Jake Jarman at a glance
- Born
- 3 December 2001, Peterborough
- Sport
- Men’s artistic gymnastics
- Olympic medal
- Bronze, floor exercise, Paris 2024
- World titles
- Vault champion 2023 and floor champion 2025
- Commonwealth Games
- Four gold medals at Birmingham 2022
- Signature skill
- “The Jarman”, an original floor skill named in his honour
From the monkey bars of a Peterborough park to an Olympic podium and a gymnastics skill bearing his own name, Jake Jarman has become one of the most exciting athletes in world gymnastics.
Jake Jarman was born in Peterborough in 2001. His path into gymnastics began almost by chance. As a young child playing on monkey bars in a local park, his natural balance and coordination caught somebody’s attention. His family was encouraged to take him to gymnastics lessons.
He was around six years old when he began the sport properly.
What followed was an extraordinary progression from an energetic Peterborough youngster to Commonwealth champion, world champion and Olympic medallist.
The Jarman
In 2023, Jarman became the first gymnast to successfully perform a straight double back somersault with three-and-a-half twists in international competition. The skill was formally recognised in the gymnastics Code of Points and now carries his name.
It started on the monkey bars
Elite sporting careers are often described as carefully planned journeys. Jarman’s began in a much more ordinary Peterborough setting.
When he was a small boy, his grandmother took him to a local park. While Jake played on the monkey bars, somebody noticed the balance, strength and coordination he already seemed to possess and suggested that his family try gymnastics.
Years later, after winning his first Olympic medal, Jarman reflected on that moment and wondered whether he would ever have become a gymnast if the stranger had not spoken up.
It is an extraordinary chain of events: a few moments in a Peterborough playground eventually leading to an Olympic podium in Paris.
From Peterborough to elite gymnastics
Starting gymnastics
After his natural ability was spotted at a local park, Jake began structured gymnastics training.
A world-class training environment
Jarman developed at Huntingdon Gymnastics Club, part of the regional gymnastics tradition that has produced internationally successful British athletes.
European junior silver
He helped Great Britain win junior team silver at the European Championships and also took individual silver on vault.
Ready for the world stage
By his early twenties, Jarman had developed into an explosive all-around gymnast with particular strength on floor and vault.
The Commonwealth Games that changed everything
Jake Jarman arrived at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games as a hugely talented gymnast who was still relatively unfamiliar to the wider British public.
He left as one of the stars of the Games.
Representing England, Jarman won four gold medals: team, individual all-around, floor exercise and vault.
No English male gymnast had previously won four gold medals at a single Commonwealth Games.
A spectacular arrival
Team: Gold
Individual all-around: Gold
Floor exercise: Gold
Vault: Gold
It was the performance that announced Jarman as one of the major new figures in British gymnastics.
Why Jake Jarman is different
Jarman is particularly associated with explosive power and twisting ability.
Floor exercise requires athletes to combine strength, control and acrobatics while landing enormously difficult tumbling sequences inside a precisely defined competition area.
Vault compresses the same qualities into a matter of seconds: sprint, launch, block from the vaulting table, rotation, twist and landing.
Jarman became world class in both.
That versatility would ultimately make him the first British male gymnast to become world champion on two different individual apparatus.
World champion on vault
At the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Jarman claimed the men’s vault title.
The victory confirmed that the Commonwealth breakthrough had not been a one-off. He was now a world champion.
Vault suited his extraordinary explosive ability, but another development that year would demonstrate just how far Jarman was prepared to push gymnastics itself.
Three-and-a-half twists
On floor, Jarman performed a straight double back somersault with three-and-a-half twists.
No gymnast had previously completed the skill successfully in international competition.
Gymnastics therefore acquired a new named element:
The Jarman.
What does it mean to have a gymnastics skill named after you?
When a gymnast successfully performs a previously unrecognised element at an eligible international competition, the skill can be submitted for inclusion in the official Code of Points.
If accepted, it becomes part of the technical vocabulary of the sport.
Future gymnasts who perform Jake’s element are therefore performing a Jarman.
Whatever happens in the rest of his career, his name is now written into gymnastics itself.
