Great Britain's Jake Jarman is targeting double World Championships gold this year as part of his build-up towards fulfilling an Olympic dream in 2028.
Great Britain's Jake Jarman is targeting double World Championships gold this year as part of his build-up towards fulfilling an Olympic dream in 2028.
Jarman added a floor gold at last year's Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, to the vault title he won in 2023 - but wants success in both in Rotterdam in October.
"I'm at a point in my career where I don't have as much work to do as I did before in terms of difficulty," he told BBC Look East.
"Floor, for example, I've got one of the hardest routines in the world so for me to increase the difficulty, it's looking at if it's worth it – am I increasing the difficulty but upping the chances of making mistakes, or am I better off sharpening my act and really nailing the execution?
"Looking at other things, I've still got some work to do – rings, p [parallel] bars and high bar are going to be really important for me to nail down.
"I'm fortunate that I can produce quite high scores on floor and vault. The thing that's always kind of held me back are my rings, p bar and high bar performances, so that will be the most important area to target."
The World Championships will also provide an opportunity for the Great Britain team to secure an automatic place at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028 if they can finish in the top three overall.
And when he gets to the west coast of America in two years' time, Jarman will be focused on improving on the floor bronze he won in Paris in 2024.
"In this sport, because the rules change at the end of every Olympic cycle, you have to really be on top of your game in terms of planning what routines you do," the 24-year-old from Peterborough said.
"After Paris, me and my coach sat down and went through what routines I'd need to do to improve my results in the next Olympics and that included what competitions I want to go to in that four-year span.
"Olympic gold has always been the dream for me. Ever since Tokyo (in 2021) when I was a reserve, I realised I had that potential to be an Olympic champion. It's weird, the preparation and the planning started back then.
"Even though I had the opportunity to be an Olympic champion in Paris, I obviously knew that if I didn't make it, I'd still have another four years at least to be able to better my performances, better my routines and give myself a better shot at being an Olympic champion."
Another goal for Jarman is a return to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, having collected four golds when it was held in Birmingham in 2022.
And although plans have been scaled back after original hosts, Gold Coast, in Australia, dropped out, he believes it is still an important event.
"To be able to compete at a Commonwealth Games this year would be a dream knowing how positively it impacted my gymnastics career in 2022," he said.
"If I were given the opportunity to compete there again and perform difficult routines, it would be quite important in terms of building towards the World Championships at the end of the year and then towards the Olympics in 2028.
"It feels like a bit of a blow to know the Commonwealth Games might not happen in the future. I know for a lot of other nations who don't get to compete at Europeans or World Championships or Olympics, it's a massive competition to be able to attend. To not have that opportunity would be a shame."
Jarman is also excited at the prospect of competing against triple Olympic champion Max Whitlock, who has reversed his retirement decision in order to compete in LA.
"To be able to do what he's doing, coming out of retirement after having months out of training and wanting to push for the next Olympics, I feel like that's quite brave," Jarman added.
"He obviously announced that he'd retired and to go back on that decision is quite a big thing really. You don't tend to hear that in this sport.
"He's obviously taken some time to think about it and watching him training in the last week, he looks like he's on form, he looks like he really wants it and it's quite inspiring to myself [to see it]."
Category: General Sports
