Gymnastics Canada  – WROCLAW, POL (July 26, 2017) Tamara O’Brien of Shasta Trampoline Club in Coquitlam, BC showed the world what she was made of, winning a silver medal in the women’s Double Mini-Trampoline (DMT) competition at the World Games in Poland.
 
In her first ever appearance at the World Games, O’Brien finished sixth in the qualifying round to advance to the top eight final. In the final, O’Brien completed both final passes with high execution, difficulty and precision, landing both passes in the box, to soar to the top of the leaderboard. O’Brien would maintain top position throughout the majority of the final before being surpassed by Paige Howard to the United States to finish in second place. O’Brien’s final score of 71.000 points put her just .400 points out of first place and one point ahead of the Swedish bronze medalist.
 
“It was absolutely amazing,” said O’Brien with the silver medal around her neck. “I was happy with my ranking heading into the finals as it removed a lot of pressure, not being the last one to compete and knowing the score to beat. I’ve always had difficulty competing well in finals at international competitions, including World Age Group and World Championships. I’m just happy that I competed well; the medal is the cherry on top.”
 
O’Brien’s coach Curt De Wolff was on hand to support her throughout the competition. “I knew a medal was possible but I got very nervous because Tamara was at the top of the leaderboard after the first pass in the finals,” said De Wolff. “I’m just very happy because she worked so hard for this meet.”
 
Stephan Duchesne, High Performance Director for trampoline gymnastics at Gymnastics Canada was a part of the judging team for men and women’s DMT. “In order to help Tamara in her preparation, we gave her a high level competition opportunity at the Canada Cup earlier in April when Paige Howard (USA – gold) and Lina Sjoeberg (SWE – bronze) were invited to compete in Canada. I’m happy things turned out well for all three athletes as there hasn’t been any major international competition in DMT since the November 2015 World Championships.”
 
Coming off of his best ever finish at the World Games with his fourth place result in DMT, Jonathon Schwaiger ranked seventh during the preliminary round in men’s Tumbling, completing both passes as expected but with a little timing error in the second pass. In the finals, four athletes were already out of medal contention after the first pass, as they didn’t complete their dismount. Schwaiger finished both passes and had to wait for the outcome of the final competitor from Russia, who fell during his final pass. Schwaiger was bumped out of third place and finished fourth, only .500 points from the bronze medal.

With two fourth place finishes at the World Games for Schwaiger in two days, he was thrilled: “I couldn’t be happier with how the tumbling final went,” he commented following competition. “It was one of the most fun and exciting finals I’ve gotten to participate in. I competed a brand new pass and scored a new international best score for myself – that’s a win to me. Winning bronze would have just been the icing on the cake, as it came down to the wire after the last competitor fell. That was a crazy experience!”
 
“We prepared that first pass specifically for this event and watching him hit it gave me goose bumps!” said Schwaiger’s coach Denis Vachon. “With this result, I believe Jon has cemented himself as the best male tumbler in Canadian history. It’s an honour to coach such an amazing athlete.”
 
For all the DMT and Tumbling results, click here.

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