Episode 3 Inspire: The Olympic Journey

This month, my journey takes me back to the sport I grew up with.

A sport which dominated my childhood and adolescence

and shaped much of who I am today.

16-year-old Welsh rhythmic gymnast, Gabby Yorath.

Gymnastics, my first love.

This place is a lot like my old gym.

It smells familiar, it sounds familiar and it feels so safe.

I suppose that's one of the many great things sport can give you -

that sense of belonging.

And off we go... there we are. Now, stand up.

An injury ended up forcing me to give up the sport I loved

and I still miss it. Coming here brings it all back.

One, two, three and circle forwards.

Lower down, there we are, perfect.

This is Huntingdon Gymnastics Club and it caters for everyone.

Right now you've got parents and toddlers in here.

In a couple of hours, school children will be coming in,

disability classes happen here and at the end there,

some of the best gymnasts in the world.

World class gymnasts training all under one roof.

Your Olympic journey could start right here.

This little boy joined the club almost 20 years ago.

His mum was struggling to cope with his boundless energy.

It was later revealed he was suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

He's now one of Britain's most successful gymnasts.

I used to have reins when I was younger.

Did you get that from my mum or not? No, she never mentioned the reins.

I used to be on reins until I was seven.

Sounds like they were designed for you. Until you were seven? Something like that.

Louis Smith tells me how gymnastics changed his life.

Also, coming up on Inspire: The Olympic Journey...

Lee McKenzie spends the day with six-time Olympian Mary King

and her daughter Emily, who's hoping to follow in her mother's footsteps.

And Lizzie Armitstead gives us a behind-the-scenes guide to

a gruelling world cup cycling race in France.

We want to inspire you with the stories we tell,

so, if you want to find out more about any sport or a club

like this at Huntingdon, click onto our website for more details.

I'm here with Paul Hall,

who is the head gymnastics coach here at Huntingdon Gymnastics Club.

To the wider public, they know you as the man behind Louis Smith,

as well and seeing you at the Olympic Games and things

but I guess they're the glory days, the great days.

This is where all the hard work goes on.

How important is this gymnastics club to the community?

I hope that it's very important.

I'm very proud of the club,

not just because of the Olympic results that we've produced,

but by virtue of the fact that

we are a big service to the community.

We like to think we cater for all sorts of people,

from toddlers, eight weeks old on a Friday morning,

right through to adults on a Monday night, up to 60 years old.

Full range of ability, as well.

Louis Smith at one end and challenging behaviours,

learning disabled, all sorts of people at the other end.

What have you seen that tells you that the legacy of Louis'

success and British gymnastics' success over the last five or

six years, is actually increasing participation?

Is there a direct link, something tangible for you?

Well, you should talk to our receptionists,

who have to deal with the multitude of phone calls that we had

immediately after the Olympic Games and

so many people that want to be the next Louis Smith that want to come along.

Let's talk about the young Louis and when he first came along

and was quite, er...lively, shall we say?

Maybe a little bit disruptive, a little bit chaotic.

What did you see in him?

Well, he had boundless energy, incredibly motivated,

very difficult to concentrate for more than about a minute at a time.

So, he was always driving his friends up the wall,

doing different things, being in places that he shouldn't have been.

Quite hard to manage.

I used to have to discipline him quite a lot, send him to the

pommel horse to do extra double leg circles.

But he was an incredibly energetic and enthusiastic young boy.

I didn't necessarily see talent early on,

I didn't realise that he could actually do what he's done

until he was about 13 years old, I think.

This back leg needs to be straight, girls.

This gymnastics club is a great example of how

success at senior level can inspire participation

and of course it's happened to a range of sports,

for example cycling, thanks to the likes of Lizzie Armitstead.

The Olympic silver medallist has spent this season

working towards a good result

at the World Road Cycling Championships in Florence.

This is a snapshot of Lizzie's life on the road.

Being a professional road cyclist is a completely unique job,

I would say.

You are kind of on your own.

I spend March until September on the road, going between races

and not much time spent at home.

It's brilliant, but it's also difficult to explain to anybody,

friends or family, what kind of job you have.

Today is a typical pre-race day.

