Cockburn aiming to bounce back
Women’s trampoline veteran could join MacLennan on Pan Am podium
Being the world’s best is not a prerequisite to winning at the Pan American Games. But it certainly does not hurt.
It would be surprising, then, if Karen Cockburn misses the medals in women’s trampoline this weekend in Toronto, even as she bounces back from a grim ankle injury. She has hovered near the top of her sport for years.
Fellow Canadian Rosie MacLennan, meanwhile, is at the peak.
“I think it’d be awesome if we could both be on the podium,” Cockburn said this week. “If we perform at our best, that’s definitely our ultimate goal.”
At their best, Cockburn and MacLennan are no less than Canada’s most accomplished duo at these Games, across all events. Both have won medals many times on the world’s ultimate stages. MacLennan is the reigning Olympic champion.
They are both Toronto natives and in their first taste of Pan Am action at home — Saturday and Sunday at Ricoh Coliseum — their greatest opponent will not be American, Brazilian or any foreign nationality. It will be each other.
Not that this has caused any sort of schism. They are accustomed to facing off, just as they are with teaming up: As synchro partners at several world championships and training mates for the last decade.
“It’s almost like a piece of home wherever you go. We spend so much time together,” MacLennan said. “No matter where we are, no matter what the situation is, no matter what we’re up against, it’s always helpful to have someone who’s in the same boat, to help share that pressure and share the excitement.”
“I’ve coached them for a long, long time,” added Dave Ross, the Canadian women’s trampoline coach. “They’re easy to get along with. It’s pretty much like a little family.”
Trampoline is not a zero- sum game. There is no bracket or elimination matches; there is one qualification round and then the gymnast with the most points in the final wins. If all goes to plan, MacLennan and Cockburn will both medal in Toronto.
They have shared the Pan Am podium before, at the 2007 Games in Rio. Cockburn — then 26 years old, the same age MacLennan is now — won gold and her young teammate wore silver. So having two contenders is not exactly a dilemma and it bodes well in advance of the 2016 Olympics.
Sharing that podium is still a hurdle, not an assurance.
MacLennan won Canada’s only gold medal of the 2012 London Games, but Cockburn finished fourth, achingly, less than a point back of Chinese bronze medallist He Wenna. In 2008 in Beijing, Cockburn claimed silver, while MacLennan placed seventh in her Olympic debut. Next year, they are both expected to return to Rio.
“We’re working together as a team to really push each other, so that not only individually are we ready ( for the Olympics), but as a team we’re ready and we can have a really strong representation there,” MacLennan said.
Pan Am trampoline is not explicitly linked to the Olympics — the world championships this November are the direct qualifier to Rio — but they are a proving ground for young gymnasts yet to reach a higher level. That designation applies to most of the six opponents MacLennan and Cockburn will face in Toronto.
While the Canadians are “the two strongest athletes” set to compete, according to Ross, they could face a somewhat credible challenge from Brazil’s Camilla Lopes, as well as a pair of American teenagers: Charlotte Drury and Clare Johnson, the 2015 U. S. national champion.
Winning any medal, of course, requires both skill and luck — and while Cockburn has talent in spades, fortune has let her down at times.
In 2011, she sat in first place after the qualifying round of the Guadalajara Pan Am Games, but suddenly fell ill and could not compete in the final ( earlier this week, Ross blamed the food in Mexico).
Hardship struck earlier this time around. Last November, 14 months after giving birth to her daughter — and shortly after returning to competition — Cockburn shattered her left ankle while practising for the world championships.
She tossed her cast aside in February and resumed training in March, continuing the painstaking push toward recovery as the Pan Ams began. Ross said it will be another two to three months before she reaches full height on her jumps.
No, a medal in Toronto would not be a surprise. But at age 34, it would cap an astonishing comeback.
“Since it was in Toronto, I was like, ‘ I’m not giving up. I’m going to push hard and be ready. I don’t care — I’m going to push through pain and I’m competing at these Games no matter what,’” she said.
“You learn a lot about yourself when you go through huge obstacles like that.”