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Jake Jarman

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A few weeks ago, not many people outside the gymnastic bubble would have heard of Jake Jarman. Now, he's one of the hottest properties in British sport. The 20-year-old has become a household name after his extraordinary exploits for Team England at Birmingham 2022, winning four gold medals to become the most successful English male gymnast at a single Commonwealth Games.

Jake Jarman

It marks an incredible rise for Jarman who may not have even taken up gymnastics had things turned out differently. Growing up in Peterborough, Jarman tried his hand at a whole host of other sports - including football and ice hockey. In fact, it's believed local ice hockey team the Peterborough Phantoms were very impressed with Jarman's potential when he turned up for a training session. However, it was a chance meeting in a Peterborough park that would ultimately lead to him focusing on gymnastics, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Jarman would eventually go on to join the prestigious Huntingdon Gymnastics Club which played a key role in fine-tuning his natural talent. The club has a reputation for producing world class athletes, with double Olympic silver medallist Louis Smith having also learnt his craft there.

However, it hasn't always been plain sailing for Jarman. He was named a reserve for Team GB gymnastics squad which headed to the Tokyo Olympics last year, an experience he said made him "hungry" to improve further. That has led to him working all hours in his home gym back in Huntingdon, and his persistence and dedication has now been rewarded in a way that even he never imagined would have been possible.

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