The Game of Gymnastics

Winston Powell
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Welcome to The Game of Gymnastics podcast, where we dive deep into the world of elite gymnastics. Join us as we explore how top gymnasts, coaches, and judges optimize training and performance to achieve peak results. We'll look into the scoring system, revealing how athletes strategically use the Code of Points to their advantage. Discover how gymnasts manage recovery and cope with the inevitable injuries that come with the sport. We’ll also explore how these athletes handle the intense pressure of competing at the highest levels, from the Olympics to the Commonwealth Games and beyond. Whether you're a gymnast, coach, or fan, this podcast offers valuable insights into how the best in the world play the game to win when it matters most.

  1. 5d ago

    Omo on DMT, World Medals and Almost Joining Cirque du Soleil

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: Host Winston Powell sits down with Omo, three time world medalist in DMT, World Games silver medalist in 2025, and the freshly crowned European Champion. Omo breaks down what DMT actually is, how he progressed from Acro at seven to the world stage by twelve, and how a last minute Cirque du Soleil setback ended up shaping his strongest competition to date. The conversation also dives into the inconsistency of the discipline, the tactical side of knowing the code, and why DMT deserves more visibility than it currently gets. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Omo started in Acro at seven before moving into DMT around 2016, making his first World Championships at just twelve years old in 2017. Going to a world stage so young taught him early on to expect the unexpected, and that not every competition is going to go to plan no matter how well training has gone. His 2025 World Games silver in Chengdu was a long awaited redemption after the previous edition in 2022 went badly for him. A Cirque du Soleil contract fell through just before Euros 2025, which left him in a strange headspace going in, lower pressure, less peaking, and ultimately a gold medal performance. DMT is one of the most inconsistent disciplines in gymnastics because the trampoline is small, the skills are huge, and there is no room to save yourself between elements. Knowing the code matters. At Euros, his coaches changed his first pass mid competition based on the scores ahead of him, and understanding why made him a better collaborator in those decisions. DMT needs to become more viewer friendly. Long waits between scores hurt the spectator experience, and formats like Faceoff show what the sport could borrow. Adversity really is a superpower. The hard volume blocks of training and the disappointment of the Cirque decision both fed directly into the form he showed at Euros. BEST MOMENTS: "I just keep doing it and see what happens. If I get good results, cool, but at least I get to flip." "It taught me, going forward, to expect the unexpected." "You run up, you do two flips, and then land. Hopefully on your feet, not your face." "I was kind of just there, doing my flips, see what happens. And it just worked out." "Everything happens for a reason. A couple of weeks later, I go out to Euros and get a gold medal." "I literally just enjoy it. Go with the flow." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

    25 min

  2. Jun 22

    Why Olympic Athletes Should Be Paid

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: In this solo episode, host Winston Powell breaks down the controversy sparked by new IOC president Kirsty Coventry after she said she does not believe Olympic medalists should receive direct prize money from the IOC. As a GB athlete himself, Winston walks through what Coventry actually said, the strongest arguments on her side, and why he firmly believes Olympic athletes deserve a share of the value they generate, while still acknowledging the case for protecting wider athlete development funding. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Kirsty Coventry sparked major backlash by saying Olympic medals should not come with IOC prize money, arguing the IOC's role is to fund athlete development and life after sport for a much larger pool of athletes. The strongest case for her position is that prize money concentrates funding among the very few who medal, while the wider pathway needs ongoing investment to keep producing athletes in the first place. That funding inequality argument already breaks down at the governing body level. British Gymnastics gets more UK Sport and National Lottery funding when its athletes succeed at the Olympics, so success already breeds success. The Olympics simply does not exist without the athletes. People do not watch IOC committee meetings, they watch Simone Biles, Noah Lyles, and Leon Marchand. The IOC generated 7.7 billion dollars last cycle, with around 65 million paid out across 24 IOC directors, yet athletes still receive no direct prize money from the Games themselves. Toyota pulling out of an 835 million dollar partnership and openly stating the IOC does not prioritise athletes raises serious questions about where the money is actually going. Other major sports pay their athletes well. The NBA shares roughly 50 percent of revenue with players, while paying every Olympic athlete plus medal bonuses would barely dent IOC revenue at around 1 to 3 percent. The fairest model is not one or the other but both, real grassroots and athlete development funding alongside a meaningful revenue share for the people actually creating the spectacle. BEST MOMENTS: "The Olympics doesn't exist without the athletes." "The athletes themselves generate the value, and yet many struggle financially." "If the Olympics paid out athletes, plus gold, silver, and bronze bonuses, it wouldn't make a dent in their bottom line." "When you generate that amount of revenue, you have to be very careful about where it goes." "The question isn't whether athletes should be supported. Everyone agrees that they should. The question is whether the athletes who create the Olympic Games should share directly in the success of the Olympic Games." "You won't suddenly get random people trying to go into the Olympics because there's a financial reward out of the back of it." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

