Hello my name is Sam Simpson and I'm a gymnast. Here's a little background on myself and my Olympic qualification. I started gym when I was three years old at a local club and moved to the high performance centre at the age of 6. Competed my first states at age 8 and first nationals at the age of 11. I have been to 3 world championships but only competed in 2 of them as I was reserve for the other. This years World Championships was the qualifier for the Olympics, every country given that one shot to prove themselves.

The way qualification works with gymnastics is the top 12 countries send a team selected by the country, the next three send 2 people selected by the country, and the next three send 1 person selected by the country. After this has been played out all the people from these countries are taken off on the list and the top 7 all around scores are given a place. Then there are 6 places given the gold medal on each apparatus. If the gold medallist is from a country that has already qualified a position then their spot is given to the next all arounder.

After this thereare 3 wildcards given to regions of the world who are not represented and one more wild card which is decided by the IOC. I was selected as an all around position in the 4 extra places that were available due to gold medallists being from countries already qualified.

So at the moment I'mgetting back into full training after some time off getting my wisdom teeth out and general down time after the "Worlds". So I am very sore at the moment as our strength and conditioning coach has set a very heavy program!

Sam