By Tom Harle in Paris

Jake Jarman scoffed when he was first told a gymnastics move could be named after him.

His journey to sporting immortality began in a park in Peterborough when a gymnastics coach spotted him going wild and infuriating his grandmother.

Jake was on a tumble track from the age of 17, testing the limits of gravity.

“I was playing around for quite a few years really,” said Jarman. “I have always been able to feel the skill and know what it is like to actually perform.”

That pioneering approach led to the now 22-year-old developing the ability to perform a mind-boggling 3.5 twists. It is a first of its kind move that was never intended to become eponymous but is now immortalised in the gymnastics code of points as ‘the Jarman’.

“To be honest, I didn’t put it on the floor with the intention of competing it,” said Jarman, who first landed the skill in competition at the Paris World Cup in 2023.

“It was just one of those sessions where I felt like, ‘I really want to have a play around’.

“I can’t remember who it was, but someone said, ‘you can actually compete, that’s ready to be put in a floor routine.’

“And I jokingly said, ‘yeah, sure.’ Once I started looking back at the videos, I realised I could put in a routine and get it named after me.

“I literally just had tunnel vision from that point where I was drilling out so many routines on floor of that skill because I really wanted to make a stamp in gymnastics with my own skill.”

Jarman has experimented with 4.5 twists on floor but that will have to wait until LA 2028.

He heads to his first Olympics as reigning European, world and Commonwealth champion on vault, making him one of Team GB’s strongest medal contenders at Bercy Arena.

“Individually, it would be a dream come true to walk away with a medal,” said Jarman. “I have proven to myself that I have what it takes to produce a score that’s worthy of a medal, it’s just about trying to produce that on the day.

“I have one chance and one slight mistake will put me out of the running.”

Jarman is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.

Jarman will also mount a bid for success in the all-around. He has enjoyed mixed fortunes when performing on all six pieces of apparatus, breaking out to finish fifth in the all-around at the 2022 World Championships and then 13th last year on the global stage.

“Floor and vault have always been my targets, but it wasn’t until 2022 when I said to my coach, ‘I can do this! I want to be an all-rounder,’” said Jarman.

“In the last two years, I have done every single little detail to be able to push for an all-around podium. I feel like I have put myself in a good position to make the final and I just have to hope I qualify.

“The routines that I do, they’re not the hard, difficult routines. As an all-arounder, my rings and high bar are considered quite low in start value so I have spent quite a lot of time ironing out those details and I think I have put myself in a position where I can do well.”

In the absence of Russian gymnasts, Japan and China set the standard in men’s gymnastics with Team GB set for a race with USA for bronze.

Jarman is one of three Olympic debutants in the five-strong men’s team, joined by fellow first-timers Luke Whitehouse and Harry Hepworth as well as Joe Fraser and Max Whitlock, with Britain’s best-ever gymnast competing at his final Games.

Jarman and Whitehouse are considered medal prospects on floor, with Whitlock focusing on pommel and aiming to become the first gymnast to win medals on the same piece of apparatus at four Olympic Games.

“It’s quite ambitious but I think we have what it takes to push for a team podium,” said Jarman. “The team that we have got, it’s quite diverse and I have seen people say, ‘it’s a team of individuals’ and it really is.

“It’s a team that can produce medals individually, but they can also contribute scores for the team, and we have a good chance at doing well. To me, it is quite promising.”

With more than £30M a week raised for Good Causes, including vital funding into elite and grassroots sport, National Lottery players support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to live their dreams and make the nation proud, as well as providing more opportunities for people to take part in sport. To find out more visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk