The Sam Oldham Podcast

In 2022 Felix Coomber began a four year course studying international social science at the university of Tsukuba in Japan. Felix started gymnastics at the age of five and has won multiple individual medals nationally in recent years. He is the first British gymnast to train full time in Japan and now represents the university team.  In 2002 at the Salt Lake City winter Olympic Games Felix's Mum won an Olympic bronze medal in the Skeleton bobsleigh for TeamGB. He recently competed at the English championships and plans to compete again at the British championships in a few weeks time. And this is his story. 

In 2023 Will Foden completed his first ironman with a collapsed lung and proved not for the first time that he was someone with the mental capacity to overcome huge challenges. He played professional and semiprofessional rugby for over ten years. Whilst played for the Doncaster knights a freak accident led to him having his leg snapped in half by a horse. Incredibly after this his career took him to Australia and then Singapore where he coached the Singapore Wonderers to a rugby league title. Will is now the CEO of the stay strong collective which is a performance leadership service providing coaching, mentoring and education to both individuals and businesses. And this is his story. 

 In 2009 after competing at the English gymnastics championships and walking away with Sven out of seven gold medals. I made the monumental mistake of leaving my gym bag at the competition arena. The following morning Sergey picked me up early to leave for a training camp at the national centre with the GB team. This was by far the biggest telling off I ever received through the entirety of my whole gymnastics career. Luckily we managed to collect my kit bag that same morning but not before Sergey hit me with one of his famous riddles. Next time you should leave your head. They say a bad workman blames his tools. In gymnastics the right tools and equipment can be the difference between winning and losing. And this is my story.

In January 2024 I sat down with former TeamGB Olympic medalist Nile Wilson to talk about his gymnastics career and explore topics outside the world of sport.  We have both recently started going to Jiujitsu classes and explore the challenges of starting a new sport. Gymnastics is a bodyweight sport and many athletes can get caught up in trying to control their weight to the detriment of their performance. Myself and Nile try to unpick our own experiences with food and lessons we've learned along the way. I ask Nile if he believes vaping is acting as a gateway drug into smoking cigarettes and he opens up about his battles with addiction.  We attempt to tackle the men versus women debate in sport and give our perspective of being in a sport where the women take the lions share. And this is our Conversation. 

In the summer of 2024 athletes, coaches and support staff from every corner of the globe will compete at the Paris Olympic Games. Millions if not billions of sports fans around the world will watch their nations sporting superstars go for gold in 32 different sports. A total of twelve teams will battle it out in the men's team event. Great Britain have finished fourth in the last two Olympic Games and the five men selected will be hoping to go one step further in France. Who will earn themselves a plane ticket to Paris and what kind of team will the selectors be looking for? The Olympic Games is the biggest sporting event on the planet. And this is my story. 

In 2019 Ashley Watson retired from the sport of Men's artistic gymnastics after nineteen years of competing at the highest level. Shortly afterwards he was recruited by the world famous Cirque Du Solei to be part of a brand new show. The company closed down production and cancelled the new show during the global pandemic and Ash returned home from Canada.  He is now a successful content creator in his own right producing gymnastics based entertainment online and following in Nile Wilson's footsteps. Ash was one of the most exciting British gymnasts of his generation to compete over the last twenty years. And this is his story. 

In Autumn 2023 I started to notice a gradual increase in stress levels woven into the world around me.  People seemed to be driving more erratically, they were under more pressure at work and the cost of living crisis was hitting everybody's pockets. In November I went out to celebrate my brother's birthday and seemed like every conversation I was having revolved around mental health or money worries. Then between Christmas and New Year I went out for dinner with some friends and we had a really interesting disagreement about the wold and how it works. Quite often in life if you follow the money you'll get to the answers you're looking for. And this is my story. 

In 2012 Kristian Thomas performed the final floor routine that secured Great Britain's first Men's Olympic team medal in a century. He won a total of fourteen major championships medals throughout his career and was coached by Michelle Bradley at the Earls gymnastics club in the West Midlands. In 2013 he recovered from a knee ligament damage injury in the spring to win Britains first ever World championship medal on the vault in Belgium. He has won major championships honours on more individual apparatus than any other British gymnast in modern times and captained the British Men's team in the Rio 2016 Games. Kristian now works for the football Premier league but will always be remembered for that iconic Olympic vault moment in London 2012. And this is his story. 

In 2013 Jack Blake was called up to the Nottingham Forest first team squad and shortly afterwards signed for Mansfield town on loan making his professional debut against Bury town. He spent the following season back playing for the Forest under 23's team, the club he'd joined as a ten year old and captained in the FA youth cup. After a decade at the club, Nottingham Forest released Jack and in May 2016 he decided to take a chance and moved across the Atlantic in hopes of playing football in America. Jack beat the odds and has gone on to make over two hundred professional appearances and build a career in one of the most competitive sporting environments in the world. Currently he is playing for USL Championship team Indy Eleven. And this is his story. 

In 2023 I've experienced twelve months of what I would describe as my fullest year of life to date. I turned 30 in February and by the time that milestone arrived I'd already suffered the loss of a loved one. The podcast was born and I embarked on the journey of building a career after gymnastics. Following four amazing years I proposed to Connie and shortly afterwards we found out that we were going to be parents to a little boy.  After 30 years of something feeling out of place things began to finally make sense when I was diagnosed with childhood ADHD and OCPD in the summer. You should never stop learning in throughout life. And this is my story.