Dan Purvis bounces back after Rio blow –

GYMNASTICS: Rio Olympics snub was the hardest period of his life, but Dan Purvis has bounced back, finds Nick Rodger

IT has been a while since Dan Purvis took to the floor, spun about on the pommel horse and pirouetted on the parallel bars amid the cut-and-thrust of top-level competition. His last event was the London Open last summer and it’s hardly surprising that the 26-yearold is eager to get cracking at next weekend’s Scottish National Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Perth.

“I’m looking forward to getting into the leotard again,” he said.

Of course, there’s been plenty of time for reflection. His eyebrow-raising omission from Team GB for the Rio Olympics last year was as painful for Purvis as an awkward landing on that aforementioned pommel but he has dusted himself down, put the crushing disappointment behind him and, well, got back on the horse again. It’s not been easy mind you.

“It’s been the most difficult period of my life really,” reflected the Olympic, World and Commonwealth medallist. “But not just for me, for everyone around me. But those people, my family and my coaches, have got me through it and I’m in a much better place now. I’m enjoying gymnastics again, which is great. Last year was so hard, but I have got my motivation back.

“I always wanted to carry on. I was never going to finish. But getting back in the gym again after all the hard work was hard. I’d been on such a high from the previous year, it was just difficult to get going again. I would have been in the gym but it was more half-hearted. My support team helped me adopt a new outlook and I got back to doing what I do best, which is working hard.

“The support I also got on social media really helped me too. I didn’t realise what I was doing was noticed by so many people. You realise you are doing this for a lot of other people and that gives you more drive to keep going. It’s about fighting back.”

In the months since that Olympic disappointment, Purvis has put a lot of his energy into helping others. He has branched out into coaching with his own gym on Merseyside and the sense of satisfaction and fulfilment he gets from imparting his experiences and wisdom to a new generation is considerable.

“I’m loving it,” he said. “I’m looking to the future with the coaching. Gymnastics has been my whole life. It’s great for kids and I want to inspire young ones to come in. It’s very rewarding when you see youngsters getting so much pleasure out of it. Hopefully I can help nurture someone to become a high-level gymnast and, one day, look back on that with the same sense of pride that I have for my own achievements. When you teach someone a new skill, or you help someone who has been struggling and it finally clicks, you can’t beat seeing the smile on their face.”

At 26, Purvis is hardly ready for the nibbie, bus pass and cut-price meals at the day centre just yet but in the physically exacting world of gymnastics, he is something of a veteran. “I do feel like that,” he conceded. “Along with the likes of Louis Smith and Kristian Thomas [his Team GB colleagues] I’m one of the old dogs. We all grew up together and we are almost getting to the end of an era, which is quite sad. The benefit of experience is that it gets is easier to deal with competitions in a mental sense. You know what to expect and you don’t stress as much. Physically, it was easier when I was 21 to get out of bed after a tough session but now it’s about monitoring my body more. I can still get the same out of it but it just takes longer to recover. There’s more rehab and physio. I do more ‘clever’ training now.” Purvis has won the Scottish Championship for the last three years but won’t be defending his all-round title as he is focusing on just the three disciplines next weekend. The Commonwealth Games of 2018 on the Gold Coast remains the ultimate target. After that, it will be time to take stock. “The Olympics in 2020 is at the back of my mind just now,” he said. “There are a lot of young ones coming through and British Gymnastics is looking great. I’ll know after the Commonwealth Games if I can try for it. I’d like to surprise myself. Maybe I’ll have another two years in me?”