| Sam Oldham | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Country represented | Great Britain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 17 February 1993 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hometown | Keyworth, Nottingham | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Men's artistic gymnastics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Huntingdon Olympic Gymnastics Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Sam Oldham (born 17 February 1993) is an English competitive gymnast who represents Great Britain in international competition. He is a triple junior European champion and won the men's horizontal bar event at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore.
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Sam Oldham was born on 17 February 1993[1] to Bob and Dawn Oldham.[2] Oldham currently lives in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, England[3] with his parents and three siblings.[3]
Originally schooled at Rushcliffe School, Oldham left the institution at 14 to be home-taught[2] so he could focus on training.
Oldham first started in gymnastics at the age of seven on the recommendation of his teacher,[3][4] 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.[4] Oldham's father and grandfather were both footballers, and his younger brother currently plays in the Nottingham Forest youth setup.[4]
Oldham is a Manchester United F.C. fan[3] 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.[5]
Oldham's coach Paul Hall has described Oldham as having a chance of making the British team for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London,[6] while Smith has said Oldham is an "amazing talent" and British head gymnastics coach Andre Popov has predicted Oldham will "absolutely" become Olympic champion.[7]
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.[3] Smith later thanked Oldham for being his training partner leading up to Beijing.[4]
At the European Gymnastics Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2008, where he was the youngest member of the British team,[2] 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.[3] Late in 2008, a Castle Donington-based company agreed to sponsor Oldham up to the 2012 Summer Olympics.[2]
Oldham was named to the British team for the 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival,[4] 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[3] 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.[1]
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 Youth Olympics, Oldham considered trying for the 2010 Commonwealth Games team.[17][18] However, according to Oldham, this plan was shelved when he was selected to the British senior team for the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.[19]
For his performances in 2010, Oldham was shortlisted for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Award,[5] and for Junior Sportsperson of the Year Award at the Nottinghamshire Sports Awards, the latter of which he won.[20]
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.[21] 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.[22] 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 Men's Artistic Gymnastics Championships from 6 to 10 April, again as the youngest member of the delegation representing Great Britain.[23] Oldham qualified as the second reserve for the parallel bars final and in fourth place for the final on the horizontal bar.[24] He came fourth in the horizontal bar final, which was his first major senior final.[25]