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No one does bouncing back quite like Great Britain’s first-ever Olympic trampolining champion.
Bryony Page has battled through the yips, multiple serious injuries and a double near-miss on her mission to scale her personal Everest.
And all those ups and downs were made worthwhile inside the Arena Bercy as she completed her Olympic set in style.
The 33-year-old, who won silver on debut in Rio and bronze in Tokyo, produced a dazzling display and sunk to her knees when it was revealed her routine had taken her to the summit.
Only China’s Hu Yicheng was left to compete – not that Page was aware.
“I thought I’d won,” she said. “I forgot there was another person to go.”
As it turned out, the emotion was not premature. Hu stumbled during her routine and Page’s celebrations could truly begin.
“I hadn’t been watching the competition, I could just hear the crowd and the scores,” she said.
“I was aware of the scores and what I needed to get but I had to focus on myself and the routine I wanted.
“I’ve still got more that I want to do but my Olympic career feels complete.”
Not that Page is calling time on her trampolining ambitions – far from it.
She arrived in Paris as the reigning world champion and still has a desire to take that winning routine from Birmingham in 2023 onto the biggest stage of all.
“I still have the idea of going to LA but everything from this point will feel like an absolute bonus,” she said.
“I was aiming for gold since the world championships but I had an injury coming out of them and almost changed my aims back to just getting to the Olympics and making the final.
“We had to make a few tactical changes, I didn’t do the routine I wanted to do and had done at [the] worlds.
“That’s one of the reasons I might come back for another Olympics, just to get that routine out there.
“If I’m happy and healthy, you might see me for a few more cycles. Brisbane [in 2032] is still in the mix as I love this sport so much.”
Page wore a beaming smile to light up the French capital as she sang along to “God Save The King” and her grin is unlikely to be wiped away any time soon.
Such a scene would have felt unimaginable in her early days, when Page was plagued by “lost move syndrome” and had to rebuild her confidence from the ground up.
That experience gave her more empathy than most when Simone Biles went through a similar ordeal in Tokyo but both have responded in the best possible way by mounting the top step of the Parisian podium.
Biles may have attracted the celebrities but this was a triumph for an unsung Olympic hero from a tight-knit family.
“I named my cat after my grandma, she is very special to me and one of my favourite people,” she said. “So my cat is called ‘Grandma’.
“She couldn’t make the trip but I have my mum, dad, boyfriend, brothers, their partners, my little nephew and niece, and friends as well from all different parts of my life. I can’t wait to celebrate with them.”
Page is a natural showstopper and reiterated her desire to move into Cirque du Soleil as she balances her Olympic ambitions with the desire to try something new.
“If they still want me, I’d love to perform,” she said.
“It has been a dream of mine for a long time and I’m not getting any younger, so it would be good to do that while I’m strong and healthy.
“I’ve got more I want to do on trampoline so I won’t be going straight away. I want to show what my glass ceiling is and break through it.”
:: Aldi are proud Official Partners of Team GB & ParalympicsGB, supporting all athletes through to Paris 2024
