Canada’s Rosie MacLennan repeats as Olympic trampoline champion – NBC Olympics

In the notoriously unpredictable sport of trampoline–just one bad bounce can send a world-class athlete into last place–it’s much easier to fly into the top ranks of the sport than to stay there. Rosannagh, or Rosie, MacLennan of Canada proved it wasn’t impossible, however, when she became the first trampoline athlete to win two golds at an Olympics.

Trampoline has a short history at the Olympics; it only made its debut in 2000. But there isn’t as much athlete turnover in trampoline as in there is in the most popular discipline of gymnastics, artistic gymnastics. Trampoline athletes Dong Dong and He Wenna of China are making their third Olympic appearance, while Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Khilko has competed at every Olympic trampoline competition, making Rio her fifth Games.

So while it isn’t rare for an Olympic trampoline champion to return and try to defend their title, no man or woman had succeeded until MacLennan. She clinched gold with a score of 56.465 in the final. 

In the silver medal position was Great Britain’s Bryony Page, making her Olympic debut at age 25. She’s competed at multiple world championships but never won an individual medal. She’s the first British athlete to win an Olympic medal in trampoline.

Finishing third was Li Dan of China, the 2015 world champion. In fourth place was He, the gold medalist in Beijing and bronze medalist in London.

Chinese athletes have a streak of winning medals in women’s gymnastics going back to 2004. 

Nicole Ahsinger was the sole U.S. women in the final, and the youngest at age 18. Just two years ago, she competed at the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, and then made her world championships debut in 2015. At that competition she scored 95.750 to finish 33rd.

Her score was about the same in Rio, a 95.455 to place fifteenth. Only the top eight advanced to the qualifying round, so that brought an end to Ahsinger’s Olympics.

Trampoline continues tomorrow with the men’s qualificatins and final at 1 p.m. ET. The 2012 Olympic champion Dong Dong will hope to follow in MacLennan’s footsteps and earn repeat gold in Rio, while the U.S. representative, Logan Dooley, will try to end the U.S.’ medal-drought in trampoline.