Louis Smith Clare Balding Meets

With the Olympics fast approaching, I've been catching up with some of the leading medal hopefuls

from Team GB - the men and women you will be urging on to gold.

And today, I've come to the Huntingdon Gymnastics Club

to meet Britain's most decorated male gymnast.

Louis Smith became the first British gymnast since 1928

to win an Olympic medal when he claimed bronze in Beijing.

He followed that up with a memorable silver at London 2012,

before deciding to take a two-year break away from the sport.

Barring a slip at this year's European Championships,

his return has been remarkable.

A silver medal at the 2015 World Championships

and a gold in the 2015 European Championships

confirmed that Louis has a realistic chance

of being crowned Olympic champion in Rio.

'I want to find out what drew Louis back into gymnastics...'

I saw gymnasts competing and winning medals

that I thought I could still beat.

And if I can still put on a Union Jack and still win medals,

you know, I have a duty to do that.

'..the extreme levels he's prepared to go to to achieve success...'

When I had a blister, my coach told me to wee on it.

'..and most crucially, I'm here to discover

'if he can turn London's silver medal into gold in Rio.'

I know if I do the routine that I've been training,

there can always be a chance of a gold medal.

So, why here, Louis?

I've been here since I was about six, seven years old.

I've got a great relationship with my coach,

you know, I'm just entwined. It's like, part of my DNA

to be part of this club. I just love being here, I love training,

I get my best work done here.

And do you spend more time here than you actually do at your house?

This is pretty much my base of operations.

I only really go home to sleep and eat

and everything else that happens is here.

I heard that you had a room...

like a bedroom, that was very Harry Potter inspired.

I'm a massive Harry Potter fan.

I'd go as far as saying I'm a Harry Potter geek.

And I was really getting into my training with kind of getting ready for Rio,

had the British Championships, lots of competitions coming up,

lots of distractions, my friends were going out, lots of my friends were going out partying and stuff...

and I wanted something that would keep me, at home, chilled.

So, I started building a Harry Potter room.

And why not? Like, you only live once.

Is it a Gryffindor room or is it...? How it is a Harry Potter...?

Yeah, I'm a Gryffindor.

So I went on Potterheads and you fill out a little questionnaire

and you find out what house you would be in.

Turns out I'd be in Gryffindor.

I just bought my nephew, the other day, one of those little books,

you know, notebooks and there's a Gryffindor one.

-Yeah, I've got one.

-Have you? CLARE LAUGHS

-My nephew's eight.

-That's all right. I'm nearly 28 but

-doesn't matter.

-Yeah, exactly. This is a lifelong passion.

It's the child within, and it's important to keep yourself young.

Oh, yeah, I love Harry Potter.

If I get married, my wife needs to be a Harry Potter fan.

If she lies to me and then tells me on my wedding day

that she's not, I would call it off.

You see, at the moment, your chances of getting married are quite slim.

Because...

-Why?

-Well, haven't you said no girlfriends before...?

Oh, yeah, but after Rio, you know, it's back on.

-It's like a...you know, flick the switch...

-OK.

-..and get back out there.

What, you change your status - "available"?

Pretty much, yeah. Like, with gymnastics and Olympics and sport,

you have to be very single-minded

and your first priority needs to be sport. Well, mine is, I don't know about other people.

Erm... So gymnastics will always come first, you know,

and past girlfriends sometimes got that.

But the future, you know, when gym's done,

-then I can start putting...

-Yeah.

Then a girlfriend could come second to Harry Potter. I mean, wow.

Pretty much, yeah, if she's happy with that.

Would you say that you are an introvert or an extrovert?

I'd say I'm a bit of both, to be honest.

I have a fun personality, I like to be out there doing things, meeting people.

But at the same time I like to go home to my house,

shut my gate and just spend some quality time just relaxing.

And how do you get yourself ready for the performance

that is required at any major championships

and to be in that frame of mind?

What do you do to make yourself Louis Smith, the performer?

I take a lot of confidence from training.

I like to do enough training in this gym

that when I go to competition,

I'm 95% sure I'm going to do my routine the way I know I can,

which allows me, then, to be as natural as I can.

