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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

In 2024 at the Paris Olympic Games, Kazuma Kaya captained the Japanese men's gymnastics team to the gold medal in the Olympic team final. Four years earlier, Kazuma and the Japanese men had finished second to the Russian federation by just 0.103 tenths of a point. Individually at the same Tokyo 2020 home Olympic Games, he claimed the pommel horse bronze medal for team Japan. Currently Kazuma is recovering from a ruptured achilles tendon injury but has hopes of defending the Japanese team Olympic gold medal at the LA 2028 Olympic Games in three years time. Throughout his incredible gymnastics career, Kazuma Kaya has won eight World championships medals including two gold, two silver and four bronze. And this is his story. 

In 2025 I've had the opportunity to reconnect with many of my former team mates and have enjoyed spending quality time with them over the summer. We have all had very unique experiences as elite athletes competing at the very highest level of competition. Between us we have won Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth medals representing Great Britain in the sport of gymnastics. Retiring from elite sport as a young man or woman presents significant challenges & often results in a loss of identity. In light of the passing of the great Ricky Hatton, I feel passionately about sharing my own experience of adjusting to life after sport for the next generation to learn from. And this is my story. 

In August 2025, the US National gymnastics championships took place in New Orleans. The very best athletes in America were competing for the National title and a spot on the World championships team that will represent Team USA in Jakarta in October. This week I'm joined by Kensley Behel of Neutral Deductions to discuss the US championships performances, the subsequent team selection and look ahead to the first major global championships of the LA 2028 Olympic cycle. At the 2024 Paris Olympic Games Kensley played a key role in the NBC broadcasting team's coverage of the Olympic team final and was recently awarded an EMMY for her incredible work as an expert researcher. The US men's team won a bronze medal in dramatic fashion, thanks to a beautiful pommel horse routine by Stephen Nedoroscik. And this is our story.

In 2018, Dominick Cunningham became the third male British artistic gymnast to win the European floor exercise title at the European gymnastics championships in Glasgow. Dominick was a consistent member of the British team throughout the Tokyo Olympic cycle qualifying for six individual major championships apparatus finals in the process and winning a European team silver medal. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia Dominick and team England dominated the competition winning the team gold medal in the Gold Coast. Dom trained at the Earls gymnastics club alongside London 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Kristian Thomas in the early chapters of his career. Over the past decade he has been part of the Birmingham gymnastics club who have had incredible amounts of success in Great Britain wining the historic Adam's shield on multiple occasions. In 2022 Dominick switched Nationalities and now represents team Ireland with hopes of competing at the LA 2028 Olympic Games. And this is his story. 

In August 2025, the men's and women's British artistic gymnastics World championships trials took place at the Lilleshall National sports centre. It was a rare opportunity to watch the very best athletes in the country compete in high level competition and see behind the curtain. I'm going to be talking about some of the standout performances and my big takeaways following the event which include highlights from Joe Fraser and Alex Cash. I'll also share my personal experiences visiting Singapore this summer, where gymnastics afforded me an amazing opportunity to revisit the country that hosted the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympic Games. And this is my story. 

In this episode of "The Sam Oldham Podcast" I'm going to be answering questions that have been sent in by some of our amazing listeners. I'll also look at some current topical stories from the world of gymnastics and share some of my own recent personal experiences. This is the 130th episode of the podcast which marks the two and a half year anniversary of the start of the show. Thank you to all of our listeners for their continued support and of course the sponsors who believe in the work that we're doing. And this is my story.