The Sam Oldham Podcast

Sam Oldham

At seven years old I walked into a gymnastics club for the very first time. I was hooked. For the next twenty one years, I dedicated my life to becoming an Olympic champion. I'm going to share with you the life lessons, experiences and stories that have shaped the man I am today. I'm now starting a new chapter in my life beyond my sporting career and look forward to bringing you along with me.

  1. Junior World Gymnastics Championships 2025 | EP 142

    DEC 1

    Junior World Gymnastics Championships 2025 | EP 142

    In November 2025, the third edition of the Junior World gymnastics championships took place in the Philippines. I'm going to be discussing my big takeaways from the men's team event in which the Chinese men came out on top ahead of team Japan, who were very closely followed by the three man US squad. The all around crown was won by the Russian gymnast Arsenii Dukhno who was competing as a neutral athlete. He edged out the Asian Games champion from Japan Nao Ojima with Yang Lanbin the top Chinese athlete finishing in third to complete the men's podium. China took the gold medals on the floor exercise and pommel horse with Yang Lanbin's beautiful routine on the former of the two apparatus and Zheng Ao winning gold the pommel horse. Dante Reive became the Junior world still rings champion and the all around champion Arsenii Dukhno got his individual title on vault performing a near perfect Yuchenko triple twist. Following in footsteps of his senior training partner Angel Bajaras, Colombian superstar Camilo Vera took two gold medals to round out the championships. On the parallel bars he shared the title with Nao Ojima and then on the horizontal bar he performed a routine that would have been competitive just one month earlier at the senior World gymnastics championships. Overall I was extremely impressed with the level of competition at these junior championships and expect many of these athletes to play key roles for their respective nations throughout this olympic cycle and beyond. Beyond the gold-medal winners, standout performances were delivered by Simone Seperanza, Eldrew Yulo, Danila Leykin, Sol Scott, and Nael Sakouhi. And this is my story.

    52 min
  2. 2025 World Gymnastics Championships Debrief | EP 139

    NOV 3

    2025 World Gymnastics Championships Debrief | EP 139

    At the 2025 World gymnastics championships, Daiki Hashimoto became the men's all around champion for the third consecutive year. He defended his title against strong challenges from the current Olympic all around champion Oka Shinosuke of Japan and runner up Zhang Boheng of team China. Hashimoto now stands alone as the second most successful World championships men's all round athlete with three gold's, behind the great Kohei Uchimura who won six titles. In the apparatus finals the level of competition was incredibly high with individual titles being split between the countries of Great Britain, the Philippines, China and team USA. Jake Jarman won his second World championships title adding the floor gold medal to his collection in Indonesia, with his team mate Luke Whitehouse taking the silver. The new teenage Chinese pommel horse worker Hong Yanming took the title in a battle between difficulty and execution in which the latter came out on top. Donnell Whittenburg became the World Still rings champion at the age of 31 performing his own skill at his sixth World Championships appearance. On vault it came down to finest of margins but in the end Carlos Yulo edged out Artur Davtyan, who was able to stick both of his vaults under immense pressure to win the silver. Zou Jingyuan has the most dominant routine in the sport of men's gymnastics and has done for a number of years now. In years to come he will be universally remembered as the greatest parallel bar worker of all time and it's a joy to watch his performances. Unlike the events that unfolded in Paris twelve months ago, the high bar final produced some of the best routines we've ever seen on this apparatus. It was Brody Malone that became the 2025 World champion for team USA but he was closely followed by Daiki Hashoimto and Joe Fraser who continues to produce World class gymnastics time and time again for Great Britain. And this is my story.

    1h 12m
5
out of 5
18 Ratings

About

At seven years old I walked into a gymnastics club for the very first time. I was hooked. For the next twenty one years, I dedicated my life to becoming an Olympic champion. I'm going to share with you the life lessons, experiences and stories that have shaped the man I am today. I'm now starting a new chapter in my life beyond my sporting career and look forward to bringing you along with me.

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