Rosie MacLennan scales back for trampoline worlds

Rosie MacLennan wishes she had more time as she begins competition at the 2015 world trampoline championships in Denmark on Thursday.

The reigning Olympic champion has had to scale back her training for worlds after suffering a concussion in July. Though she competed successfully in the Pan Am Games, in recent weeks she's had headaches and issues with spacial awareness — a particularly grave concern in a sport that involves twists, turns and flips in midair. 

"I think the toughest part about this whole thing is patience," MacLennan told CBC Sports during a training session in Richmond Hill, Ont. last week. "I had these plans of what I wanted to do for worlds and, each day that went by and I wasn't able to train to the extent that I wanted to, I had to adapt these plans and have a new way of getting to where I want to be."

​Odense plays host to the 2015 worlds from Novermber 26-29. It serves as an official 2016 Olympics qualifying event.

Countries with two finishers in the top eight will automatically receive two qualifying positions. Those who finish out of the top eight but within the top 24 will be able to compete for the remaining eight spots at an Olympic test event in Rio in late April. Sixteen women gymnasts will compete at the Games, with a maximum of two per country.

Over the past few years, MacLennan and her Canadian Skyrider clubmate Karen Cockburn have owned Canada's first two spots. This year, two other team members, Samantha Smith and Samantha Sendel, are also fighting for a spot on the Olympic team.

"Now that we have four people who are good, in theory we have a better chance of getting two spots," said their coach, Dave Ross. "Now we have one person in the top six and another three people in the top 12."

China, which consistently has had a strong women's trampoline team, is expected to grab two of the eight automatic spots. Japan, Belarus, Russia and Canada are viable contenders for the six remaining spots.

MacLennan has never faced odds like this in Olympic qualifying in previous years, and on top of that due to her condition, she will be competing in a routine with less difficulty.

"At this point I'm relying on routines that I've been doing for a long time," she says. "I would have loved to have been doing a little more difficulty, but because of the lack of time I'm relying on a routine that I've been doing for the past five years.

"It's one of my base routines but it's still a pretty strong degree of difficulty so it should still be among the top of the women."