So normally when I go to competitions, I'm fun,

I'm talking to some of the competitors

and they're like, "How is he so chilled and talking,

"like, moments before we're about to march out?"

And I think that probably gets in their heads

but I'm so confident that I can be like that.

So the confidence is not a suit that you wear,

it's something that is created by the hours you've done in here.

Precisely, yeah.

And I think that's so important to have -

I think for any high-level athlete,

to be confident,

it needs to be backed up by the preparation that you've done in training.

And I just feel good, I know that I'm going to go through my routine,

and I think people can pick up on that as well.

What makes you smile?

When I take a step back and I realise where I've come from,

you know, what my mum's done for me,

it makes me smile to know that everything's all right.

I'm happy, I'm healthy,

I enjoy what I do,

I love my friends, I love my family, I love my job.

You know, so erm... Yeah, that's what makes me smile.

So actually, essentially, it's making your mum proud...

-I hope so.

-..in all of that, that you've done,

you've achieved that, which is an amazing thing to know you've done.

It's funny, as you get older you start to realise more

the sacrifices that your parents make in life,

and to look back and see what my mum's done for me,

you know, it makes me emotional.

So, it's nice to be able to give something back to her.

Have you been able to give her any kind of special presents or treats?

I would love... Do you know what, I would love to be able to buy her a house,

mortgage free, that she can live in.

Unfortunately, gymnasts don't have the deepest pockets,

but I just bought her a new car

cos her car pretty much clapped out.

And it's nice to be able to do something like that.

It's amazing actually seeing the mums bring their kids in here,

thinking that's what she did with you, you know, 23 years ago...

-Mmm.

-..to sort of deal with you - bring you here, keep you busy.

Yeah, I was a handful when I was young.

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was seven. I was off the walls

and my attention span was, you know, two minutes.

But when I was in the gym,

my attention span was so much longer than that and I was so intrigued with sport.

Is ADHD something that, as you grow older,

becomes less a part of your psychological make-up

or is it always there?

There's aspects of it that you learn to deal with.

There's things like impulsiveness,

that can sometimes get you in trouble when you're young.

As you start to get older you start to realise -

"Take a step back, breathe -

"should I do this or should I do this?"

and you start to take a bit more responsibility for your actions.

But there are aspects that you struggle to deal with -

organisation, preparation, being on time, punctuality, things like that.

You're 27 now, yes?

Yeah.

Physically, how are you?

HE LAUGHS

Physically, I'm as well as a 27-year-old gymnast can be.

I train three hours a day, five days a week.

I'm not as in good a shape as I was in 2012

in terms of how my body feels.

The performance side of things, you know, my routine is more difficult.

I'm having to focus a lot more on my diet, my recovery, physio,

all that, massage. All the things that protect me. Erm...

I definitely have to focus on a lot more now.

But when you wake up in the mornings, do things just feel a bit achy?

Yeah. Achy's an understatement.

Oh! I have to do stretches for my back.

Sometimes, reaching to the bottom of the drawer, I can feel...

I feel my nerves go in my back

and I have to take things a bit slower. It's, erm...

You definitely feel it as you're getting older.

So, for male gymnasts, what is the...? Your peak years are when?

23.

22, 23.

Er... I think you can keep that peak for a while,

but you're certainly probably not going to start improving at that age.

But, 27-year-olds have won gold medals

at Olympic Games in gymnastics.

27-year-olds have won Olympic golds

that are controversial, yeah, you're right.

Yes, I now touch upon a sore point.

Explain.

Er...so, yeah, Krisztian Berki was 27, London Olympic Games

pommel horse final.

Very, very good final.

I can't knock him. It was a great final to be in.

I'm happy with my performance, you know, getting a silver medal.

But, yeah, scoring the same score, and seeing the countback rule

and, you know, watching the gold go to him, it was...

It was hard, I'm not going to lie.

But, yeah, 27 years old, so, yeah, he's proved it is possible.

It's interesting, we can hear the kids in the background there.

They're starting to do their thing next door.

How aware are you when you come here

and there might be 20, 30 little children,

that they look to you as more than just a gymnast

who's won Olympic medals -

they want you to behave in a certain way, be a certain thing?

It's definitely something that took me by surprise -

I think it first started after the Beijing Olympic Games, 2008,

and it was very hard adapting to that.

