Trampolining is the newest of the three Gymnastics disciplines on the Olympic programme. Since making its debut in the Sydney 2000 Games, the sport has continued to amaze, dazzle and inspire viewers.
Venue: North Greenwich Arena
Date: August 3-4
Jargon buster
Barani: A forward somersault with a half-twist
Randolph: Also known as a “Randy”, a front somersault with two and a half twists
Optionals: The athlete chooses the moves to show off their skills, often a high degree of difficulty is needed
Fliffus: A double somersault with at least a half-twist
Triffus: A triple somersault with at least a half-twist
Basic rules
Competition will begin with a qualification round which will see 16 women compete individually over a mixture of both compulsory and optional routines.
The compulsory routine requires a set of skills to be performed in a particular order, whilst the requirement for the optional routines are that they must contain 10 recognised skills.
An upright position with both feet on the trampoline bed must be held by the trampolinist for three seconds at the end of the performance, where they must stop the bed moving completely.
A panel of nine judges award the marks, split as so: Five of the judges award points for execution, two concentrate on the difficulty level and two supervise the contest. For the marks, the highest and lowest execution scores get dropped, with the three remaining scores added to the single difficulty score.
To advance to the final round, trampolinists must come top eight in the qualification round. They will then perform one more optional routine with the highest score winning overall.
One to watch
Although the announcement won’t be made until July it is likely Kat Driscoll, who was ranked number one in the world earlier this year, will take GB’s one individual slot.
Olympic rivalry? He Wenna (China), Li Dan (China), Dong Dong (China).
Who’s the gold medal favourite? Reigning Olympic and world champion He Wenna (China) is favourite in the individual event.
Who to follow on twitter…
Trampoline Olympic fact
A total of 324 gymnasts will compete in the three disciplines in the Olympic sport of Gymnastics – Artistic, Rhythmic and Trampoline.
Check out this video of Kat Driscoll’s winning trampoline routine from the 2011 British Championships:
Sportsister,
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Photo credit: Alan Edwards
