Gymnastics News - Tumblers Selected to National Team

QUINTE BAY GYMNASTICS

Tumblers Selected to National Team

By Jeff Gard/ Total Sports Quinte

Two local power tumblers from the Quinte Bay Gymnastics Club have been named to Canada’s 2022 national gymnastics team.

January’s announcement from Gymnastics Canada noted this year’s Trampoline Gymnastics National Team includes Justin Thompson for development tumbling and Jared Matthews for junior tumbling.

“I’m really happy that I made the national team,” Thompson said. “I haven’t had a really clear path to the national team. It’s been ups and downs. I broke my ankle when I was 16 and missed out and when I was 17 there was the whole COVID year and again when I was 18. Now that I’m 19, everything seems to align right. It’s perfect because I had some struggles to get there and now I’m here.”

Matthews, who is 15 and has already competed internationally once previously, appreciates the opportunity to represent the Canadian team.

“It makes me feel good that I got picked and they want me to represent my country and I can go out and do my best,” he said. In a release, National Team Director Karen Cockburn stated “on behalf of Gymnastics Canada, I would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to the National Team athletes and coaches for their commitment, sacrifice and resilience during these unprecedented times.

“There are many international opportunities for our senior, developmental and junior teams, which will allow us to access for the future and make the necessary technical adjustments to prepare for the 2022 World Championships and beyond.”

Both Quinte Bay Gymnastics athletes were hooked by the sport at an early age.

Gymnastics was a great outlet for Thompson and his sister Katelyn, who is now one of his coaches. The siblings were put in gymnastics at the same time, which looking back isn’t a surprise.

“We’re only 13 months apart so we were always together,” Thompson said. “When I was young I just really liked to be upside down. I really liked to flip, it just made me feel free. I was super hyper and it let me get out my energy.”

Matthews was taken to a program at a young age and had the opportunity to just play around on gymnastics equipment.

“I really fell in love with it,” he said. “I tried my hand at hockey for two years, I didn’t like that.”

Gymnastics was a different story, especially when he started learning the fundamental skills.

“What I loved about it was just the feeling of when you’re flipping through the air and trusting yourself with all the skills you’re doing,” Matthews said. “It was just a lot of fun with everybody there. They treated you well, you treated them well, it was just a great environment to be in.”

Power tumbling features athletes performing a series of acrobatic skills including jumps, twists and flips down a 25-metre long sprung track. at events such as Ontario Cup, Ontario provincial championships and Eastern Canadian championships.

At that young age, though, Thompson had big goals.

“I always had a dream of going to the Olympics and power tumbling unfortunately isn’t an Olympic sport,” he said. “On top of that we had lost our coach at that point, I was 10, so the only other club that I was going to be able to go to was Oakville.”

The move to artistic gymnastics and training in Kingston made more sense and Thompson trained in that discipline until he was 16, earning a number of medals at Ontario, Eastern Canadian and Canadian championships and Elite Canada.

“I really liked the fact that there was six events so every single day was really different,” Thompson said. “You could one day be doing three events and working on skills there and then the next day you could be working on three different events. It was a lot more variety of stuff you would be doing.”

After the ankle injury sidelined Thompson, he found his way back to power tumbling and the Quinte Bay Gymnastics Club, coached by Karla Sage and Katelyn Thompson. He was pleased to reunited not only with his sister, but also Sage who coached him during his early years in the sport

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QUINTE BAY GYMNASTICS

Tumblers Selected to National Team

“I’ve always really appreciated Karla. After breaking my ankle, my heart wasn’t really with it anymore for artistic so I made the switch and was a lot happier right away,” Thompson said. “When I was younger and coached by Karla, I was super shy, I didn’t know what I was doing, but now I have a really good relationship with my coaches and I’m able to communicate with them a lot better so if I’m ever feeling a certain type of way, I know how to communicate that now.”

Returning from an ankle injury and switching back to power tumbling just before his 17th birthday presented enough challenges, but the biggest one was getting sidelined again. Four months after tumbling training began, the club was shut down in March 2020 due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. Provincial and other regional restrictions have limited his ability to compete, but Thompson still showed enough to earn the national team spot. “It’s been hard, but I’m definitely glad that I persevered and pushed through my ankle injury and now I’m now seeing the hard work that I put into it,” Thompson said. “My heart was always in power tumbling.”

Being part of the development team will allow Thompson to compete at the senior level nationally and internationally. He’s looking forward to Canadian events as well as World Cup Trials and World Championships, though is currently dealing with a back injury. “I’m taking my training easy so I don’t make the injury worse,” Thompson said. “Hopefully by the end of the year I’ll still be able to go to the World Championships. If I miss out on a few of the competitions, it’s not the end of the world because I know I’ll have the same opportunities next year.”

Matthews began competitive power tumbling when he was nine and has won numerous competitions, including at Ontario Cups, Ontario and Canadian championships, Eastern Canadian championships, Tour and Elite Canada.

In 2019, Matthews represented Quinte Bay Gymnastics and Canada at the World Age Groups Competition in Tokyo, Japan and placed 10th.

“It was a great experience,” Matthews said. “I loved going there. It was my first time competing internationally so I was just trying to take it all in and realizing what other countries were doing. I came back and realized what I had to do and started working on it.”

After all these years, Matthews still draws from his experience learning the basic fundamentals of gymnastics such as handstands, cartwheels and roundoffs.

“You didn’t think about it much when you were little, but those are the fundamentals of gymnastics and then as you progress you start really picking apart those skills and realizing how much they affect your career,” he said. “You start really focusing on the technique and everything with them.”

Like Thompson, Matthews hasn’t been afforded many opportunities to compete the past two years and didn’t have the chance to build off his previous international experience. He’s looking forward to the opportunity with the national team this year.

“I’m a competitive person and I love competing for things,” Matthews said. “It makes me feel good that I can go out, work hard and go to competitions to show what I’m doing and hopefully win.” The dedication of hours spent training has paid off for these two Quinte Bay Gymnastics athletes as they look to make their mark with the national team.

“You really just have to work hard to get there,” Thompson said. “Like any sport, you’ve really got to put in the work, otherwise you’re just not going to get to that top level.”