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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1:11:40
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
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1:06:36
The Adam Tobin Story | EP 137
In 2023, Adam Tobin was crowned the men's artistic British all around gymnastics champion at the echo arena in Liverpool. Following his National success, Adam was selected to represent Great Britain at the European championships alongside his four team mates: Jake Jarman, Luke Whitehouse, Courtney Tulloch and Joshua Nathan, winning a team bronze medal. He was a successful junior athlete and was part of the 2018 Junior European championships silver medal winning team which included the likes of Jake Jarman & Jamie Lewis. Subsequently Adam was selected to compete at the Youth Olympics Games that same year in Argentina for Team GB where he finished 5th in the all around final. Adam has recently moved training bases from the Falcon's gymnastics club in Devon to the Notts Gymnastics Academy and has hopes of representing Great Britain at the LA 2028 Olympic Games. And this is his story.Â
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The Donnell Whittenburg Story | EP 136
In 2014, at the World gymnastics championships in Nanning China. Donnell Whittenburg burst onto the international stage at the age of twenty, performing incredibly difficult gymnastics routines and helping team USA win the bronze medal. One year later, Donnell was able to keep his composure under immense pressure and stood atop the World championships vault podium winning bronze again alongside the Olympic champion Ri Se-gwang and the great Marian Dragulescu. Most recently Donnell has been selected to represent team USA at the upcoming World gymnastics championships in Indonesia. Donnell is now training at EVO gymnastics and has hopes of representing the US men's gymnastics team at the LA 2028 Olympic Games. 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