Paris 2024: the Olympic stage
The Paris Olympic Games were Jarman’s first Games as a competing Olympian.
Great Britain’s men narrowly missed a team medal, finishing fourth, but Jarman qualified for individual finals on both floor and vault.
On floor he produced a superb routine, scoring 14.933.
Only 0.067 separated his score from Olympic gold.
Jarman took bronze and became an Olympic medallist at the age of 22.
A record-breaking Commonwealth Games for England in Birmingham.
World champion on vault.
Third in the men’s floor exercise final on his Olympic debut.
0.067 from gold
Olympic gymnastics can turn on the smallest detail.
Jarman’s floor score of 14.933 placed him behind silver medallist Artem Dolgopyat on 14.966 and champion Carlos Yulo on 15.000.
The distance from bronze to Olympic gold was therefore measured in hundredths of a point.
For the Peterborough-born gymnast, however, the result delivered something that had been a lifetime in the making: an Olympic medal.
One day later: centimetres from another medal
Jarman returned for the Olympic vault final as the reigning world champion.
He produced another world-class performance, averaging 14.933 across his two vaults.
This time the margin went against him.
British teammate Harry Hepworth scored 14.949 to take bronze, leaving Jarman in fourth place by just 0.016.
Paris therefore contained both sides of elite sport within twenty-four hours: the joy of reaching an Olympic podium and the frustration of missing another by the smallest imaginable margin.
Then he became world champion again
Jarman’s story continued after Paris.
At the 2025 World Championships he won the floor exercise world title.
That achievement was historically significant for British gymnastics.
Having already become world champion on vault, Jarman became the first British male gymnast to win world titles on two different apparatus.
Two different world titles
2023: World vault champion.
2025: World floor champion.
Two apparatus that demand extraordinary power, spatial awareness and technical precision have become the defining arenas of Jarman’s international career.
A career still being written
Jake Jarman is unusual within the Peterborough People collection because his story is far from finished.
He has already become an Olympic medallist, world champion, European champion and record-breaking Commonwealth champion while still in his twenties.
In 2025 he also helped Great Britain return to the top of the European team podium and took silver with Ruby Evans in the inaugural mixed team competition.
The next major Olympic target is Los Angeles 2028.
Born in Peterborough
Jake Elmer Jarman was born on 3 December.
Spotted in a Peterborough park
His natural ability on the monkey bars prompted a suggestion that he should try gymnastics.
Begins gymnastics
Jarman started the sport that would eventually take him to world and Olympic level.
European junior medals
Team silver and individual vault silver for Great Britain.
Four Commonwealth golds
Jarman became the most successful English male gymnast at a single Commonwealth Games.
World vault champion
He claimed his first senior world title.
The Jarman
His extraordinary floor element was formally named after him.
Olympic bronze
Jarman took floor exercise bronze at the Paris Olympic Games.
World floor champion
He became world champion on a second apparatus.
European team champion
Jarman helped Great Britain return to the top of the European team podium.
Peterborough to the Philippines and back again
Jarman’s family story also spans two countries. He was born in Peterborough to a British father and a Filipino mother whose family comes from Cebu.
He spent part of his early childhood in the Philippines before returning to Britain, and has spoken warmly about maintaining connections with his Filipino relatives.
His success has consequently attracted considerable interest in both Britain and the Philippines, giving his international career a particularly distinctive personal dimension.
Power is only the beginning
Jarman’s gymnastics can look almost impossible because of the height and number of rotations he achieves, but explosive power alone is not enough.
A gymnast twisting several times while performing a double somersault must know exactly where their body is in the air before finding the floor again.
That requires extraordinary spatial awareness, timing and thousands of repetitions in training.
The spectacular few seconds seen in competition are the visible end of years of largely invisible work.
One of Peterborough’s great sporting stories
Jake Jarman’s connection with Peterborough could hardly be more direct.
He was born here. His entry into gymnastics began after his ability was noticed while playing in a local park. Team GB continues to describe him as Peterborough-born, while international gymnastics records list Peterborough as his birthplace.
From there, his sporting journey took him through Huntingdon Gymnastics Club onto Commonwealth, European, World and Olympic stages.
And unlike many famous sporting stories, this one is still unfolding.
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