I went on the rollers this morning, just did 20 minutes easy,

just to wake up and it's about the only time in the day

you have to yourself, really.

So, get on the rollers, headphones on,

then go to breakfast with everybody.

I ride for Boels-Dolmans, which is a Dutch team.

There's British, Belgian, Dutch, German nationalities within the team.

In most races you start with six. I'll be a protected rider,

along with Adrie Visser from Holland, Marieke Van Wanroij

is our super domestique,

she does a lot of the looking after.

Jessie Daams is a Belgian girl, she's a very big talent.

Emma Trott as well in the team, the one who's always smiling.

Nina Kessler, very strong sprinter, so we've got every base covered,

really, for every eventuality within the race.

Today's pre-race ride is the time that we come

together before the race.

It's always just an easy ride, just to look at the course

and see what aspects of the course may be influential in the race.

It's just a chance to look at the course together

and talk about the technical aspects of it, really.

For me, riding a bike is about the freedom that you

get from producing your own power to move, basically.

You're out on the open road and you travel for miles and miles

and everywhere I go, I get to see a lot of that area

because I'm on two wheels and I'm seeing it all.

Sort of that romantic view of travelling

along in the countryside going at your own speed is what I enjoy.

Being a team leader has all sorts of responsibilities,

like on the bike it means that everybody's looking out for you,

protecting you from the wind.

Their finish line could be 60k into a 140k race, really.

But off the bike it means that you're the kind of person

that people can come to if they've got a problem

and talk about any worries they have.

You, sort of, have to take on quite a responsible role for everybody, really.

Plouay is one of the best races on the calendar.

I mean, when you go round, there's about 2,000 campervans.

People come just to enjoy the festival.

It's more like a world championships, it's barriered

all around the circuit, there's flags everywhere, it's a great race.

Merci.

I'd love to be in the top ten, it's the last world cup of the season

and I'd like to finish the world cups off with a good placing.

The last two weeks in training haven't been great,

I've been sick, so it's out of my hands now.

I'll give it my best and hopefully come away with something.

We have a team meeting when we arrive at the racecourse to talk

about tactics and that's the moment that I switch on, with about an

hour to go and then I start thinking about the race and what might happen

but again, I'm pretty good with my nerves and as soon as the start

gun goes, I'm just focused on what I'm doing in the race.

ANNOUNCEMENT IN FRENCH

I have huge pride in my British national jersey.

It means that every race I enter, I'm announced as the British champion

and it's something special to, sort of, feel like in every

race I'm representing Great Britain as well as my trade team.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be good.

I'm hoping that the rain might come,

though, to make it a bit more interesting.

To beat Marianne Vos, you need a very good day

and a strong team, yeah.

I mean, she's not unbeatable,

she's the best in the world - consistently the best

in the world, but on anybody's day they can beat her, I think.

Trois, deux, un...

In every race you have three members of staff.

Danny is the sports director, he's the guy who sits in the car,

with the radio behind the race, telling us what to do.

There's a few different tactics involved, so you have to work

out your tactic versus what other teams might want to happen.

With us, we'll treat it as a one-day race

and hope to get somebody in an early breakaway and then either me

or Adrie will jump across to it later.

Plouay is the start of this racing block, it's a good indicator of

what form I've got and then what form the girls around me have got.

There's still four weeks to go until the World Championships,

so things can still change but it's an indicator of who's doing what.

Motivation, for me, has never been a problem.

I guess, maybe that's the silver lining with the silver medal.

You haven't quite got there yet.

London was definitely the biggest experience I've ever had

and I think WILL ever have in my sporting career.

In terms of managing my expectation, that's been difficult

because you get an Olympic medal and you think that

you're on top of the world, but it's still a big struggle.

Everything I do is aimed towards the Olympics, definitely.

That's why, you know, if you have a bad race,

then you have to learn from it and take stock from it and not

get too disheartened because there is bigger goals on the horizon.

When someone like Marianne attacks,

you really need to be on her wheel so that you don't have to

make up any ground on her when she goes for the jump.

So, I was in a pretty good position, but the legs weren't!

Right now, I'm just disappointed that I couldn't quite go with the top girls.