Because I went from being a young, reckless kid with ADHD

to suddenly, "You're a role model." Tighten yourself up."

And now I embrace it, I enjoy it -

I go to schools, I talk to kids.

I try and get across the importance of how sport can change your life.

And I especially like talking to kids that are troubled,

kids that perhaps don't have the same opportunities as some people out there.

Because I was a similar situation, you know, bad area, rough area.

It could have quite easily have gone another way.

And there isn't anything too flashy about gymnastics.

You're going to pull your own mats into certain areas,

you're going to move your own kit.

Nobody's doing it for you and saying, "OK, now it's your turn."

Yeah. I mean, you should stay till the end of the session

where you have to get the hoovers out,

and hoover up the chalk that we spill everywhere, so...

Yeah, I mean, this is where the hard work goes down.

It isn't a multi-million-pound centre,

we don't have money being thrown at us left, right and centre.

We have to work for every single result that we get.

We appreciate every part of sponsorship

and help that we get along the way.

But it literally is blood, sweat and tears in this gym.

You deliberately train away from the rest of Team GB. Why?

Because I know what I need to do. Erm...

You know, a lot of the Team GB guys now are made up

of younger, hungrier guys,

they're all in competition with each other.

When they go to squads, everyone's stepping up the mark

and everyone's challenging each other.

That's good, but it's not an environment that I need to be in.

I like to work at my own pace.

I don't feel like I need to be pushed by anyone,

I know what I need to do.

Me and my coach have a programme. We follow it.

I get in, I do my training, I leave. I don't do any unnecessary hours.

I don't push myself to try and be better than the next person.

So I'm just going to work on my own performance, in my gym,

where I'm comfortable.

And, you know, it's been producing excellent results for me.

It also means you can have your own timetable,

which is quite important to you.

I'm not very good at early starts.

Another aspect of my ADHD is I don't sleep well.

So sometimes I don't get to sleep till six, seven o'clock

in the morning.

And if I'm at squad, training starts at 9:30.

So there's been a few times, when, you know,

I haven't slept at all and I'm going to training the next day.

Is there anything about your body, just the way you're made up

that makes you particularly well-suited to that discipline?

Yeah, I've got strangely... really long arms.

-Really long arms.

-What, so like a massive wingspan?

Yeah. Like, there's an experiment you can do.

If you measure your arm span, and you put markers on the floor,

it's the same height from your heels to your head.

And mine's about 17 centimetres longer.

Which is quite a lot.

-Show me. Stand up.

-Oh, you want to see my...?

-Yeah.

So, they do come down pretty far.

I could scratch the tops of my kneecaps when I was younger.

So that kind of gives you an idea of how big my arms were.

Can I see your hands?

Yeah.

My God.

Really, that's just one big callus, isn't it?

-Yeah. They're like leather pads, really.

-Yeah.

When I was younger, my mum was sunburnt and she asked me to put aftersun on her back.

She screamed.

-Because it was like being...?

-It was like sandpaper, yeah.

-Ooh.

-"Get off!"

CLARE LAUGHS Never again.

And it took so long to get this toughness back

after my little break after 2012.

-What, they went all soft?

-They went soft, yeah,

and I was getting blisters and...

you know, as much as I liked soft hands for a while,

I'm glad I've got my hard-working hands back.

Do you do anything to them to make them rougher?

I mean, I've heard people put vinegar on.

I remember when I was little and I had a blister,

my coach told me to wee on it...

..which I did, erm, stupidly.

I don't think it helped at all.

-I think he just...

-Was he joking?

I think it's an old Russian, you know, Soviet thing.

Apparently they used to do it, so we tried doing it

and he thought it was quite amusing when I came in the next day saying I'd weed on my hands.

Amazingly Paul Hall, the coach that you were talking about,

-is still your coach.

-Yeah.

-And has been your coach since you were...

Since I was...eight?

That's an amazing relationship

to maintain, cos he must have seen so many changes in you.

We've had our arguments and disagreements along the way, but there's always a level of respect.

I always respect him, you know -

shake his hand before and after every session,

if I'm late, I apologise...

You know, he's been like a father figure to me.

He's an incredible man. He's very smart, he's very intelligent.