    15 min

  3. Jun 15

    Connor Keane on Aerobic Gymnastics, World Championships and Almost Quitting

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: Host Winston Powell sits down with a qualified aerobic gymnastics judge and current GB athlete who has represented the country at both World and European Championships. The conversation dives deep into one of gymnastics' lesser known disciplines, breaking down what aerobic gymnastics actually is, how it is judged, what training looks like, and the long, honest road from genuinely hating the sport for years to becoming one of GB's top competitors in it. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Aerobic gymnastics is essentially a high energy, minute and a half dance built around eight elements, choreography blocks, and creative transitions, all judged on artistic, execution, and difficulty scores. The guest only fell in love with the sport once he started watching top level competitions and learning what truly elite aerobics looks like, with difficulty as his way in. Lockdown and a torn ACL knocked out his early shots at qualifying, but he eventually made his first World Championships in 2022, finishing 13th or 14th individually before steadily progressing. Aerobic routines are nonstop, with no breaks built in. The hardest part is not the elements themselves, but executing them perfectly when you are completely fatigued late in the routine. Difficulty scoring divides differently for groups and trios depending on the gender mix, a deliberate move to stop all male teams from dominating purely on raw element value. A B twist took the guest two to three years to learn properly because once technique goes wrong in aerobics, repetition can ingrain the mistake. Other gymnasts can copy elements from a video in one session. The artistry score is genuinely subjective, and routines that look exactly like everyone else's risk being marked down for being predictable or unoriginal. The sport is finally moving away from outdated routines and leotards that put both gymnasts and the wider public off, and modern aerobic gymnastics is now far more watchable. BEST MOMENTS: "I had to eventually love it." "You can think it's as difficult as you want, but if you're not training it to be perfect, it's not going to work." "If I'm working hard, the right things will come." "Just being there was massive for me." "You can say it as many times as you like, but until it's in the routine and it's happening, it doesn't exist." "If you look exactly like everyone has looked for the last 20 years, you're leaving yourself open to getting a lower score." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

    39 min

  4. Jun 8

    How Gymnasts Actually Learn Skills

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: In this solo episode, host Winston Powell pulls back the curtain on one of the least understood parts of the sport: how gymnasts actually learn skills. From the foundations and preps, through endless repetitions and combinations, to routine fitness and competing under pressure, Winston walks through the full journey a single skill takes before it ever appears in a routine, using his own experience learning skills like the Healy on parallel bars. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Every skill starts with foundations. You cannot build advanced elements without the basics being correct, and a flawed foundation can mean learning a skill incorrectly from the start. Preps are individual to each skill and exist to prepare you mentally and physically, letting you fail safely while getting a feel for the rhythm and motion. Skill learning is slow. A skill like the Healy can take months or years, often started at 13 or 14 and not competed until 16 or 17. Setting small goals along the way, first prep, first rep, first set, keeps motivation alive when the real payoff is years down the line. Time spent on one skill is time lost on another, so gymnasts have to be conscious of the trade offs in what they choose to drill. Repetition builds consistency, but a skill changes completely once you put something before it in a combination, so it has to be drilled in context, not just in isolation. Routine fitness is its own challenge. A skill that feels fine alone can sap huge energy late in a routine, which is why full routines and heavy weeks matter so much. Setbacks are part of the process. Progress is never a straight line, you will go backwards, and the only real answer is patience, respecting the game, and failing forwards. BEST MOMENTS: "You can't run before you can walk. And if you've taken a backwards step, you can't pretend that you haven't." "The point of the preps is to be able to fail in a safe environment." "The amount of time you spend on one thing means the time you're losing on something else." "None of these are pretty. None of these are perfect gymnastics, but over time they will get better." "All you need is your way of doing it. And that's enough." "Things take a long, long time. Things will be difficult, but that doesn't mean you're not moving in the right direction." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