There are reasons for it, but, yeah, I still don't enjoy losing.

We've got a five-hour drive now, to somewhere near Paris,

to stay in a hotel tonight before continuing the drive to Holland.

There'll be plenty of banter going on in the car and we'll

talk about it and we'll get over it and we'll move on to the next race.

Bye!

One, two, three, now circle forwards and lower down.

The mark of a true champion is how you deal with disappointments,

using setbacks to push you on, not hold you back.

The Olympic journey can often be a bumpy one, as the most famous

member of this gymnastics club knows only too well.

Louis Smith was diagnosed with

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder -

also known as ADHD - aged just seven.

His mother had tried a range of sports in an attempt to find

a way to release and channel his energy.

Gymnastics worked and the rest was history.

So, Louis, take me right back to the beginning

and the very first time you went into the gymnastics club.

I think I was about four years old.

I just remember always trying to learn something new

and do something different. I really pushed the boundaries of what

I could do as a kid and you know, learning things like the hand stand.

You know, the coach would tell us to do it against the wall

and kids would be falling and I could get straight up.

So, it kind of came easy? It showed quite early on that I had a knack.

You know, I can't ever remember messing around, but I think I was quite a handful.

Well, we kind of know that, don't we,

cos that was one of the reasons your mum to you into it in the first place,

because of your ADHD, which at four, hadn't been diagnosed.

I can see how gym definitely gave me direction and a target in life

and it definitely kept me on the straight and narrow.

And your mum's dedication to getting you there,

to making sure that you stayed there and giving you that support.

She really did sacrifice a lot of her time,

a lot of her free time as well, to try and help me and my brother,

you know, do the sport and go as far as we could in it.

So, yeah, a lot of my success comes down to her.

And then on the other side, I've read a quote from you, saying that

gymnastics was like a father because of your relationship with Paul Hall.

I guess it taught me a lot about life.

But also, being very respectful of your coach.

You know, even if he's wrong, he's always right.

So you never answer back, being punctual, being on time,

how to conduct yourself around other people.

You've mentioned your mum and Paul perhaps as the two most pivotal characters.

What did it mean, first of all in Beijing, when you became the first

British man for 100 years to win an individual medal?

It was a big pat on the back.

I've never been OK with just being a competitor,

I've always believed in my ability.

It meant so much, knowing that the next four years

I had some solid ground to build on, to compete again in London.

You know, I went on again and got a silver medal. It was brilliant!

And a little flourish to come off. That is superb!

Elaine, tell us about Louis, the little boy.

When you knew something wasn't quite right, but he hadn't yet been

diagnosed with ADHD, what was his behaviour like?

Well, he got diagnosed at seven,

so before that, he was just a very active child.

You know, you see other children and then you see yours running around

like a headless chicken all the time, you know, he didn't give up.

Was it a relief to be told, "this is why"?

Yes, for someone to say, "Oh, yes, you know, he's got this."

And I was just so pleased.

Without gymnastics, how different would Louis' life have been?

The gym has helped him in so many ways

and he had such a good relationship with Paul.

When he was little he'd say,

"Oh, I don't want to go if Paul's not going."

So Paul had to leave his family and go to every trip with Louis,

you know, when they were training away.

So, what was it like for you, first of all Beijing,

when he landed his dismount and he looked up, didn't he?

He had his eyes closed and looked up...

I feel quite sick, even talking about it now.

Only parents of children that compete know that feeling.

In 2012, there was a lot of expectation for him to medal

and then he got emotional because it was a relief.

And then the tears come. Oh!

It was terrible...but it was a real journey.

I never thought, really, when he started doing gym at

four years old that it would have led to that.

We're going to go back now to a place where it all began.

OK, where it all started? And it's about 30 miles is it? About that.

You're driving? We can get there quite quick. You a good driver?

I'm safe.

Have you missed me? Course we've missed you. Oh, give me a hug.

How you getting on, all right? I'm all right, I'm all right.

I used to have reins when I was younger.

Did you get that from my mum, or not? No, she never mentioned the reins.

I used to be on reins until I was, like, seven.

Sounds like they were designed for you. Until you were seven? Something like that.

I think I've probably spent more time in here than I have at home.