So yeah, he's been incredible for my career.

Did he identify the pommel horse as your thing?

I stood out like a sore thumb compared to most of the kids

when I was doing pommel horse.

The founder of this gym, Terry Sharpington,

said very early on to Paul, "Louis is someone special."

And erm...you know, not long before Terry passed away

he said, "Look after Louis."

And I was young, and no-one really believed in me

when I was younger cos I wasn't the best gymnast.

But he said, "Look after Louis."

And he was right, you know, and Paul did that and...

you know, we was able to be the dream team.

With your routine, it'll be what, 50 seconds,

-around about that length of time?

-Unless I fall off, yeah.

SHE LAUGHS

Have you calculated yet how many hours you've put into that 50 seconds?

It's years...

Well, my coach worked out

for London, I would have done about a million circles on the pommel horse.

So, for Rio, I probably would have done about...

you know, 1.1 million circles, revolutions of the pommel horse.

Which is quite incredible really.

Have you ever ridden a real horse?

-I have.

-Have you?

-Yeah.

-How did you get on?

Er... I was all right.

I stopped shortly after I nearly fell off.

Shortly AFTER you nearly fell off?

-Yeah.

-Oh, I see.

-So, I was learning to canter and as I was going,

I was slowly falling off to the side and the lady pushed me back on.

-And that was quite scary.

-CLARE LAUGHS

Cos it always makes you laugh, you know, obviously we'd cue it up,

"And here comes Louis Smith on the horse - or on the pommel horse."

I did a photo shoot on a shire horse.

-Did you?

-Yeah, and I was on a real horse.

And I was petrified. Absolutely petrified.

When the flash went off, it started walking off

and I nearly fell off the horse.

But, yeah, we tried on a real horse.

The shot looked really good, actually.

-But I wouldn't do it again.

-No, no, you don't need to do it in Rio.

You went away from gymnastics after London 2012,

you lived another life, a different life,

I mean, a life during which you won Strictly Come Dancing,

so not a normal life, but anyway... HE LAUGHS

What drew you back?

The magnet that has pulled you back into it - what was it?

It was a few things. Erm...

And I kind of needed that time away from the sport

to realise these things.

You know...

one, I saw gymnasts competing and winning medals

that I thought I could still beat.

And it made me realise, you know, my mum, my coach,

everyone had sacrificed so much to help me get to this position.

And if I can still put on a Union Jack and represent my country

and represent the people that have helped me get here

and still win medals, I have a duty to do that.

It's like the superhero character -

with great power comes great responsibility.

Paul said to me he thinks the difference now is you're doing it for you.

100%. 100%.

When I won my first World Championship medal,

there was expectation from British Gymnastics, UK Sport.

This is our first medal in ten years.

And then Beijing, it's our first individual medal in 100 years.

There was this expectation and this expectation to deliver,

and to keep delivering to secure more funding and...

It slowly does start to take away from the sport and the magic

and why you got into it in the first place.

And you're right, I got back into it for me.

And I loved it.

I loved it. There was no obligation for me to do anything,

I was just in here, training to be the best gymnast I could be.

But also you should feel incredibly proud of YOURSELF

for what you've done for British gymnastics.

Because that funding has allowed Max Whitlock and Dan Keatings and

the others to really come and shine,

and you look at the women's team as well and Beth Tweddle gets a lot of credit for that,

and for them to look at both of you and know it can be done,

against the traditional countries, the Russians and the Chinese, that

would have dominated gymnastics - and the Americans to some extent -

where you'd think "We've got no chance." You've shown there IS a chance.

There's so much talent in the sport now.

All the coaches at grassroots sport are so motivated.

You know, they've seen what people can be like at the top,

and it's just a massive knock-on effect and I think

British gymnastics is going to be here for a while.

We've got so many generations of gymnasts ready to shine,

it's just going to be a very good few Olympic cycles.

After becoming the first British male gymnast

to win an Olympic medal in 100 years,

by taking bronze in Beijing, Louis was determined to win gold in London

and performed a faultless routine.

What are his memories of that pommel routine -

and is he proud of his silver medal?

Tell me what you remember of London 2012,

if you were thinking and sort of...

almost like a camera going off,

the moments that you absolutely crystal clear, "I remember that"?

