Through a tumultuous winter and the rewards of spring, Coquitlam's Tamara O'Brien has taken the challenge and gone for it.
The rewards for her talents and effort continue to pay off.
The 20-year-old gymnast was named this weekend to Canada’s three-person trampoline gymnastics team that will compete at the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland, in July.
In her fourth year as a national team member, such opportunities never get old for O’Brien, who trains with the Shasta Trampoline Club in New Westminster.
“I’ve never been to Poland so that’s going to be cool. The other neat thing, besides representing Canada, is that it’s a multi-sport event, so we’ll be meeting and mingling with athletes in other sports and I’m looking forward to it,” O’Brien said.
Her selection came through consistent results since Canada secured its spot by winning the double-mini team event at the 2015 World Trampoline Gymnastics championships in Denmark. The World Games offers athletes from sports or disciplines within a sport that are not contested in the Olympic Games a chance to meet in a multi-sport competition.
O’Brien was a member of that team in Denmark, and her gold on the double-mini would count as a personal highlight. Last year, she scored silver in double mini and was a member of the Canadian team that captured gold at the Pan Am trampoline championships in Colombia.
She also competes in trampoline, but doesn’t hesitate when asked which is her favourite.
“The double mini is a lot more fun for me,” she said. “I think the biggest obstacle in the double mini is the margin of error. The trampoline you use is a lot smaller so you have to be really precise in your routine. It’s a quick event; at the same time, those things make it more intense. It’s about hitting your mark, and when you do it feels really great.”
That mark has been hit again and again, from places as distant as Australia and Bulgaria. O’Brien first competed internationally at the age of 11, but she says some strides made in the past few years have made a world of difference.
“I think definitely, my confidence has gotten a lot better and I’m able to handle high-pressure events consistently,” she said. “I’ve worked hard on my skills and that includes being mentally prepared for competing.”
Joining her on the trip will be Shasta coach Curt de Wolff, who has skippered the Canadian roster before but will serve as a personal coach in Poland.
Part of O’Brien’s preparation was forced through a detour of sorts, as it was for all members of the Shasta club, when the roof came down on their home base at the Queen’s Park Arenex in December because of heavy snowfall.
The club was forced to scramble, and there was some uncertainty and stress involved. For someone who relies upon routine extensively in performing, O’Brien said it did knock her off base a bit.
“Honestly, it was really, really tough losing the gym,” she said. “It was just a challenge we had to face, the athletes and the club as a whole, and it affected me more that I thought it would.
“I think everyone at Shasta worked very hard to get the situation solved and find us a place where we could carry on.”
That solution has been at the Vancouver Circus School in River Market, as well as double-mini training at New Westminster Secondary School.
Having recently placed third with a personal best score at the Canada Cup meet in Calgary, behind American Paige Howard and Sweden’s Lina Sjoberg, O’Brien said the next step will be building on her performance through training, with the goal of another medal at the World Games.
“We’ve got two-and-a-half months to go, so we’ll do our strategizing and training so we can peak when we get there,” she said. “We all push each other.”
The World Games run July 20 to 30.