What's it like when you come in? It's refreshing.

Now that I've had a break from the sport,

when I come back in, it's nice to come back and to see it.

You know, when you're coming in here every day, it gets a bit

tiresome, but I do miss it. Do you? Yeah.

Enough to get yourself back in?

Mmmm, I mean, enough to get myself back in and train.

I don't miss the side of competing.

In the end, it got very stressful, it got quite hard.

Are you of the mindset that you will at some point make a final

announcement that this is it?

I think I do have a responsibility to do that.

Erm, but I'm just not sure, really.

In terms of gymnastics, I am getting older

and there are young whippets coming up that constantly push you

and you have to try and stay and prove yourself, why you should be in the team.

When you come in here, though and you see pictures of you all over the walls and you know,

campaigns you've been involved with, what does it feel like?

It's nice to see your journey on the wall, I guess.

When you walk in and you know, you see when I was 14

and there's a news article when I'm 16, growing up, it's cool.

It's nice to know that all the hard work my mum put in and my coach,

you know, I've got something to show for it at the end of it.

And not only that, the kids now that want to come, you've got kids

signing up to try and get in here and train.

It's nice to see the legacy carrying on.

Well, it's been fascinating spending time with Louis Smith

and his mum, Elaine, who's been there every single step of the way.

We now feature a young rider whose mum has been

just as instrumental in her journey so far.

Lee McKenzie went to Devon to meet up with Emily and her mum,

Mary King.

So, I've come to deepest Devon to find a six-time Olympian and her daughter,

who's hoping to follow in her mother's pretty impressive footsteps.

It's a fantastic story and I can't wait to meet them.

What do you want? I have nothing for you.

Do you feel the dynamic of your day has changed now that you're

not going to school and that this is your job?

Before, I would leave at about quarter past seven to catch

the bus to school and then have a full day there

and get back about half six-ish, so in the summer I'd try

and ride before school if possible.

So, it was pretty full-on,

so it's really nice to just have this to concentrate on now.

And there's still a lot more to do today? Exactly, yeah. A lot more.

So, we're just going to grab some breakfast

and then we're going to come out and Lee's going to help muck out.

I'm going to be a helper today for you.

Get your fuel for the day. Exactly. Very handy around the home.

I know, you're welcome to come more often!

Obviously your mother's been a huge influence, but what age were you when you first sat on a horse?

I think I would have been about five years old.

Even younger, I think when I was quite tiny,

mum used to hold me on some of the young horses' backs to get them

used to having something on their back.

I've been very relaxed, I mean, it's lovely that she has but I've

never persuaded her to ride, it's always been in her to want to ride.

You know, I wouldn't have minded

if she'd gone off and done something else completely different.

Erm, but it is lovely that she's doing this.

When I was young, I was completely oblivious of her being who

she was, but now I'm getting a bit older I'm just starting to

realise that bit of pressure that people do watch me,

knowing that I've got a mum being who she is.

Here's where the hard work starts, I imagine.

I'm quite good at mucking out.

I'm better at mucking out than I am at riding. Perfect.

For anyone who thinks that working with horses is just

a glamorous pastime, you can see the truth of it here, can't you?

Exactly, yeah, really not the most glamorous back at home.

I love to watch Emily ride.

I suppose, I know she's on good horses,

but I still get butterflies watching her.

You know, more the hope she doesn't have a mistake that'll make

it all so upsetting, the whole thing.

Obviously it's dangerous and you can get hurt if things go wrong.

Erm, but you don't think about it as a rider.

If you did, you wouldn't do it.

It's amazing to think, two hours into the day and this hard work is

still going on and you've not even sat on a horse yet. I know.

People said to me, when they heard I was pregnant, they said, "You wait,

"once you have your child, you'll lose that drive to want to

"compete at the top level and you'll lose your competitive edge."

And I remember seeing,

after I had Emily, I was back in the saddle quite quickly

and going off to my first event six weeks later

and there was my mum with Emily in a pushchair at the start

of the cross-country course and I thought, well,

I wonder how I'll feel cos everybody says that it won't be the same.

And I was galloping along, jumping, thinking,

"Feels just the same to me".