    22 min

  5. Jun 1

    Roddy Mackay on Gymnastics, Gladiators and a Life in Sport

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: Host Winston Powell sits down with Roddy Mackay, an ex-GB gymnast from the late 80s and early 90s, former Gladiators contestant, ex-British freestyle skydiving champion, and now a gymnastics club owner and school coach in Newcastle. Roddy reflects on how the sport has transformed over the past 40 years, the foundations laid by John Atkinson that built modern British gymnastics, his journey through television and skydiving after retirement, and why fun and early success matter more than long term promises in coaching. KEY TAKEAWAYS: The success British gymnastics is seeing today is built on foundations laid by John Atkinson 30 years ago, who predicted it would take 25 years for the results to come through. Gymnastics in the 80s and 90s was regimented and results focused, with very little safeguarding. The modern child-centred approach is a huge step forward for the sport. Late developers can absolutely thrive. Roddy did not hit his stride until around 17 to 20 years old and felt he could have continued competing for another five years had he stayed in. Men's artistic floor has lost much of its artistry. The skill of athletes like Neil Thomas in the 80s and 90s showed how dance elements and tumble passes could sit together. The volume of training hours in gymnastics deserves serious scrutiny. More efficient, focused sessions could deliver the same results while protecting kids' education and wellbeing. A career in gymnastics opens doors well beyond the sport. Roddy moved into Gladiators training and casting, TV stunt work, competitive skydiving, and now school coaching and club ownership. Coaches owe it to their gymnasts to put them in environments where they will experience success and recognition, not just promise rewards 10 years down the line. The greatest lesson sport teaches is resilience. Falling off the pommels 10 times and getting up for the 11th is what carries you through everything else in life. BEST MOMENTS: "What I've started now, you won't see the results for 25 years." (John Atkinson) "Gymnastics is the best foundation for any sport or activity you can do." "When you get knocked down, get up, dust yourself off, keep going." "The results will come if you enjoy it." "Coaches owe it to their gymnasts to put them in environments where they are going to have success." "There's a million different ways to do the same thing and you just have to keep going." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

    36 min

  6. May 25

    What Gymnastics Actually Teaches You

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: In this solo episode, host Winston Powell breaks down what gymnastics actually teaches you, far beyond the skills, the scores, and the medals. Drawing on his own experience as a Senior GB gymnast and on recent conversations with guests like Bryony Page, Roddy Mackay, and Joe Fishburn, Winston explores the mental and personal lessons that gymnastics quietly builds into the people who do it, and why they matter just as much as anything that happens in the gym. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Gymnastics is one of the best sports for young children because it builds full body awareness, strength, and discipline, which transfers powerfully into other sports later on. Delayed gratification is a core gymnastics lesson. Skills can take years to make it into a routine, and the biggest results, like John Atkinson's 25 year vision for British gymnastics, only show up over the long term. Failure is not the enemy. The goal is to fail forwards, making different mistakes each time, learning from them, and getting closer to the outcome you want. Effort alone is not enough. As Bryony Page's Rio journey shows, success comes when you channel that effort into the right places: psychology, S&C, nutrition, sleep, and technical work. Talent matters at the very top, but it is not the only ingredient. Talent comes in many shapes and sizes, and your strengths in gymnastics will shift and grow over time. Tying your entire identity to gymnastics is risky. When the sport is going well it feels great, but when it is not, you need a sense of self that exists outside the gym. You are more than your start value or your score. Your worth is not defined by what you can contribute to a team on any given day. People overestimate what they can do in a year but underestimate what they can do in five. Long term ambition is where the real growth lives. BEST MOMENTS: "Failure is not something to avoid. Failure is something to embrace." "Failing forwards means failing, but getting closer and closer to the perfect or the correct outcome." "Your entire gymnastics career is experience for your later life." "Just because you can't do it one way doesn't mean you can't do it. It means you can't do it that way." "Your worth is not directly tied to how successful you are as a gymnast." "The only person with the right to judge you is you. But you have to make sure that you're judging yourself fairly." "People often overestimate what they can do in a year, but underestimate what they can do in five." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

