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Sam Oldham

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Sam Oldham
Sam Oldham with his silver medal from the 2015 European Championships
Personal information
Full nameSam Joshua Oldham
Born (1993-02-17) 17 February 1993 (age 31)
HometownKeyworth, Nottinghamshire, England
Height5 ft 6 in (168 cm)[1]
Weight9 st 11 lb; 62 kg (137 lb)[1]
Gymnastics career
DisciplineMen's artistic gymnastics
Country represented Great Britain
 England
ClubNotts Gymnastic Academy
Retired14 September 2021
Medal record
Men's artistic gymnastics
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 2012 London Team
European Championships
Silver medal – second place 2013 Moscow Horizontal Bar
Silver medal – second place 2014 Sofia Team
Silver medal – second place 2014 Sofia Horizontal Bar
Silver medal – second place 2015 Montpellier Horizontal Bar
Youth Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2010 Singapore Horizontal Bar
Silver medal – second place 2010 Singapore Pommel Horse
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2014 Glasgow Team

Sam Joshua Oldham[2] (born 17 February 1993) is a retired English artistic gymnast who represented Great Britain. He was part of the British men's team at the 2012 Summer Olympics that won bronze in the team competition. He is also a three-time junior European champion and won individual horizontal bar gold at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore.

Personal life

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Sam Oldham was born on 17 February 1993[3] to Bob and Dawn Oldham.[4] Oldham currently lives in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, England[5] with his parents and three siblings.[5]

Sam's first school was Crossdale Drive Primary School in Keyworth. Oldham then attended Rushcliffe School in West Bridgford before leaving the institution at 14 to be home-taught[4] so he could focus on training.

Oldham first started in gymnastics at the age of seven on the recommendation of his teacher,[5][6] but was also a talented footballer. Oldham played in the Notts County F.C. Centre of Excellence as a forward until the club closed it down. Despite receiving offers from Nottingham Forest F.C. and Derby County F.C., Oldham chose to focus on gymnastics.[6] Oldham's father and grandfather were both footballers, and his younger brother currently plays in the Nottingham Forest youth setup.[6]

Oldham is a Manchester United F.C. fan[5] and considers Vitaly Scherbo to be the gymnast he would most like to compete against, for the latter's performance winning six golds at the 1992 Summer Olympics.[7]

Career

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Junior career

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Oldham left Rushcliffe School and moved to Huntingdon at the age of 14 to train with the 2008 Summer Olympics-bound gymnasts, where he lodged with the family of fellow gymnast, Cameron MacKenzie.[8] His other training partners included eventual pommel horse bronze medallist Louis Smith.[5] Smith later thanked Oldham for being his training partner leading up to Beijing.[6]

At the European Gymnastics Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2008, where he was the youngest member of the British team,[4] Oldham broke his wrist during his floor routine. However, he managed to complete his routine one-handed and helped the British team to gold in the junior team event.[5] Late in 2008, a Castle Donington-based company agreed to sponsor Oldham up to the 2012 Summer Olympics.[4]

Oldham was named to the British team for the 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival,[6] where he won team gold.[9] Later that year, he was selected to be in the British delegation to the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tampere, Finland, where he won two golds[5] in the pommel horse and parallel bars events.[9] Oldham was named BBC East Midlands' Junior Sports Personality of the Year in 2009 for his performances in Tampere and for sweeping all seven golds available at the English national championships.[10]

At the 2010 European Gymnastics Championships in Birmingham, England, Oldham won three gold medals, becoming European junior champion in the team all-around,[11] the horizontal bar,[12] and the individual all-around.[13] By winning the individual all-around, Oldham secured qualification to represent Great Britain at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore.[3]

In Singapore, Oldham qualified second overall for the all-around competition and made the finals in four other events – the floor, pommel horse, parallel bars, and horizontal bar.[14]

