Occupation
Athlete
Spoken languages
English
Club
Loughborough Students [ENG]/TV Wetzgau [GER]
Coach
Sergey Sizhanov [personal], RUS; Andrei Popov [personal, national], RUS; Eddie van Hoof [national], GBR; Scott Hann [national], GBR (skysports.com, 02 Feb 2016; jpn-gym.or.jp, 01 Sep 2015)
Sporting relatives
His father Bob played professional football for Nottingham Forest. His grandfather played professional football for Notts County. (gymcastic.com, 11 Aug 2014; forever-sports.tumblr.com, 17 Mar 2015; skysports.com, 06 Aug 2015)
Other sports
He was a member of the Notts County Centre of Excellence [football] as a teenager and had offers to play from Nottingham Forest and Derby County. (bbc.co.uk, 29 Sep 2011)
Injuries
He suffered a dislocated ankle and ruptured ligaments while competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. He returned to competition in April 2015. (bbc.co.uk, 14 Apr 2015)
He dislocated his ankle in October 2013 in a training accident. (skysports.com, 22 Oct 2013; forever-sports.tumblr.com, 17 Mar 2015, 17 Mar 2015)
He was sidelined for two months in December 2011 with a stress fracture to his collarbone and a torn pectoral muscle.. (bbc.co.uk, 30 Jul 2012)
He broke his wrist in 2008 during a floor routine. (skysports.com, 02 Feb 2016)
Start sporting career
He began the sport at age six. (Athlete, 05 Aug 2010)
Reason for taking up the sport
He was introduced to gymnastics by a nursery school teacher because he was hyperactive when he was young. (Athlete, 05 Aug 2010)
Trainings
He trains between 40 and 50 hours a week at the National Gymnastics Centre in Lilleshall, England. (forever-sports.tumblr.com, 17 Mar 2015)
Most memorable sporting achievement
Winning a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. (british-gymnastics.org, 2015)
Hero / Idol
British gymnast Louis Smith. (bbc.co.uk, 30 Jul 2012)
Additional information
Awards
He won the BBC East Midlands Sports Personality of the Year in 2008. (samoldham.co.uk, 31 Aug 2011)
General
FOOTBALL OR GYMNASTICS
He had a tough choice at a young age regarding which sport to focus on. "I was on a four-year contract at Notts County [football club], guaranteed until I was 16. I had to choose between football and gymnastics. It was a tough decision. Everyone expected me to choose football, and when I chose gymnastics, it was a bit like, 'Where's that come from?' Gymnastics was not in the family at all. At that point I was about 14 and already training 40 hours a week in the gym. I had put so much in already, I did not want to waste what I had done." (forever-sports.tumblr.com, 17 Mar 2015)
BREAKING THE DROUGHT
He was a member of the British men's team that won a bronze medal in the team all-around at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, which was the first Olympic medal for Great Britain in men's gymnastics since 1912. (bbc.co.uk, 31 Jul 2012)
GYMNASTIC ROMANCE
His partner is retired British gymnast Hannah Whelan. (Hannah Whelan Twitter Profile, 13 Feb 2016)
Last update : 2016-09-23
32
0
123