I think we're in a bit of a jengo with the barrow, I think...

Someone's going to have to take that somewhere.

I just feel very fortunate that I've got a daughter that we can

really share our lives.

You know, although we're here together, working together,

she's quite independent. Erm, I don't teach her a lot.

I used to hate her teaching me, I used to not...

Even though she is who she is, I used to think she's my mum

and doesn't know what she's talking about, but now I'm starting to realise that maybe

if I do listen to her then I might get a bit better!

She's finding it so hard landing on that right leg.

Some days she'll say,

"Oh, Mummy, can you just come and help me jump Zippy..."

or something and I'll go to the arena

and help put up fences and then I know she's open for me to start saying,

"Actually keep your hands down a bit or ride a bit more forward."

But if I start to tell her things when she's not ready,

you know, she doesn't want to know and I want us to stay good friends.

I think it's good for her to learn from her mistakes

and it'll make her a better rider at the end of the day.

It's so interesting for me watching how Mary and Emily train.

There's no gimmicks.

We're in a field, in Devon, it's trying its hardest to rain and yet

you've got a six-time Olympian

and a future hopeful training in this field -

it's just so refreshing to see.

Do you still want to keep going? You're hungry for more?

Yes, so many people, I think,

after London thought that maybe I'd hang up my boots, but no,

I still have this drive to want to still have success at the top level.

I gather no other British athlete has competed at seven

Olympic Games, so I'd be setting a record

and I've been fortunate enough, I've won two silvers and a bronze

but there's one colour missing, so I really need to do that if I can.

Rio. Realistically, what do you think your chances are of not only you

being on the team, but also you could be on the team with your mother?

Obviously it would be absolutely incredible,

I'll be 20 for Rio, so for our sport it is pretty young.

Well, it would be wonderful to compete together in a team

but, you know, it's hard enough just getting in a team yourself

let alone for it to both come good for us in the same year.

It would be more difficult for me to get there than it would for Mum.

Even though I'm younger, but she...with her experience, it's a lot...

It'd be a lot easier for her.

I'm not going to rule it out, even though it would be very

hard to get there, but not impossible.

It will be a roller coaster of a ride for her,

I just hope she can keep her chin up when things go wrong

and we all know to definitely enjoy those good times.

In a few weeks' time,

those builders will be replaced by gymnasts as this massive

extension to the Huntingdon Gymnastics Club

opens its doors to those young gymnasts,

all hoping to emulate the future stars of this club and it's

come into fruition thanks in part to the dedication of its members.

Well, Louis has been quite the catalyst for the new gym,

it's been very difficult to raise the money, but we now have a new building.

It's much smaller, the dream isn't quite as big,

but it's certainly going to serve a purpose

and everybody's been fundraising in earnest.

Louis has raised ?50,000 on The Cube,

we've had a lot of local interest,

UK Sport, British Gymnastics have all been involved

and right down to someone like Harry O'Driscoll,

one of our elite junior gymnasts, just 11 or 12 years old, spent a

year last year in a tent and raised ?10,000 towards the new building.

He slept in a tent every night for a year? He did.

And what amazes me, what impresses me is that it was under his own initiative,

he said to his mum, "I'm going to leave my bed, I'm going to go into my garden

"and sleep in a tent for a year to raise money for the new gym."

We've had some cold winters in the last few years. Absolutely.

So you did it every night? Every night. Christmas night?

Christmas night.

Your birthday? My birthday. On your own? Uh-huh.

If I was ill, my dad might come out or

I might have some friends around or something.

Let's hope Harry's dedication to raising funds

for his gymnastic club will give other youngters

the chance to follow in Louis's footsteps.

Behind every champion, there's always a great support team.

They pick you up when you're low and keep you grounded

when you're flying high.

Mum, Elaine and coach Paul Hall have been there every

step of the way for Louis Smith.

Mary King is gently guiding her daughter, Emily.

And Lizzie Armitstead is now providing that support for her

team-mates as she relishes her role as leader.

The people who provide the belief

and encouragement are the inspiration behind our champions.

And back of your head on the floor. There we go, that's much better.

If you'd like to get involved in sport,

then visit our website to find out the nearest club to you.