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 as 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.
MacLennan clinched gold with a score of 56.465. In the silver medal position was Bryony Page in her Olympic debut. She’s competed at multiple world championships but never won an individual medal. Finishing third was Li Dan of China, who was the 2015 world champion.
In fourth place was He, the gold medalist in Beijing and bronze medalist in London.
The sole U.S. women in the final, Nicole Ahsinger, completed two clean routines but did not finish in the top eight in the qualifying round, so she didn’t advance to the final.