The Sam Oldham Podcast

🥇 In 2026, we're launching a brand-new monthly gymnastics show on The Sam Oldham Podcast. Each month, we'll explore the biggest names, emerging storylines, and major championship build-ups in artistic gymnastics, alongside post-competition debriefs with some of the sport's most passionate experts, coaches, and analysts.
In this episode, I look back at the Men’s European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, which took place in Zagreb, Croatia, in August.
The men’s all-around final was won by Illia Kovtun, now representing the host nation, Croatia, by just one thousandth of a point. That incredibly small margin of victory was repeated in the junior event, where Daniil Smirnov, competing as a Russian athlete for Team World Gymnastics 2, took the title—demonstrating just how competitive the sport has become since the reduction to eight skills following the Paris Olympic Games.
In the team event, the Russian athletes dominated qualification, led by first-year senior Arsenii Dukhno and Daniil Marinov. However, an outstanding performance from Great Britain saw them claim the team title in Sunday’s final. The experience of Joe Fraser, Courtney Tulloch and Harry Hepworth proved to be the deciding factor in one of the most exciting competitions on the European stage in recent years.
All six individual apparatus finals were won by athletes from different countries, including a world-class pommel horse final that was eventually won by Gabriele Targhetta. Remarkably, the top four scores in that final would each have been enough to win the World Championships title less than twelve months ago—an indication of the extraordinary standard we might expect to see in October, when the world’s best gymnasts descend on Rotterdam.
Our mission remains the same: to share the stories behind the finest athletes in gymnastics and celebrate the sport we love.

Thank you to our listeners, sponsors, and supporters for being part of the journey.

Welcome to Episode 8 of The Gymnastics Show! 🎙️

Today’s guest is Australian tumbling champion Ethan McGuinness.
Ethan is a two-time men’s individual World tumbling champion, winning his first World title in 2022 and bringing the gold medal home to Australia again in 2025.
But his journey to the top has been anything but easy. In 2017, Ethan suffered a devastating injury, fracturing both his tibia and fibula in a freak accident while competing in the double mini trampoline event.
After years of hard work and dedication, he returned to become a World champion alongside his coach, Dima Kachan. At one point, Ethan was even working full-time laying turf in the early hours of the morning while chasing his dream of becoming a professional athlete.
Today, through events like Face Off and his growing social media presence, Ethan has helped shine a light on the incredible talent within the sport of tumbling.
This is the story of Ethan McGuinness.

🥇 In 2026, we're launching a brand-new monthly gymnastics show on The Sam Oldham Podcast. Each month, we'll explore the biggest names, emerging storylines, and major championship build-ups in artistic gymnastics, alongside post-competition debriefs with some of the sport's most passionate experts, coaches, and analysts.
In this episode of the Sam Oldham Podcast, I’m joined by Kensley Behel, the talented voice behind Neutral Deductions — a podcast, website and social media platform dedicated to men’s artistic gymnastics.
Together, we recap the Commonwealth Games and discuss some of the standout performances, including all-around champion Reuben Ward, multiple Canadian apparatus gold medallist Félix Dolci, and Australian star Jesse Moore.
Kensley also breaks down the recent US National Championships in Phoenix, Arizona, which doubled as the selection event for the US men’s World Championships team. We look at the leading all-around performances from champion Fred Richard, silver medallist Shane Wiskus and exciting young talent Danila Leykin, who finished third. We also discuss strong specialist performances from Kameron Nelson and Patrick Hoopes, which secured their places on the team heading to Rotterdam in October.
Finally, we preview the upcoming European Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. Great Britain will be looking to defend their 2025 team title, while the competition will feature the return of a Russian men’s team to the European stage after several years away.
The all-around title promises to be fiercely contested, with Joe Fraser, Arsenii Dukhno, Illia Kovtun and former champion Adem Asil among the leading contenders. Meanwhile, some of the biggest names in the sport will battle for individual apparatus titles, including Harry Hepworth, Eleftherios Petronias , Rhys McClenaghan and Artur Davtyan.
Our mission remains the same: to share the stories behind the finest athletes in gymnastics and celebrate the sport we love.
Thank you to our listeners, sponsors, and supporters for being part of the journey.
Welcome to Episode 7 of The Gymnastics Show! 🎙️

At the 2025 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Jonas Rushworth helped the British men’s team claim gold. It was his first major championships, and Jonas made an immediate impression, competing across multiple apparatus and establishing himself as an important member of the team.
Now, just a year later, he’s been selected again to represent Great Britain at this year’s European Championships in Croatia.
And 2026 has already been a breakthrough year for Jonas. He’s been crowned English All-Around Champion and, at the British Championships in March, finished runner-up to Olympian and World Parallel bars Champion Joe Fraser.
Training at Leeds Gymnastics Club alongside Olympic vault medallist Harry Hepworth and World Floor Exercise medallist Luke Whitehouse, Jonas is surrounded by athletes who have already reached the highest levels of the sport.
With LA 2028 firmly in his sights, he’s hoping to follow in their footsteps and establish himself among the next generation of British gymnastics stars.
This is Jonas Rushworth’s story.

On July the 4th 2026, surrounded by family members, loved ones and close friends I married the most beautiful person in the World. It was truly the best day of our lives and we both felt incredibly lucky to have shared the experience with soo many wonderful human beings. Ozzy is now two and a half years old and growing at a pace that me and his Mum find rather bewildering. The past twelve months have been full of both challenges and positive milestones in all aspects of my self employed work. I've shared my Olympic story with thousands of children again this academic year, coached many young gymnasts at both ends of the performance pyramid and have had many exciting opportunities to work with elite athletes. Gymnastics continues to evolve but as we reach the half way point in the LA 2028 Olympic cycle the financial framework within the sport is something I'm watching extremely closely. A wedding signifies the start of a brand new chapter and I feel optimistic about the possibility of building a long lasting legacy that will give back to the sport of artistic gymnastics for many years to come. And this is my story.