Oldham was in the silver medal position in the all-around final when he suffered a fall from the horizontal bar, his final apparatus, thus finishing fifth.[15][16] However, he recovered from the setback to win silver in the pommel horse event, missing out on gold by 0.25 points.[16] Oldham subsequently followed that by winning gold in the horizontal bar event,[17] on the same apparatus in which he had suffered his fall during the all-around competition. Despite going first out of the eight finalists, Oldham's score of 14.375 points held out throughout and was enough for gold.[18]

After the Games, Oldham's coach Paul Hall described Oldham as having a chance of making the British team for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London,[19] while Smith called Oldham is an "amazing talent" and British head gymnastics coach Andre Popov predicted Oldham will "absolutely" become Olympic champion.[20]

Oldham considered trying for the 2010 Commonwealth Games team.[17] However, according to Oldham, this plan was shelved when he was selected to the British senior team for the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.[21]

For his performances in 2010, Oldham was shortlisted for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Award,[7] and for Junior Sportsperson of the Year Award at the Nottinghamshire Sports Awards, the latter of which he won.[22]

Senior career

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Oldham was named as Great Britain's reserve gymnast to participate at the 2010 senior world championships in Rotterdam. He was the youngest member of the British men's team.[23] The British team qualified for the final and finished seventh in the team all-around, although Oldham did not ultimately take part in the competition.[24] In 2011, Oldham was included along with Samuel Hunter, Daniel Purvis, Theo Seager, Louis Smith and Kristian Thomas in the British squad travelling to Berlin, Germany for the 2011 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships from 6 to 10 April, again as the youngest member of the delegation representing Great Britain.[25] Oldham qualified as the second reserve for the parallel bars final and in fourth place for the final on the horizontal bar.[26] He came fourth in the horizontal bar final, which was his first major senior final.[27]

Oldham was to have been part of the British squad at the London Prepares series gymnastics Olympic qualifier in January 2012, but missed out after breaking his collarbone before the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in October 2011, and further injuring himself during that competition. Without Oldham, the British team secured qualification to the gymnastics events at the 2012 Summer Olympics.[28]

Despite his injury setback, Oldham ended the first year of his senior career by winning all-around silver at the British national championships, which doubled as the final selection trial for the Olympic Games.[29] Oldham attributed his performance, which he said was "better than I could ever have hoped for"[30] and was good enough to see him named to the British squad for the Olympics over Dan Keatings,[31] to the trials being the final chance to impress the Olympic selectors after his injury layoff.[32]

At 19, Oldham was the youngest member to be named to the British team for gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics,[33] which won a bronze medal in the men's team all-around final at the North Greenwich Arena on 30 July.[34]

On 19–25 May 2014, at the 2014 European Championships in Sofia. Oldham along with his teammates (Daniel Keatings, Daniel Purvis, Max Whitlock, Kristian Thomas) won Team Great Britain the silver medal behind Russia with a total score of 262.087 points. In event finals, Oldham won the silver medal in high bar (14.866) behind 2012 Olympic champion Epke Zonderland.[35] Oldham suffered from ankle ligament damage at the Commonwealth Games in July 2014, but returned to competition nine months later. Although he was third overall in the all-around and won the floor exercise in the final trial for the Olympics, he did not make the squad for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[36]

Following the 2021 Men’s Artistic British Championships, where he won a gold medal on the Horizontal Bar with a score of 13.900, Oldham announced his official retirement from elite gymnastics on 14 September 2021.[37]