I mean, my pommel final was mostly a blur.

But there's parts that I do remember. I remember walking to the pommel horse.

And looking up at the clock

and you've got 30 seconds to get onto the horse.

And I remember seeing 17.

I just remember thinking, "This is it.

"This is the peak of my career,

"I will never be in better shape than this.

"This is the defining moment of my life.

"Let's show 'em what we can do."

And I always say a few words to my nan. Cos I lost my nan in 2009.

And I was just talking to my nan asking her to look after me. And...

you know, we'd done our job. She'd done her job, I did mine.

And I just remember thinking to myself, "I wonder who's watching.

"I wonder if everyone's proud,

"I wonder if anyone's recording it for me."

Now when I think about it, it's because my body was in autopilot.

I've done so many routines, I was just going through the motions.

I wasn't thinking about what I was doing, I wasn't tightening up.

I was just going through it.

And it was just bizarre.

And I remember landing in my pommel horse routine and thinking...

-LOUIS LAUGHS

-"How did I just do that?

"How did that just go as well as it did?"

I still can't believe it to this day, I mean, I was so nervous.

I've never felt like that in my life, I've always been so confident.

I was so nervous.

And I just can't believe it went the way it did.

-And it was as good as it could have been, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

-There's nothing you could have improved on, it was perfect.

-It was spotless.

It was spotless.

What's it then like waiting for the scores?

Krisztian Berki did a fantastic routine,

and I knew it had to be pretty special to have beaten him.

So, I'm there, thinking, "I've just done a harder routine,

"and it was immaculate. I'm in London..."

The crowd was going crazy,

and I'm thinking, "Do you know what, I reckon I've pipped him."

And then the score came up and I just saw 16.

That was the first thing I thought. And I thought, "Yes, I've done it."

And then I saw the rest of it and then it says "rank" at the side

and it said "two", and I'm like...

.."Hang on a minute."

-Cos the scores were identical, weren't they?

-Yeah.

So how did they divide you?

Well, there's a rule and it's an old Olympic rule,

it's a countback rule.

And they wanted to change the rules of gymnastics

to basically spice it up

and to say, "Right, do the most difficult routines you can do

"cos that's what we want to see."

So basically, you're penalised for doing a harder routine...

You still get penalised for it. Yeah, I see.

..because you end up getting more deductions.

If the same thing had happened at a World Championships

or a European Championships,

you share the gold medal.

It's just at an Olympic Games...

How quickly after London finished did you make the decision to stop?

Erm... I mean, I...

We'd already agreed to do Strictly Come Dancing.

They confirmed just after the team final,

I'd just got the bronze medal with the team.

I knew that I could be occupied up until December.

But there was no plans to carry on after 2012.

And the reason why is because 2012 was so massive.

Everything was focused on London.

So then when London had finished...

it was like, "Huh."

Like, life goes on. Like, "What happens now?"

What was the response...? When you did decide to come back to gymnastics,

was everybody wholeheartedly "Yay, hooray, he's back" or were there...?

No. CLARE LAUGHS

No.

When I decided to come back, it needed to be 100%.

You know, there was no... half getting involved - if I'm going to go for it,

I'm taking it 100% serious.

But I think some people...

..might have thought "It's just a bit of publicity,

"Louis getting back in the limelight...

And it was difficult because when I stepped out,

it gave a chance for other people to go in.

And the way that other people might look at it is

while Louis has been out of the sport,

those people have been training nonstop

their normal routine every day.

They didn't get the chance to go to 2012

and they're working relentlessly to be in the team.

It was almost like, "Who does Louis think he is,

"coming back when these guys have been working nonstop?"

Erm...

And for me, I knew very early on that...

zip it, get on the pommel horse and let my actions speak.

And that's what I did - you know, 2014 I did the BBC Tumble,

got that out the way, 2015 was my year to prove to the selectors

that, "If you don't pick me, you're missing out."

So every competition I did that year, I did clean.

And it was kind of like, "Look, I'm back. It isn't a gimmick.

"I'm not trying to rub people up the wrong way, you know,

"I'm passionate about my sport and my team -

"I want to be the best I can be. And I'm serious."

It almost feels to me, though, as if Rio is like a bonus.

