Thomas Pichler was born on the 18th September 1986 in Vorarlberg, Austria, to Anton and Sylvia. He is the youngest of three with two older sisters, Daniela and Sandra. Thomas spent the first five and half years of his life in Austria but health complications required him to live in warmer climate. In early 1992, Thomas and his family moved to Brisbane, Australia.

The Gymnast

Thomas was always an athletic child and followed his sisters’ footsteps into gymnastics when he was six years of age. Initial he joined a gym fun class at Chandler as it was a great way for him to expend his excess energy. Soon after, he was selected to join the High Performance Program in the same gymnastics hall.

Over the years, Thomas worked his way up the ranks of gymnastics in Australia. He competed in his first Australian Championships in 1998 and has competed in every Australian Championship since, excluding 2009 where he was unable to compete due to injury.

Representing Australia

In 2001, aged 15, Thomas achieved one of his many goals and represented Australia as a junior in a head to head clash against China, where he ranked 8th all around. After getting a taste for International Competition, he realised how much he enjoyed high level challenges and competitions.

In 2003, Thomas moved into the Junior / Under 18 division as his gymnastics career accelerated. Early in the year he competed in the International Youth Olympic Festival where he ranked 9th all around. Later that year Thomas went on to compete in the International Canberra Cup and was once again ranked 9th all around and ranked 1st on the floor exercise. This was his first international medal.

In 2004, still in the Junior / Under 18 division, Thomas represented Australia in the Pacific Alliance Championships in Hawaii, where he was ranked 10th all around but ranked 2nd on the floor exercise and 3rd on the horizontal bar. Later he travelled to the Czech Republic for the Cefta Cup of Olympic Hopefuls where he won 5 out of the possible 7 gold medals including the all around title. Back on home soil, he competed in the Commonwealth Youth Games where he was ranked 4th all around and 1st on the floor exercise, 2nd on the pommel horse, 2nd on vault and 2nd on the horizontal bar.

Early 2005, Thomas competed in the International Youth Olympic Festival, his last Junior / Under 18 competition. Here he led the Australian Team into 2nd place, being beaten by China but defeating Japan, a power house in international gymnastics. He then went on to score a personal best in the all around competition and received the bronze medal. He also received a silver medal for the floor exercise, where again, he scored his personal best. He finished his medal haul by being awarded the bronze medal on the high bar. In the same year Thomas was awarded the 2004 Australian Junior Gymnast of the Year and 2004 Queensland Academy of Sport Gymnast of the Year.

Moving into Senior Gymnastics

After a successful junior career his senior career was just beginning. His first senior competition was a head to head clash against Great Britain, where Thomas was the top Australian all around scorer helping the senior team secure 1st place. He also ranked 2nd all around, being the highest ranked Australian and picking up numerous apparatus medals.

Still as a high school student, in early 2005 he was selected to compete in a Senior World Cup event held in Belgium, where he ranked 12th on the floor exercise. Back in Australia Thomas competed in another head to head clash against China, where he once again had a strong placing on the floor exercise coming 3rd and managed to achieve 2nd on the Vault. The highlight of 2005 for Thomas was representing Australia in the World Gymnastics Championships, due to the structure of the competition, he only competed on the floor exercise and placed 12th in the world. This meant that Thomas was the highest placed Australian on the floor exercise at this competition and the highest placing Australian in history on this particular apparatus at any World Championships.

The success of 2005 carried on into 2006, where Thomas once again competed at a Senior World Cup event held in Shanghai, China. At this event he made his first World Cup final and ended up placing 8th on the floor exercise. Following this competition his focus turned to the 2006 World Championships in Denmark. After a number of trial events Thomas qualified for his second World Championships. This time it was a team event and the first team trail for the Olympic Games. The Australian team placed 14th, the best result ever by an Australian men's team in history and qualified the team to the final team trial for the Olympic Games. He also placed 30th on the floor exercise. Thomas then travelled on to Stuttgart for another Senior World Cup event. He placed 14th on High Bar and 17th on the floor exercise.

Although 2006 was a successful year for Thomas, he narrowly missed out on qualification for the Commonwealth Games which were held in Melbourne. However, he was awarded a Griffith University Sports Excellence Scholarship and began studying a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Marketing and Management.

