Omega gymnast Shallon Olsen competed in her first ever Olympic qualifier last weekend.
And with a sixth-place showing in the vault event, she is now getting ready for her first ever Olympic final.
The 16-year-old Centennial secondary student finished with a 14.950, behind Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina (14.999) and ahead of China’s Wang Yan (14.949). That means she will be among the eight competitors in the finals Sunday.
Before leaving for Rio, Olsen told The Tri-City News that she was excited to be heading to her first Olympic Games and said joining Team Canada for the event was “a dream come true.”
“I worked so hard to get to this point,” she said during an interview at the Omega Gymnastics Sports Centre, where she has trained regularly for the last 13 years. “I worked so hard to get to this point. I am really glad I accomplished it.”
Olsen took 26th place in the floor exercise with a 13.866, but needed a 14.333 to break into the top nine qualifiers. She was also part of the women’s all around team that just missed qualifying for the finals in ninth place with a score of 171.761.
Meanwhile, Coquitlam gymnast Brittany Rogers fell one-tenth of a point short of heading to the finals in the vault event.
The 23-year-old athlete, who has spent the last year competing with the Georgia Bulldogs of the NCAA, scored a 14.783, just shy of eighth-place qualifier Dipa Karmakar of India, who scored 14.850. Simone Biles of the U.S. won the qualification round with a 16.050, while Hong Un-jong of North Korea took second (15.683) and Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland took third (15.266). Rogers was also a member of the team that just missed qualifying in the all-around event.
This is the second trip to the Olympics for the journalism major, who finished fifth during the 2012 Games in London. Rogers told The Tri-City News before leaving for Rio that she had been uncertain whether she would make Team Canada after her four years in the NCAA.
Getting back into Olympic shape was a difficult task, she added, but she moved to Calgary in order to be closer to her coach and trainers ahead of her trip to Brazil.
“I went from 20 hours [of training] a week to 35 hours a week,” she said. “It was a real kick in the butt but it had to be done to make the team.”
While the London Olympics were a whirlwind trip for the then 19-year-old, she said in Rio that she hoped to take in some of the sights and enjoy the atmosphere.
“Most events we go to are strictly gymnastics,” she said. “This time around I will be able to engage more. In London, I didn’t know what to expect. It was like a deer in the headlights. Now that I have been to a Games, I know it is okay to have fun and let it all sink in.”
@TriCityNews
