazing years I proposed to Connie and shortly afterwards we found out that...

In 2023 we started planning, recording, editing and uploading the Sam Oldham podcast. By the end of the year we will have sat down and recorded our 50th episode, which is an achievement myself and Sam Lindley are very proud of.  I've had the opportunity to sit down and talk to some amazing guests who have been kind enough to share their incredible stories with us over the past twelve months....

In 2010 James Wells was diagnosed with Myeloid Leukaemia at the age of twenty one. Just six months later following five months of intense chemotherapy James represented team England World Karate championships in Las Vegas.  However his Leukaemia relapsed which led to him requiring an urgent stem cell transplant and against all odds his little sister proved to be a perfect match. After another four...

In 2022 Declan James represented England at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham winning the gold medal in the men's squash doubles final alongside his partner James Willstrop.  That year also finished with him being crowned a World squash doubles champion however he suffered a ruptured achilles whilst competing and underwent reconstructive surgery. After extensive rehabilitation he's no...

In July 2021 Ekow Essumen won the British and Commonwealth boxing welterweight titles to add to his English title at the age of 32. He defended the British, Commonwealth, English and European IBF belts five times over the next two years. On November the 18th 2023 the fighter from Nottingham lost against Harry Scarff by unanimous decision at the Manchester arena. Ekow came to the UK at the age of e...

On January the 10th 2022 Kohei Uchimura san officially announced his retirement from competitive gymnastics. He won seven Olympic medals and a total of twenty one world championships medals throughout his career. The very first gymnastics competition I watched on TV was the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in which Alexi Nemov changed the sport of men's artistic gymnastics forever with his incredibl...

In October 2023 Leigh Wood knocked out the former two time featherweight champion Josh Warrington in the seventh round to retain his world title. The boxer from Nottingham has a professional record of 28 wins and 3 losses in his career to date. He faced Xu can in 2021 beating him to become the WBA featherweight champion of the world. His first title defence took place at the Motorpoint arena in hi...

In 2022 Frank Baines represented team Scotland at the Commonwealth Games for the third time in his career. Frank became the junior European all around champion in 2012 and was one of the best young talents in the sport of gymnastics. At just age seventeen Frank transitioned into the senior Great Britain mens gymnastics squad. Later that year whilst training at the Lilleshall National sports centre...

In 2008 Louis Smith became the British male gymnast to win an Olympic medal in a century. This inspired a generation of young British male artistic gymnasts that have since gone on to win eight more Olympic medals alongside countless World, European and Commonwealth silverware. Louis was part of history again in London 2012 winning the first team medal in 100 years and followed that up with a Pomm...

In 2020 a men's artistic gymnastics athlete tested positive for a banned substance. He was given a four year ban and following an appeal to the court of arbitration for sport this was reduced to two years. He argued that the Meldonium found in his system which is commonly used to treat heart conditions was due to contaminated food products. I was very naive about my sport growing up, to me it...

In 2015 Josh Champion was given the head coach position for the men's program at the Notts Gymnastics Academy at the age of 22.  His gymnastics journey began in his home town of Southport at the local gymnastics club Southport YMCA. He was part of a training group that included Olympic medalist Dan Purvis and Commonwealth Games medalist Frank Baines. Josh started his coaching career at the cl...

In 2018 Hamish Carter represented team Scotland at the Commonwealth games in the Gold Coast Australia. After winning a bronze medal with his team mates and some brilliant individual results on his senior debut. He chose to take up an incredible opportunity and accepted a full sports scholarship from the University of Illinois in America. As a junior athlete he won multiple international medals rep...

In June 2023 I found out that I was going to be a Dad. This journey began before I had met my best friend and fiancé Connie. At the age of twenty six I was lost. I was wresting with depression and anxiety and desperately searching for meaning in my life. Selfishly I asked some the key people around me the biggest question of all. Why am I here and what is this all about? I understand now that ulti...

In 2022 Giarnni Regini-Moran became the first men's artistic gymnastics floor exercise World championing history. What's even more remarkable about this incredible achievement, is that six years prior he had suffered an extremely serious knee injury which required significant surgery. Twelve months into his recovery another serious injury this time to his inside ankle ligament ultimately...

In January 2023 Ellie Downie announced her retirement from the sport of gymnastics.  At just fifteen she made her senior debut, winning bronze all around at the European championships in France. Ellie became an Olympian in 2016 competing alongside her sister Becky and team mates at the Rio Olympic Games where she finished 11th all round at just sixteen years of age. The following year in 2017 she...

In July 2023 I was given the results of a private ADHD assessment. This process first began at the age of 26, when I was referred to a mental health clinic and first began to struggle with depression and anxiety. As a kid, I struggled with inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that affected my ability to manage life. Gymnastics, almost instantly changed my trajectory and had a massively posit...

In may 2013 British triathlete Sophie Coldwell claimed her first World triathlon championships series gold medal in Yokohama Japan. A year earlier she was part of the English team that took the gold medal at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Sophie was named as the travelling reserve for TeamGB at what became the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games and now has her sights set on Paris 2024. She talks op...

In just seven years, Max Hayes has gone from starting a YouTube channel at the age of twelve years old. To now hosting a radio show and being the go to journalist on Sky sports, for news and insights surrounding Nottingham Forest.  He's now taking a traditional route studying journalism at university in Manchester, right in the heart of media city. Max is turning his love for storytelling int...

In the first eight months of 2023 an awful lot of life has happened. Many of my friends have turned 30, have gotten married and started a family of their own. After returning home from South America I decided to go at it alone and start building my own career. There was lots of change. My grandad passed away, we started a podcast and I'm now engaged. It's been a busy summer of birthdays,...

In 2021 Richard Whitehead won his fourth Paralympic medal for Great Britain, taking the silver in the men's 200m T61 Tokyo Paralympic final. Following the Games the decision was made to remove his event from the Paralympic program for the Paris 2024 Paralympic games. Richard has turned his focus back to marathon running, he's in training and has hopes of breaking the world record once ag...

In 2015, Wade Smith and Megan Scadden started the company Doughnotts with just £10.00 in her mum's kitchen. They now have stores all over the midlands and the brand has become synonymous with the city of Nottingham. Wade was raised by his Mum and grandparents in Clifton and speaks openly of being bullied throughout his time at secondary school due to being overweight. His time working in a ca...

In January of 2023 after arriving home from South America to lovely wintery English weather. I turned on the television and switched to the news, to catch up with everything that had been happening back home. The BBC had the minister for education on their morning breakfast show and I was completely dumbfounded by the questions they asked her. Are you concerned with the rise misogyny in young boys...

In October 2019, Joe Fraser became the first British man to win a World Championships gold medal on the parallel bars at age 21. Two years later he was selected to represent TeamGB at what became the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. The team secured a 4th place finish and Joe ended the Olympic cycle as the 9th best all around gymnast on the planet. 2022 was incredible year for Joe and one that saw him ad...

In 2009 Dan Keatings made history becoming the first British man to win an all around World Championships medal. Incredibly he made his senior debut at just sixteen years of age when he represented Scotland at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. After Leading Great Britain to their first ever team gold medal at the 2008 junior European championships in Switzerland. Dan represented TeamGB at...

In the spring of 2023, I had an all too familiar conversation with a high level gymnastics coach. They began to complain of both the current and next generation of talent coming through. It's been put to me on many occasions that they're lazy, unmotivated and have bad attitudes. At times I've been guilty of making these claims myself and whilst it's true that  small group of pe...