After a one week break over Christmas and coming back from and broken foot, his first competition of the 2007 session was at the London Open, where Thomas placed 1st on the floor exercise and was the second highest placing Australian in the all around competition. After a successful start to the year, he backed up his performance at another head to head clash against China, where he placed 1st on the floor exercise. In the same week, he represented Queensland at the National Championships where he ranked 3rd all around and took home a number of medals on individual apparatuses. Once again Thomas's focus turned to the final team trial for the Olympic Games, the 2007 World Championships. After qualifying for the team, Thomas relocated to Canberra for a month and was based at the Australian Institute of Sport for a training camp prior to travelling over to Stuttgart.

Unfortunately, the Australian Team did not compete to their highest potential at the 2007 World Championships and was unable to qualify a team to the Olympics. This meant that Australia was unable to send a team to the Olympic Games the following year and Thomas and other team members missed out on representing Australia at the Games. Not to be deterred the young Australia team vowed to continue training and push to qualify a team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Following the event, Thomas travelled back to his home country of Austria for only the 2nd time in 12 years to holiday with his family and friends. This is where he met his future wife, Andrea, a daughter of a family friend.

Struggling with Injury

Due to a shoulder injury, 2008 had an uneventful beginning. Thomas was unable to train and compete on rings and pommel horse for most of the year. He focused on the floor exercise and the horizontal bar for the Senior World Cups later in the year. Thomas travelled to the Czech Republic where he finished 4th on High Bar. This was the highest placing for Thomas at a Senior World Cup event. After the event, Thomas once again holidayed in Austria this, time with girlfriend Andrea, before she moved over to Australia to live with Thomas. The well deserved holiday was not without its setbacks, Thomas suffered a potential career ending knee injury which required an ACL knee reconstruction.

In early 2009, Thomas underwent an ACL knee reconstruction which meant that he would miss the entire 2009 season. The operation required removing the torn ACL from his knee and replacing it with hamstring tissue from the same leg. This major operation required 9 to 12 month of rehabilitation to regain the same strength and functionality that the knee had prior to the injury. Thomas used the time off to set new goals which he used as motivation throughout this time. These were qualification into the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2010 World Championships

The Hard Road Back

Under the watchful eye of Kieran Young, strength and conditioning coach from the Queensland Academy of Sports, Thomas completed a nine month strength and rehabilitation program. During this time, Thomas also trained at his normal gymnastics hall focusing on apparatus which weren’t requiring the use of his knee. With almost one year’s rehabilitation, Thomas finally regained the strength and coordination in his knee and relearned all of his gymnastics skills which he once competed. Outside of the gymnastics hall, in early 2009, Thomas tied the knot with his partner, Andrea, in a small family wedding.

2010 began with a Thomas being fit and back on track to achieving his goal. He competed in his first competition since the knee reconstruction at the Pacific Rim selection trial. Unfortunately, the fairytale comeback was short lived, when Thomas injured his ankle on the first apparatus of the competition forcing his to withdraw from the selection trial. Luckily, the ankle injury only kept Thomas off his feet for four weeks. With only four months until the Commonwealth Games selection trial, Thomas focused on his fitness and stayed off his ankle.

Reaching the Goal

The 2010 Australian Championships and selection competition for the Commonwealth Games and World Championships were fast approaching and Thomas’s ankle had healed. The championships were the first time Thomas competed on all six apparatus in three years due to his shoulder and knee injury. The all around competition was contested over two days and Thomas placed 2nd all around behind Sam Offord. This was enough to secure him a position in both the Commonwealth Games and World Championships.

At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Thomas was part of the history making team which won the team gold medal for the first time at any Commonwealth Games. He went on to further success by winning an individual gold medal on his pet event the Floor Exercise, winning by the narrowest margin of 0.05. This is the highlight of Thomas's career which has had a number of ups and downs.

Thomas travelled directly to Holland for the World Championships where he placed 11th on the Floor Exercise. This was a personal best ranking for Thomas at a World Championships and also the highest ranking for an Australian on this apparatus.

Thomas' normal training schedule is approximately 32 hours per week, whilst at the same time attending full time university and working part time. Training consists of 4 morning sessions and 5 afternoon sessions, Monday to Friday, and another 3 hour session on Saturday.

Thomas has also spent the past 8 years as a member of the Queensland Academy of Sport and is also a member of the Senior National Team Squad as announced by the Australian Gymnastics Federation. As a result of this, since 2005, Thomas has had an Australian Institute of Sport camp based scholarship.