Trampolinist MacLennan Gets Canada’s First Gold in London

Rosannagh MacLennan bounced her way into Canadians’ hearts on Saturday by winning the first gold medal for Canada at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

After finishing seventh at the 2008 Olympiad in Beijing, the 23-year-old MacLennan was fourth after the qualifying round in London. She then beat two Chinese competitors for the top of the podium in the women’s trampoline event with a score of 57.305. That was enough to edge silver medallist Huang Shanshan and defending Olympic champion He Wenna, who slipped and fell during her final routine and dropped to bronze.

MacLennan’s teammate Karen Cockburn finished just out of the medals in fourth place. Cockburn had attempted to become the first trampolinist to win medals in four consecutive Olympics. The 31-year-old from Toronto took bronze in the first event at Sydney in 2000, then captured silver medals in Athens and Beijing.

“I was fourth going into the final, so I had nothing to lose … I figured I might as well leave it all on the trampoline,” MacLennan said in an interview. “It’s an unbelievable feeling. The only way it could have been better was if Karen had been up on the podium with me.”

Both MacLennan and Cockburn train at Skyrider’s Trampoline Place in Richmond Hill, Ontario. They have competed together in synchronized trampoline since 2006, and from that time they have become one of the world’s top teams. They have won eight straight World Cup events, including the finals in Birmingham, England in 2006 and Quebec City in 2007. They hold the current world record for highest degree of difficulty (14.20), which they obtained at the Lake Placid Trampoline World Cup in 2007.

The Olympic gold medal is the latest in a series of victories on the apparatus for MacLennan, who has won eight gold medals in previous World Cup events on an individual level. She also earned silver at the 2011 world championships in Birmingham, which enabled Canada to have a place in the event at the London Olympics. She went on to take gold at the Pan Am Games after substituting for Cockburn in the competition. Cockburn had to withdraw from the event in Guadalajara, Mexico, last October because of illness.

Born in King City, Ontario, just outside Toronto, MacLennan has competed internationally since 1999. She was Canadian women’s champion in 2005, 2009 and 2011. She finished third in the individual event at the 2007 world championships in Quebec City, which allowed Canada to compete in the event at Beijing one year later.