More than 11 years after she decided to retire from the sport of trampoline, Heather Ross-McManus is going to the Olympics. Ross-McManus gained a second quota spot for Canada by placing fifth at the world championships last year and secured the berth at the Canadian championships this past May.
Since then, Cockburn has been piling up World Cup medals and achieved a career high last year when she won the gold at the world championships. That achievement automatically qualified her for the Olympics.
Ross-McManus is a solid international performer and feels she's got a shot for an Olympic medal in Athens.
"A medal at the Olympics is a definite possibility," she said. "The sport is very volatile and whoever is on their game that day is going to win."
Ross-McManus retired in 1993 after initially making the national team in 1988 at age 15. In her time away from the sport, she worked on ocean kayaking tours on the East coast. Five years later she returned to the sport and by 2001 she was ranked 10th in the world. Her husband and former national team member Sean McManus opened a club in Ottawa which also influenced Ross-McManus to return. She is now coached by her husband.
