With swimming and gymnastics getting all the attention, let us remind you of one of our favorite (and rather obscure) Olympic sports: trampoline! Performing complicated tricks while catching big air, trampolining takes an incredible amount of skill and strength. Check out the airborne acrobatics in the men's medal competition on Aug. 3 and the women's gold-medal competition the following day. To better appreciate the sport, watch this video and learn more about trampolining's history and how the skills are scored.View Transcript »
Trampolining isn't just backyard summer fun. It's also an Olympic sport. Find out everything you need to know and impress your friends this summer with your knowledge of Olympic trampolining. Trampolines were invented here in the U.S. during the 1930s and the U.S. held it's first trampoline championship in 1948. They were also used to train for sports like diving, gymnastics and free-style skiing, but they eventually became popular in their own right and a new sport was born. Trampolining made it's first Olympics appearance at the 2000 games in Sydney with both men and women's competition. Today there are still two gold medals up for grabs, one for man and one for women. In trampolining athletes perform airborne acrobatics after springing off the trampoline. So you'll see lots of jumps, somersaults and twists. The tricky part is the routine must always start and finish on the feet. You must land and hold still for a count of three seconds before moving. Performance consists of ten difficult skills, and lasts for about 60 seconds. Scoring for trampolining is pretty complicated. Here are the basics. Athletes are scored on difficulty, execution, and time of flight. The difficulty score starts at zero, and you earn points as you go along. The execution score begins at a ten, and the judges deduct for errors of performance such as a break in form, or an extra bounce. Time of flight is a machine which measures the total flight time of the gymnast. Through difficulty score plus execution, plus time of flight equals your final score. This year is actually the first Olympics that will measure time of flight. Fun fact, the health benefits of trampolining might surprise you, rebounding is actually more effective than jogging and you can build upper and lower body strength, just as effectively as weight lifting. So this Olympics, impress your friends with these fun facts. Thanks for watching FitSugar TV.