As the momentum builds towards the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics, Canada’s top gymnasts and trampolinists are ramping up their preparations while taking aim at a best-ever showing in Beijing.

Against this backdrop, an epic comeback is unfolding at the University of Calgary Gymnastics Centre where reigning Olympic men’s floor champion Kyle Shewfelt is back in harness and making steady progress following the devastating knee injuries he suffered last August just days before the start of the 2007 world championships.

Until Kyle hit the floor running, flipping and spinning to his landmark victory in Athens, Canada had never won an Olympic medal of any colour in artistic gymnastics. This time around Canada should have no less than three medal contenders in artistic gymnastics, two in trampoline and one in rhythmic gymnastics.

Shewfelt, if he is fully recovered, will certainly be a medal favourite in the floor competition and he will also play a key role in Canada’s bid to reach the men’s team final for the first time at an Olympics.

Among the other leading candidates to make the Olympic team and challenge for individual medals in Beijing are 2005 world silver medal winner Brandon O’Neill, a threat on both floor and vault, and 2006 world bronze medallist Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, a contender on beam and uneven bars.

In trampoline, 12-year national-team veteran Karen Cockburn is still at the top of her game and would like nothing more than to cap her brilliant career with her third straight Olympic medal after winning bronze in 2000 and silver in 2004. Teammate Rosannagh MacLennan is also considered a medal contender after bouncing to bronze at the 2007 world championships and winning silver at a pre-Olympic event in Beijing.

So far, only rhythmic gymnast Alexandra Orlando has punched her ticket to Beijing, earning Canada’s lone Olympic berth in her discipline with a ninth-place finish at the 2007 world championships.

In the other disciplines, the race to determine who is going to Beijing is well underway. Team selections will be based on a variety of factors, including competition results and other performance evaluations. Six spots and one reserve are up for grabs on the men’s artistic gymnastics team and two plus one alternate on the women’s squad.

Besides Shewfelt and O’Neill, others vying for a spot on the men’s team include 2004 Olympic-team veterans Grant Golding, David Kikuchi, Adam Wong, and reserve Nathan Gafuik.

In addition to Hopfner-Hibbs, other contenders for the two women’s Olympic berths include Nansy Damianova and Canadian all around champion Kristina Vaculik.

In trampoline, Cockburn and McLennan are the favourites to snag the two spots on the women’s team with 2007 double-mini world champion Sarah Charles also in the running.

In the battle for the lone men’s berth frontrunner Jason Burnett can expect his stiffest challenge from 2004 Athens alternate Bryan Milonja.

Whatever the final makeup of the Olympic team, Canadian competitors will be heading to Beijing with a new outlook instilled by the success of recent years.

In 2006, Canada’s national gymnastics and trampoline teams earned a record 18 World Cup medals, two medals at the world championships, and reached the podium more than 30 times at other major international competitions, including the Commonwealth Games and the Pacific Alliance Championships.

Results at the world artistic gymnastics championships in Aarhus, Denmark, exceeded all expectations. Hopfner-Hibbs gave the women’s team its first medal winner at a world championship, winning bronze on beam. Shewfelt chipped in with a bronze medal in the men’s floor competition and Wong placed ninth in the all around for Canada’s best ever finish in the event.

To top it off, the men reached the team final for the first time, placing sixth in the heady company of gymnastics powers like China, Japan, Russia, and Romania.

At the World Cup final in trampoline Cockburn won two gold medals, winning the individual title and teaming up with MacLennan for the other in the synchro event.

Another banner year followed in 2007, with the only disappointment coming at the world gymnastics championships in Stuttgart, Germany where the women’s team fell shy of the top-12 finish it needed to qualify a full team for Beijing.

The men’s team, minus both Shewfelt with two broken knees and Wong, who was recovering from a torn achilles tendon, came through with a clutch performance to clinch the Olympic berth.

Other gymnastics highlights in 2007 included bronze and silver World Cup medals for Hopfner-Hibbs, the first for a Canadian female gymnast since 1980, and a silver for O’Neill on floor at the pre-Olympic test event in Beijing.

In rhythmic gymnastics, Orlando, continued her winning ways, earning three gold medals at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. At the world championships in Patras, Greece in September she not only realized her lifetime dream of making the Olympics, but also equalled Canada’s best-ever results at the worlds with her ninth all around and seventh in the hoop final.

For the trampoline team, 2007 could not have ended on a higher note than the world championships in Quebec City in December. After a highly successful World Cup season the team captured seven medals while earning three Olympic spots for Canada in Beijing.

In a fitting finale, Cockburn and MacLennan extended their eight-event World Cup winning streak in women’s synchro with their first gold medal at a world championship.

If past performance is any indication, Canada’s national gymnastics and trampoline teams have what it takes to carry them to new heights at the Olympic Games.

Stay tuned to this blog to follow their progress on the road to Beijing!