I've done two good Olympic Games.

Both those Olympic Games I've been under pressure to perform, I've wanted to get through the routine.

Now, I really want to push the boat out and see how well I can do at an Olympic Games.

You know, I don't have the pressure that Max does and the rest of the team does.

Yes, there's expectation,

but because I have a level of confidence and of fun going into it

it's a different aspect to London altogether.

Do you think your rivalry with Max

has made you better? Or made HIM better?

Both of you, is it good for both of you?

It's definitely made me step my game up because I have to.

But I think it's definitely made HIM better.

You know, I think it's just naturally developed his potential, so...

We definitely bounce off each other.

I think he gets more from it.

Which he should, cos he's younger.

What do you think, as a team,

the British Gymnastics team are capable of?

Gymnastics is a very unpredictable sport.

You know, we need to do the best routines of our lives.

Everyone needs to do all-clean routines.

And that's the only thing we have control over.

What everyone else does - who knows?

I'm not going to say it'd be nice for other people to make mistakes,

but I think to have any realistic chance of pushing for a gold medal

in a team event, there needs to be that from other countries.

Have you decided already on the routine that you will perform?

For qualification, obviously, it's important that the team qualifies, so I'll be doing an easy routine.

In team final, depending on how they want to push for certain medals,

they can either choose for me to do the harder routine

to get more marks, or they can be safe and do my easy routine.

If I make the pommel horse final, then it's my own decision.

So who knows? But I think it's good

to have the hardest routine in the locker.

I mean, Max has got the hardest routine in the world at the minute.

And he does it very well.

And there's a lot of work that I need to do to get to that standard.

But it would be nice to have that routine

and put him under a bit of pressure.

Would you ever consider Tokyo?

Yeah. 100%.

I want to go to Tokyo.

But they haven't clarified the rules on how the specialists qualify.

So...

I don't know whether I'm going for Tokyo or not.

But...if it works out that I can, 100%.

If my body lets me, I'll do it.

And would there be anything between, you know,

that four-year cycle or in the middle of that four-year cycle

that you might want to do for British gymnastics

that would somehow sell it?

Like a big event, like a... You know, the whole team.

Make use of the profile that you guys have got

and will certainly have after Rio?

I think gymnasts, and what we do, is incredible.

And it goes back to when I say gymnasts don't have the biggest pockets.

Cos I train with guys that still live at home with their parents.

They can't afford to put a deposit down on a house

or live the normal life.

So, I'm in the process of trying to organise a competition

where gymnasts can have an opportunity to earn proper money.

My friends go to a competition - they go to a World Cup Grand Prix.

They win it, they get £600.

You know, and it's just... It's bonkers.

I can totally see you selling out arenas.

I'd come and watch that.

For sure, it'd be amazing...

Gymnastics is the first sport to sell out.

If Strictly can go on tour - which it does, and you know -

then why can't gymnastics go on tour?

There's plenty of razzle-dazzle...

I think it can. I think it just takes someone to do that. And to do it right.

That's my challenge to you, Louis Smith -

go and win your medal first in Rio, then Gymnastics...

-Are you going to come on board?

-..The Arena Tour. Totally.

-Yeah?

-Totally.

Erm... You won a bronze medal in Beijing,

you won a silver in London...

(Should have been gold!)

Could it be a gold medal in Rio?

It could always be a gold medal.

And that's not be being cocky, that's me being confident.

You know, I'm 27 years old now

and I've been competing at the top level for 12, 13 years,

and I know if I do the routine that I've been training,

there can always be a chance of a gold medal.

And if it goes well on the day at Rio...then it could be.

Well, thank you so much for your time, and good luck -

I was going to shake your hand

but actually I don't really like your hands. THEY LAUGH

-They're all rough!

-Thank you.

I'll give you a kiss instead.

-Good luck.

-Thank you very much. I need it.

There's something about this gym that reminds me of the film Rocky.

You know, the basic equipment is here, there's nothing glitzy or glamorous,

and the most important thing it has

is the attitude of the people who walk in here.

Now, Louis Smith is not a film star and this is not a film set.

He WAS a boy trying to make his mum proud.

Now he's a man who has come back to his sport

because he knows that at the Olympic Games, he has unfinished business.