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.Â
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The Brody Malone Story | EP 141
At the 2025 World gymnastics championships, Brody Malone won his second World title for the US men's gymnastics team on the horizontal bar. Brody was a key member of the five man US team that took the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games twelve months ago. In 2023 he sustained an extremely serious knee injury whilst performing on the high bar at an international event in Germany, which required multiple surgeries and a lengthy rehabilitation process. Remarkably Brody was able to make a full recovery to earn his place on his second Olympic team and he now stands alongside Kurt Thomas and Paulo Hamm as the only American male gymnasts to win two world titles in the sport. And this is his story.Â
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The Irish National Team Interviews | EP 140
In March 2024 we travelled out to Ireland to shoot our latest short film with the Paris 2024 men's artistic gymnastics pommel horse Olympic champion Rhys McClenaghan. Rhys shares his story of self discovery and chasing Olympic perfection following his 7th place finish at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Whilst in Dublin we were lucky enough to speak with former Irish National team member and now junior National coach Andrew Smith about Rhys's journey. His team mates Adam Steele and Eamon Montgomery talked about their personal experiences of competing alongside him for many years. Our new short film titled "Rhys McClenaghan | Chasing Olympic Perfection" is available now on the Sam Oldham YouTube channel. Thank you to Rhys and his countrymen for being incredibly generous with their time. This is their story.Â
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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.Â
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A Conversation With Daniel Keatings | EP 138
In this episode of the Sam Oldham podcast I'm joined by Daniel Keatings. Dan won a total of eleven major championships medals in the sport of men's gymnastics throughout his career and represented Team GB at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Since retiring from a career in professional sports, Dan like many others before him has struggled with both physically and mentally as a result of performing at the very highest level in sport. In light of the tragic passing of the great Ricky Hatton and recent incidents involving serious injury in the sport of artistic gymnastics. Myself and Dan sit down to discuss the lasting physical and psychological impact competing in high level sport continues to have in our lives today as retired professional athlete's. And this is his story.Â
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.
Ireland