Sean Wilson ready to coach top Aussie gymnast at Paris Olympics

Less than a decade into his sporting life, Sean Wilson swapped the competition floor for a coaching gig. Now he will guide Australia’s top male gymnast at the Paris Olympics. Read about his remarkable journey from rookie teen coach to elite mentor here.

Sean Wilson (left) talks tactics with one of his gymnasts. Picture: WinkiPoP Media

As a six-year-old Sean Wilson loved nothing more than climbing things and jumping off them, according to his mum.

Eager to ‘protect’ him, Wilson’s mum quickly enrolled him in gymnastics.

“According to mum I used to jump off everything,” he said.

“She thought it would be a good idea for me to learn how to fall so she enrolled me in gymnastics.”

Wilson quickly fell in love with the sport but a little over a decade later his journey radically changed course.

“I trained until I was 16 or 17,” he said.

“I was never the greatest gymnast but I still loved it, loved going to competitions, loved seeing friends.

“There was a point where I was doing a little bit of part time training on the side and I realised I enjoyed teaching it more than doing it and I was a bit better at that (teaching) and I naturally transitioned across.

“It got to a point where I was enjoying that so much that the side of me doing the physical work and training myself just wasn’t as enticing.”

Now Wilson, who grew up in Toowoomba and whose parents and grandmother still call the Garden City home, is one of Australia’s leading gymnastics coaches.

Having developed numerous elite junior and senior Australian gymnastics athletes, including world championship and multiple Commonwealth Games finalists, Wilson is now in Paris for the Olympics with Australia’s sole artistic gymnastics qualifier Jesse Moore in his Games debut.

Despite the magnitude of the situation, Wilson said his role and his focus for Moore was very simple.

Sean Wilson (right) talks tactics with one of his gymnasts.

“Jesse is a very good competitor, and loves being on the competition floor,” he said.

“I believe Jesse is truly capable of qualifying for the All Around Final.

“The main thing is keeping him healthy, happy and confident.

“The work is done, we’ve done months and months of training, hundreds of routines.

“He is well and truly ready, the skills we have chosen in his routine are there because he does them very well.

“And the routine as a whole was chosen because he does it very well.

“Now as the pressure builds it’s about reminding him this is your routine, we’ve created it for you, get excited about it, own this routine and enjoy the experience.”

Wilson’s focus is part of a philosophy toward coaching he developed and honed over many years.

Once his athletes have progressed beyond the basic skill phase his focus is on helping the athlete create their own path.

“For me there is a lot energy that comes from being able to help someone with their goals and what they want to achieve,” Wilson said.

“I know personally I get a lot of enjoyment and energy out of that. Seeing that they want to get from A to B and knowing I can steer them in the right direction or help them in anyway is quite rewarding.

“I want everything to be athlete centred. It’s not my gymnastics or what I want to achieve out of it, it is how I can support them to achieve something.”

Australian gymnastics coach Sean Wilson. Picture: WinkiPoP Media

It’s a philosophy Wilson believes can be applied at any level of the sport.

“In high performance sport there tends to be a level of expectation on athletes,” he said.

“In elite gymnastics they’re not in it for the money, they’re in it for the passion so you want to make sure you’re doing what is best by them.

“If they have a big dream, a big goal don’t be scared of that stepping up and owning it and if you come up a bit short well that is OK.

“It’s a shift away from a culture of expectation to a culture of support and if you have a big dream, a big goal and it doesn’t quite pay off you’re still a great human, you’ve still achieved amazing things.

“It’s trying to keep the big picture in focus.

“Right now we’re in France dialling in for the Olympic Games and it’s obviously it’s been a huge focus for quite some time for these guys but when we had an afternoon off training we went out and had a hit of golf.

“You’ve got to take those moments, we’re in France as a team and we got to play some golf and meet new people.

“It’s the big picture not just that one competition.”