Canada Names 8-member Gymnastics Squad for 2016 Olympics

On Thursday, Canada named the five female artistic gymnasts and the three trampoline gymnasts that will battle for the Olympic team title in Rio this summer.

Canadian National Championships vault gold medalist Shallon Olsen and 2014 Junior National Champion Rose Woo join Ellie Black, Britanny Rogers and Isabela Onyshko, who were previously named at the national selection camp in Gatineau, Quebec on Wednesday.

They are selected based on the total amount of points they have acquired from the 2015 World Championships, 2016 Elite Canada, 2016 Canadian Championships, some selected international events in February and March, and the camp that took place this week. 

The competition program of women’s artistic gymnastics comprises of Vault event, Uneven Bars event, Beam event and Floor exercise.

In the trampoline gymnastics discipline, three female gymnasts who will be a part of the Olympic team were also named. They were Rosie McLennan, the reigning Olympic Champion in trampoline, and the returning Olympian Jason Burnett, who obtained the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Scott Morgan, who managed to acquire two gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, will make his Olympic debut in men’s artistic gymnastics. 

2011 and 2015 Pan Am Games Champion Rosie MacLennan secured an Olympic spot in March with her success at the Canada Cup in Kamloops. B.C.

“I am incredibly excited to be heading to my third Olympic Games,” said the 27-year old athlete in a statement released by Gymnastics Canada. “It’s always an honor to represent Canada in a sport that I am truly passionate about and to join a team of such amazing athletes and people.”

2008 Olympic silver medalist Jason Burnett will participate in his third Olympic competition after acquiring one of the eight available Olympic berths at the Aquece Rio Test Event in April. 

27-year-old Scott Morgan is the only male artistic gymnast to compete in Rio after the team failed to finish among the top four of eight national teams at the Rio Test Event in April. He finished fourth in the vault apparatus in that event after qualifying for the final at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.

“Six years ago, seeing the 2010 Olympians in my hometown of Vancouver sent shivers down my spine” he stated. “Now I can’t wait to be part of the team I looked up to… showing the world Canada’s best.”

Reigning Pan Am Champion

Ellie Black, the reigning champion in the Pan Am Games, finished first in the all-around competition in the opening day of the National Camp on Tuesday. She placed first with her vault and floor routine, and placed third on the beam and uneven bars.

23-year-old gymnast Britanny Rogers represented the University of Georgia at the NCAA Championships which took place this year. She managed to obtain the top spot in the uneven bars. At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, she helped Canada to achieve a best-ever fifth-place finish in the team competition. 

The 18-year old Isabela Onyshko became the champion in the 2016 Elite Canada competition.

Rose Woo, 16, was the junior national all-around champion in 2014.

Shallon Olsen, 15, who became the junior national all around champion in 2013, is the youngest member of the Canadian national team. 

The women’s team will conduct a final Olympic preparation camp in Sarnia, Ontario one week before proceeding to Rio.

The competition for artistic gymnastics will take place at the Rio Olympic Arena from August 6-16, while the qualification and final round of the women’s and men’s trampoline are scheduled for August 12 and 13, respectively. 

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Ellie Black Leads Canada as the Country Qualifies for the Rio 2016 Olympics

Last Summer, Ellie Black, a Canadian gymnast, introduced herself to Canadians by winning five medals (three of which are gold) at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.

This time, the Halifax-born gymnast has introduced herself to the international stage. At the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships last week, the 20-year-old Canadian athlete delivered an astonishing performance that has put Canada in a hopeful position to qualify for the 2016 Olympics.

With Black leading the pack, the Canadian team managed to finish seventh against 24 other countries, earning her country a spot in the Rio 2016 Olympics. The top eight teams will automatically move forward to the Olympics while teams ranked 9th to 16th will get another chance to secure a berth at the Olympic Test Event on April

“It’s a sigh of relief for the team,” said Kyle Shewfelt, a 2004 Summer Olympic gold medallist. “They don’t have to focus on peaking in April, coming down, and then peaking for the Games. Now, everyone gets to have a nice rest. They can regroup, build up their degree of difficulty and then maybe at the Olympic Games make the team final. And there, anything can happen.”

Now considered as one of the best gymnasts in the world, Black performed a dazzling performance on each of the four events earning her a total score of 57.299 to finish fourth in the all-around competition.

For that reason, she will move forward to the team, all-around and individual final on the balance beam later this week.

“At this World Championships, a lot of people’s eyeballs are bugging out of their head going: ‘Ellie Black – wow, Sneaky, sneaky little Canadian,’” Shewfelt said. “On the Internet, a lot of people in the gymnastic universe are really talking highly about her.”

“What I love about Ellie is that she’s such a rock. She goes in and she’s so confident when she competes. She’s able to stay up on the apparatus. She fights for the tenth (of a point), you can see. And she becomes better in competition than she is in training. And that’s what you want to see from an athlete. You want them to rise.”

While other competitors such as the Romanian team collapsed under the pressure, the Canadian team took the opportunity to move up in the competition.

“It’s kind of surreal at this point,” said Canadian gymnast Brittany Rogers, who attends and competes for the University of Georgia. “We knew that we had a decent shot going into it that we would come top-eight. But we knew anything could happen. It’s gymnastics. Falls happen. Catastrophes happen.”

“We’re feeling fortunate to be here.”

Aside from Canada, the United States, China, Italy, Great Britain, Japan, Russia and the Netherlands are also a part of the top eight teams who will automatically move forward to the 2016 Olympics.

Canada joined the competition on the bubble, but delivered two days of astonishing performances from Ellie Black, Britanny Rogers, Victoria-Kayen Woo, Audrey Rousseau, Sydney Townshend, and Isabella Onyshko.

Aside from that, Onyshko will also move forward to the all-around final after finishing 24th overall.

“This is incredible,” Black commented on the overall results. “It was our goal to come in and do our best for Team Canada and hopefully come in top eight. To come in seventh and qualify a team for the Olympics is amazing. We all had a fantastic day of competition. We all did our best routines and really put everything out there for the team.”

The Canadian women’s team has qualified for the Olympics for two times in a row. At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, the Canadian team made a history by finishing fifth, Canada’s best-ever Olympic gymnastics team result.

Black learned a valuable lesson at the Championships. She has now become a leader.

No longer a stranger in Canada or in the international stage, she’s now facing the challenge of handling the pressure of expectation.

“We know what she’s capable of,” said women’s artistic gymnastics’ National Team Director Dave Brubaker “I think lately there has been a lot of pressure, because of the Pan-Ams and all of the hype attached to that. So we need her to focus on what makes her successful, not the outcomes.”

Speaking of the outcomes, everything is going well so far.

“The team competition, that was my main goal, to help the team out as much as I could,” Black said. “And then the second individual goal is already accomplished.

“From this, we’re just looking to enjoy the rest of the competition and do our best.”

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