The Sam Oldham Podcast

On Friday March the 20th 2026 at the 118th British artistic gymnastics championships we had the opportunity to interview some of the biggest names in the sport. In 2026 we will see three major championships take place and the official LA 2028 Olympic selection process will begin at the World championships in Rotterdam. Heading into the weekend we have three different men toping the home Nations competitions in the all around standings in Adam Tobin, Reuben Ward and Jonas Rushworth. Following the podium training session today it became clear that Jake Jarman will be competing on all six events for the first time since the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Max Whitlock makes his return to the M&S bank arena as he continues his comeback push towards his fifth Olympic Games. Harry Hepworth is planning to perform not one but two of the most difficult vaults in the world which would put him ahead of both Jake Jarman and Carlos Yulo in terms of his difficulty. Luke Whitehouse will be motivated to build upon another incredible year in 2025 after winning European gold & World silver and look to produce strong performances across multiple apparatus. Joe Fraser will be hoping to challenge for the all around title and showcase world class gymnastics on his favoured events. It's going to be an incredible weekend with live gymnastics on the BBC iPlayer at 2:55PM on Saturday the 21st of March. Thank you to all of the athletes that generously gave up their time to chat with us today and supporters of the podcast that stopped to say hello. And this is their story.

In 2010 at the age of 18, my Dad contacted Red Bull who had seen me perform at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore winning Gold and Silver in artistic gymnastics for Team GB. I was approached by a sports management company and introduced to Chris Smith a chartered accountant, auditor, business coach and trained mediator. Chris was a founding partner of Granite Morgan Smith FC who advise property owners, professional athletes and family business clients on everything from managing their finances, running a business and minimising tax. Chris has worked with the British athletes commission, England handball association and helped advise UK sport to design the new athlete performance awards. At just sixteen Chris Smith started his first business from his bedroom providing football teams with sportswear clothing which he used to fund his university degree. The landscape of elite sport is a ruthless one and in this episode Chris Smith shares incredible insights into the world of athlete finances. And this is his story.

In 2026, we’re launching a brand-new monthly gymnastics show on The Sam Oldham Podcast. Across the year, you can expect deep dives into the biggest names in the sport, the major storylines building toward championship events, and post-competition debriefs featuring some of the most passionate experts and analysts in artistic gymnastics.
In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Kensley Behel, the brilliant mind behind the Neutral Deductions team, who focus on the sport of men’s artistic gymnastics.
We take a deep dive into the recent Home Nations competitions that have taken place across the UK as athletes begin building momentum ahead of this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Kensley also brings me up to speed with all the latest news from the U.S. men’s gymnastics program, and together we recap the key performances from the Winter Cup.
Finally, we look back at the Cottbus World Cup in February, where several standout routines came from the Neutral Russian athletes—gymnasts who will undoubtedly be motivated to make an impact on the world stage in 2026.
This year, we plan to continue sharing the incredible stories of the very best athletes in the sport of gymnastics. A huge thank you to our listeners, sponsors, and supporters for being part of the journey.
Welcome to Episode 2 of the Gymnastics Show.

In 2008 at the Beijing Olympic Games, Justin Spring was part of the USA men's artistic gymnastics team that won the bronze medal in the team event. Justin's journey to becoming an Olympian in 2008 was anything but straight forward and in 2007 whilst performing a triple twist on the vaulting table at the US National championships, he tore his anterior cruciate ligament. After a challenging rehabilitation process he successfully qualified for the American team that went on to finish on the medal podium in China against all odds. Throughout his competitive collegiate career Justin represented the University of Illinois winning multiple National titles. Following his retirement as a professional athlete, Justin returned to Illinois to become the head coach of the men's gymnastics program where in 2012 he led the team to an NCAA National championship title. In recent years he has decided to turn his attention to the sport of Women's gymnastics and he is now the head associate coach of the Alabama college gymnastics team who are currently sit third in the season standings. Justin's gymnastics was incredibly unique and his appetite for risk is something that was encourage in him by his father Sherwood C. Spring who logged 165 hours in space as a NASA astronaut. And this is his story.

In 2023, Lukas Dauser performed a near perfect parallel bars routine at the men's artistic gymnastics World championships to win the gold medal for team Germany. Lukas took silver on his favoured event at the Tokyo Olympic Games that were held in 2021, finishing behind arguably the most dominant champion in the sport in the modern era Zou Jingyuan of team China. His first major championships success came at the European gymnastics championships in 2017 at the age of 23 where again Lukas finished on the medal podium on his specialist apparatus winning silver. Throughout his career he represented Germany at three Olympic Games, first performing alongside his heroes Fabian Hambuchen and Marcel Nguyen in Rio 2016. Lukas Dauser battled through multiple injuries during his career to become only the seventh Germany artistic gymnast to be crowned a world champion. Following the Paris 2024 Olympics, Lukas retired from the sport and has plans to inspire the next generation of aspiring German athletes in a. joint venture together with his former teammate Andreas Bretschneider. And this is his story.