References

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  1. ^ a b "OLDHAM Sam". fig-gymnastics.com. FIG. Archived from the original on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  2. ^ GRO reference: March 1993, Register Number G92A, District and SubDistrict 6891G, Entry Number 197
  3. ^ a b "Team GB Youth Olympic Games Squad Selected". British Gymnastics. Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d Delia Monk (24 December 2008). "Teenage gymnast on course for gold in 2012". Nottingham Post. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Jennifer Scott (30 January 2010). "'I won gold medal with a broken wrist'". Nottingham Post. Archived from the original on 10 October 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  6. ^ a b c d e Alan Hubbard (11 January 2009). "Oldham saddles up to pummel his way to top". Independent on Sunday. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  7. ^ a b "YSPOTY contenders: Sam Oldham Q&A". BBC News Online. 30 November 2010. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
  8. ^ Gymnast follows Olympic dream (swf) (Television news report). BBC News. 3 July 2008. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  9. ^ a b "British Gymnastics Best Achievements in 2009". British Gymnastics. Archived from the original on 2 August 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  10. ^ "Carl Froch named BBC East Midlands Sports Personality". BBC East Midlands. 4 December 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  11. ^ "Team Results: Juniors Team Competition and Qualifications for CII & CIII" (PDF). European Union of Gymnastics. 22 April 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  12. ^ "Results: Juniors Apparatus Final" (PDF). European Union of Gymnastics. 25 April 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  13. ^ Ore Oduba (13 August 2010). "Singapore set for Youth Olympics". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  14. ^ "Oldham falls out of the medals in Singapore". Nottingham Post. 19 August 2010. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  15. ^ "Oldham strikes gold on bar to banish painful memories". Nottingham Post. 23 August 2010. Archived from the original on 17 September 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  16. ^ a b "Oldham earns silver medal". sportinglife.com. Retrieved 2 October 2010.[permanent dead link‍]
  17. ^ a b Staff writer (22 August 2010). "Sam Oldham wins Youth Olympics gold but Tom Daley fails". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  18. ^ "Oldham strikes GB gold with faultless horizontal bar display".
  19. ^ "Youth Olympic Games win for golden Oldham". Hunts Post. 25 August 2010. Archived from the original on 27 August 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  20. ^ Lin Xinyi (6 August 2010). "Sam aims to ride on revival". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 2 September 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  21. ^ Oldham, Sam. "Diary". Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved 13 February 2011. there a possibility that I may have tried for the Team to the Commonwealths Games. This all changed though as I was selected for the Senior Team for the World Championships
  22. ^ "Lee Westwood lifts Notts' Sportsperson of the Year award". Nottingham Post. 22 February 2011. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
  23. ^ "42nd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam (NED) – Nominative Registration – MAG" (PDF). p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  24. ^ "42nd Artistic Gymnastics World Championships – Results Men's Team Final" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  25. ^ "4th European artistic gymnastic individual Championships M & W". European Union of Gymnastics. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  26. ^ "List of qualifiers Men's Apparatus Finals". European Union of Gymnastics. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2011. [dead link‍]
  27. ^ Williams, Ollie (10 April 2011). "European Gymnastics : Beth Tweddle loses floor title". BBC Sport. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  28. ^ "Oldham: Failure did us good". Sky Sports. 16 January 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  29. ^ "Daniel Purvis and Rebecca Tunney win British all-around titles". BBC Sport. 23 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  30. ^ "Daniel Purvis wins British Gymnastics title". Southport Visiter. Trinity Mirror. 26 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  31. ^ "BBC Sport – London 2012: GB's Beth Tweddle fit for last gold medal attempt". BBC Sport. 4 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  32. ^ "Purvis retains title as Keatings and Oldham stake their Olympic claims". MorethantheGames.co.uk. 24 June 2012. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  33. ^ "Huntingdon gymnast Louis Smith earns Team GB call up but Dan Keatings misses out". Hunts Post. 4 July 2012. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  34. ^ "Olympic gymnastics: bronze for GB as Japan win silver on appeal". BBC Sport. 30 July 2012. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  35. ^ "Ablyazin, Wilson Dominate European Finals". international gymnast. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  36. ^ Mark Ashenden (13 July 2016). "Rio 2016: Sky Scholar Sam Oldham appeals after not making Team GB gymnastics Olympics squad". Sky Sports.
  37. ^ "Olympian Sam Oldham announces retirement". British Gymnastics. 14 September 2021.
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