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. Balancing her education alongside her gymnastics eventually led to her accepting a full sports scholarship ...
May 13, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 66
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 title at the 2023 World Championships. The British team produced an incredibly professional perform...
May 06, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 65
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 kid Dave found the sport of gymnastics training at South Essex gymnastics club. His legacy is now intertwined wi...
Apr 29, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 64
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 service in 2010. He then went on to work as a maritime security team leader in the Somali basin and is now ...
Apr 22, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 63
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 through a local initiative that connected sports medical practitioners with upcoming athletes in the N...
Apr 15, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 62
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 long ago I was man that had lost all hope of a future and couldn't see a way out. Every single day ...
Apr 08, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 61
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 and British championships have now taken place and the American team is looking incredibly strong both...
Apr 01, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 60
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 failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. He went on to be an early component in the beginning of what became...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 59
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 already become one of the most exciting athletes in the sport. He represents the Michigan Wolverines college team compe...
Mar 18, 2024•58 min•Ep. 58
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 Mum won an Olympic bronze medal in the Skeleton bobsleigh for TeamGB. He recently competed at the English ...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 57
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 to Australia and then Singapore where he coached the Singapore Wonderers to a rugby league title. Wi...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 56
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 whole gymnastics career. Luckily we managed to collect my kit bag that same morning but not before Serge...
Feb 26, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 55
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 performance. Myself and Nile try to unpick our own experiences with food and lessons we've learned along ...
Feb 12, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 54
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 Games and the five men selected will be hoping to go one step further in France. Who will earn themselves...
Feb 05, 2024•48 min•Ep. 53
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 creator in his own right producing gymnastics based entertainment online and following in Nile Wilson's footste...
Jan 29, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 52
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 money worries. Then between Christmas and New Year I went out for dinner with some friends and we had a really ...
Jan 22, 2024•29 min•Ep. 51
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 ever World championship medal on the vault in Belgium. He has won major championships honours on more individual ...
Jan 15, 2024•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 50
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 and in May 2016 he decided to take a chance and moved across the Atlantic in hopes of playing football in Amer...
Jan 08, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 49
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 we were going to be parents to a little boy. After 30 years of something feeling out of place things began to ...
Jan 01, 2024•43 min•Season 1Ep. 48
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 this episode I explore the stories that resonated with our listeners the most, talk about what I learne...
Dec 27, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 47
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 months of intensive chemotherapy and full body irradiation James remarkably made a full recovery. In...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 46
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 now back competing internationally and has his sights on getting back to his very best. Dec broke into the world ...
Dec 11, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 45
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 eleven from Botswana with his Dad and found the sport of boxing as a teenager. His career led him to ...
Dec 04, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 44
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 incredible High Bar routine. Vitaly Scherbo won six Olympic gold medals in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympic Games an ...
Nov 27, 2023•52 min•Ep. 43
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 his home city against Michael Conlin where Leigh managed to knockout the Irish fighter in the 12th rou...
Nov 19, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 42
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 a freak accident on the High Bar resulted in him fracturing his T1 - T4 in his spine. Incredibly he...
Nov 13, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 41
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 Pommel horse silver medal in the O2 arena. Louis became a household name after his Olympic success in 20...
Nov 06, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Season 1Ep. 40
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 was all bout respect, work ethic, honesty and wether or not the best man could win. We all have a differ...
Oct 30, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 39
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 club alongside studying sports science at university in Liverpool. Over the course of the past eight years h...
Oct 23, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 38
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 representing Great Britain at time when British male junior athletes were dominating the sport in Europ...
Oct 16, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 37