    20 min

  7. May 18

    Zara Turton on Becoming World Champion and Going Viral

    ABOUT THE EPISODE: Host Winston Powell sits down with Zara Turton, the 2015 World Down Syndrome Rhythmic All-Around Champion, who has recently picked up tumbling alongside her rhythmic training and gone viral on Instagram with over 5 million views. This is a more light-hearted conversation than usual, covering Zara's gymnastics journey, her gymnastics family at City of Birmingham, her plans to start coaching, and why disability gymnastics deserves much more visibility. For listeners on audio only, the YouTube version with captions is recommended for the best experience. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Zara started rhythmic gymnastics at seven years old, brought into the sport by her mum, dad, sisters, nan, and aunties, with Olympians Mimi Cesar and Frankie as her early role models. At the 2015 World Down Syndrome Championships, Zara competed across five pieces and came home with five medals, including the all-around gold. After years of dedicated rhythmic training, Zara has now added tumbling to her schedule and has already competed five times in the discipline. Her recent Instagram reel reached 5.3 million views, bringing a huge wave of new visibility to disability gymnastics and the athletes within it. Zara is currently working through her coaching qualifications in both rhythmic and tumbling, with plans to coach development groups rather than recreational classes. Joe Fraser has been a long-time personal supporter, attending Zara's competitions over the years and welcoming her into his own gym community. More mainstream representation, like seeing Down syndrome athletes on shows like Strictly Come Dancing, helps break down outdated assumptions about what is possible in elite performance. Zara's message to young gymnasts with Down syndrome is simple, come and talk to her, and she will help. BEST MOMENTS: (when asked what gymnastics means to her) "My life." "I'm strong every week." "I got to have my photo up in the gym." "If anyone does (judge), you just leave it." "More worlds." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

    21 min

  8. May 11

    Bryony Page: Silver, Bronze, Olympic Gold

    Google Form: https://forms.gle/hbNgoCSsBPhQbJto7 ABOUT THE EPISODE: Host Winston Powell sits down with triple Olympic medalist Bryony Page to walk through her full Olympic journey, from missing out on London 2012 to winning silver in Rio, bronze in Tokyo, and finally gold in Paris. Bryony opens up about the hardest year of her life leading into Rio, the mindset shifts that turned her career around, and what it meant to be chosen as Team GB's closing ceremony flag bearer at Paris 2024. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Missing out on London 2012 became a turning point. Watching Team GB athletes' families celebrate became a positive motivator that drove Bryony forward for years to come. The build up to Rio 2016 was the toughest period of her life, with injury, illness, grief, and the pressure of fighting three women for two team spots all colliding at once. Real change came when Bryony stopped trying to control the outcome and focused entirely on the process, taking ownership of her own journey instead of waiting for things to fix themselves. Going into Rio she set three targets: enjoy the experience, learn from it, and try to do the best she could. Hitting the best routine of her life in the Olympic final delivered all three. Tokyo 2020 brought a bronze medal but also unexpected guilt, the strange experience of feeling disappointed with an Olympic medal because she had been chasing something bigger. Paris 2024 was her most successful Olympic cycle, going in as reigning world and European champion, with the strength to win gold even without delivering her absolute best. Trampolining is often dismissed as not a serious sport, so being chosen as Team GB's closing ceremony flag bearer felt like a huge moment of recognition for the discipline as a whole. Olympic dreams come down to a 30 second routine, but the years of training that lead to it have to be worthwhile in their own right, regardless of the outcome. BEST MOMENTS: "I was so proud of myself for the efforts that I put in. I was proud of myself for the person that I was becoming." "I couldn't be disappointed in myself. I could be disappointed in the performance that I would deliver, but I would never ever be disappointed in myself." "The silver medal is still my gold medal. It feels more like mine than it does the gold." "Lightning doesn't strike twice." "I just took more control of my journey. I was like, right, this isn't working. Let's see if I can change this." "Make it worthwhile, no matter what you want the outcome to be." "It feels like it was always meant to happen, but it also didn't happen. It's such a weird feeling." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

    42 min
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About

Welcome to The Game of Gymnastics podcast, where we dive deep into the world of elite gymnastics. Join us as we explore how top gymnasts, coaches, and judges optimize training and performance to achieve peak results. We'll look into the scoring system, revealing how athletes strategically use the Code of Points to their advantage. Discover how gymnasts manage recovery and cope with the inevitable injuries that come with the sport. We’ll also explore how these athletes handle the intense pressure of competing at the highest levels, from the Olympics to the Commonwealth Games and beyond. Whether you're a gymnast, coach, or fan, this podcast offers valuable insights into how the best in the world play the game to win when it matters most.

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