THE BIG LEAP FORWARD

Ten years after their first team golds at the Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships, China has gotten used to looking down on the competition from the top step of the podium. In Odense, Denmark at the end of November, the nation continued to reap a golden harvest, locking down five of the six World titles in Trampoline and three of the four in Tumbling.

On the road to this summer’s Rio Olympic Games, China’s top gymnasts fought an internal battle. The new generation, led by Gao Lei, ejected elders Dong Dong, one of Trampoline’s greatest champions, and Tu Xiao, the 2014 World gold medallist from the final. In the city of celebrated fantasy author Hans Christian Andersen, Li Dan lived her own fairy tale as she realised a Trampoline triple: gold in Women’s Individual, Synchro and with the Chinese women’s team.

Russia, historically a powerhouse in the discipline, fought against the Chinese dominance and bounced off with three team titles of its own. With World champions Austin White and Erin Jauch, the United States solidified its position as a force in the often unpredictable world of Double Mini-Trampoline, the only discipline China does not take an interest in.