Laureus Olympians: Top Trampolinist Kat Driscoll's exclusive blog
Kat Driscoll is one of the world’s top trampoline athletes and is currently working to secure her place at this summer’s London Olympic Games. This is the first of several blogs for Laureus.com detailing her journey toward competing at the greatest sporting show on earth.
My earliest Olympic memory was one of sitting beside my mum and dad in front of the television, watching that most inspiring spectacle of sport play out in front of me.
I was just a little girl then, but I’ll always remember what I'd say to them both at the time: “I’m going to win a gold medal one day.”
I couldn’t give a definitive answer when my old man asked me in what sport that would be, but it was always a dream nonetheless. Even at that age.
In the next month I will be hoping to qualify for my first Olympic Games in the trampoline event. And from those early days watching the athletes on TV, I could not be more excited.
Any one country can have a maximum of two places in the trampoline event, Team GB have secured one. This admittedly puts the pressure on for me and the other girls vying for that position, and it's all coming to a head in a few weeks’ time at the final qualifying event on June 3rd.
I'm currently ranked 2nd in the world, so I know my chances are strong, but I'm up against two very talented athletes, including my trampoline synchronisation partner, for that single place.
One thing I am certain of is that if it doesn’t happen to me who gets that place, then the girl who does will have my 100% support. We know only one can go and after all the training we have done together we genuinely love and support each other and I’ll be there to help in any way I can.
Of course, I feel I am in a strong position to make it being at the front of the rankings between us all going in to that final qualifying event. And I am determined to make it this summer.
Getting there will be the most incredible highpoint of what has been a life-changing two years for me.
It was, after all, just two years ago that I was still working fulltime in a bank.
Luckily, I had the opportunity during the Beijing Games to take part in what is called the Team GB experience, which gives potential future Olympians the chance to see what Olympic life is like. Following that, I was certain that it was right to make this big jump for the sport that I love so much and concentrate exclusively on trampolining.
For now, I am working hard to make sure I look at the Games no differently from any other of the competitions I’ve taken part in before. This is admittedly not the easiest thing in the world to do, but my team mates and I battling for that final spot have all got to this point by doing things a certain way. Changing anything at this stage, the environment we work in or the people we work with, would be very dangerous.
I admit it is a shame we didn’t secure that second place for the team, which revolved around us finishing in the top eight at the World Championships in November last year. We only made seventh, which was my final position, and ninth, so we were really very close.
Nevertheless, it makes for an exciting few weeks, and I’ll be updating Laureus.com very soon with everything that happens.
