Trampoline: Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, first medal for a neutral

2 Aug 2024

Insidethegames.biz

Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya from Belarus has won the silver medal in trampoline at the Olympic Games in Paris on Friday.

Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya - Figure 1 — Photo Insidethegames.biz

The medal is the first for a Russian or Belarusian athlete, who are not competing in these Games under their own flag, but as so-called neutrals, as part of measures taken by Paris as a result of Russia's role in the war in Ukraine.

This means that they do not participate in the opening ceremony, that the anthem is not played because the medals are individual medals and do not count towards their nations' medal tally, and they have previously had to distance themselves from Russia or Belarus and deny any connection with the army. Only 15 Russians and 17 Belarusians accepted the invitation to compete under the neutral flag.

Bardzilouskaya, 19, was beaten in the women's springboard final by Britain's Bryony Page, while Canada's Sophiane Methot took bronze. And Anzhela Bladtcheva, a Russian springboarder also competing as a neutral, was fifth.

Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya won silver with a score of 56.060 and Canada’s Sophiane Methot clinched bronze with a 55.650.

Britain's Bryony Page after the women's trampoline gymnastics final . GETTY IMAGES

Two-time Olympic medallist Bryony Page has completed her Olympic medal collection, taking gold in the women’s trampoline final , besting her silver and bronze from Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

When her gold medal score (56.480) was posted, the audience erupted and Great Britain’s veteran collapsed to the floor in tears of joy, becoming the only female Trampoline gymnast in history to amass a full set of Olympic medals in the process. Her winning total was 56.480 points.

“I had quite a difficult build-up, anticipating this competition for a long time,” commented Page, who plans to continue competing after Paris. “I managed to get through prelims (qualifications), so I was really happy with that. And then, in the finals, I was able to upgrade from what I did in the last Olympics."

Page took up the sport at age nine at The Wingate Centre in Wrenbury, England. Her parents had noticed how much she was enjoying the trampoline in the garden at their home in Wrenbury, near Nantwich in Cheshire. They put her into lots of different sports when she was younger including tennis, dance, ballet and football, but her favourite was gymnastics for which she had a natural ability.

Bronze felt for 25-year-old Methot. Methot’s parents moved closer to a top Canadian club years ago to allow their daughter to pursue her Olympic dreams, and Friday she earned Canada’s sixth Olympic medal in women’s Trampoline, the first since Rosannagh MacLennan (CAN) in 2016.

Zhu Xueying (CHN), who coasted through the early rounds to qualify for the final in first place, made a small mistake that impacted her difficulty in the final. Not even the highest execution score of the day could keep the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion among the top three, and she ended 0.14 off the podium.