Gymnasts To Take a Huge Leap Towards Olympics

There is less than 9 months left before the 2016 Rio Olympics finally starts, and the top Trampoline gymnasts from all over the world are getting ready to take a huge leap to finally reach their Olympic dreams at the 31st World Trampoline Gymnastics Championships in Odense, Denmark this Thursday.

This year’s edition of the Trampoline Championships will serve as a qualifying event for next year’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Top eight gymnasts will automatically qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games, while those who will make it to the top 16 will get a second chance to secure a berth at the Olympic Test Event in Rio next April.

Aside from Trampoline, which has been a part of the Olympic program since the year 2000, World titles in Synchronized Trampoline, Double-mini Trampoline and Tumbling can also be earned at the World Championships in Odense. In addition, the gymnasts who will participate in these three disciplines will also get a chance to qualify for the World Games 2017 in Wroclaw, Poland – the “Olympics for non-Olympic disciplines”.

Return of the Olympic champions

Three Olympic champions will make an appearance in Odense to compete against the World’s top Trampoline gymnasts. Dong dong, a Chinese Trampoline gymnast, was a three-time World gold-medalist (2009, 2010 and 2013) and an Olympic Champion in the 2012 Summer Games. Another Chinese Trampolinist, He Wenna, who won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, will also be present in Odense. Canada’s defending Olympic Champion, Rosannagh MacLennan, will also make an appearance in the World Championships.

Aside from the three Olympic Champions, some other remarkable gymnasts will also show up in Odense Championships. Another Canadian gymnast, 2003 World champion Karen Cockburn, who hasn’t own any individual World titles since but holds three Olympic medals (bronze in 2000 Olympics and silvers in 2004 and 2008 Summer Games). Ekaterina Khilko, 2008 Olympic bronze medallist, Jason Burnett and Dmitry Ushakov, silver medallists in 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games respectively will also compete in Odense.

China, an enduring dynasty

No other team in Odense appears to be as supercharged as China, which will showcase five individual World Champions and two Olympic gold medallists. In the men’s competition, 2012 Olympic gold medallist Dong Dog and defending World champion Tu Xiao will try to hold off the charge of younger compatriots Gao Lei and Xiao Jinyu for the two spots available per country in the medal round. Making it to the finals would prove that they are still the best Chinese trampolinist of all time, but Gao was proved to be a tough opponent in the past two seasons, after beating both his rivals multiple times in World Cup competition.

All of the four Chinese Trampoline gymnasts, (Li Dan, He Wenna, and Liu Lingling) proved to have what it takes to win the World Title, having already won the World titles in 2010, 2011 and 2014 Championships respectively. On the other hand, Zhong Xingping, was a 2013 World runner up.

The age-proof veterans

Four veteran Trampoline gymnasts, Nikolai Kazak(38), Karen Cockburn(35), Ekaterina Khilko(33), and Tatsia Piatrenia(34), proves that age is just a number, and they are set to compete against younger gymnasts in Odense. Still at their peak performance, each of these veterans could probably contend against the world’s top trampolinist. Canadian gymnast Cockburn, the gymnast who won the most Olympic medals in the Trampoline gymnastics history, is aspiring to make her fifth Olympic appearance in Rio next summer, just like Uzbekistan’s Khilko, 2008 Olympic bronze medalist.

Tatsiana Piatrenia, a Belarusian gymnast, who won the gold medal in Synchro Trampoline competition in 2003 proved that she still has what it takes after winning the Loulé World Cup, the finale of the 2015 FIG World Cup series, last month in Portugal. With Synchro partner Uladzislau Hancharou, Kazak became the silver medalist in 2014, 20 years after his World Championships Debut.

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