Shallon Olsen wins double artistic gymnastics silver at World Challenge Cup

Canadian artistic gymnast Shallon Olsen took home two silver medals from the World Challenge Cup in Varna, Bulgaria, this weekend.

The Rio 2016 Olympian from Surrey, B.C., was competing at her first-ever World Cup and landed on the podium in both floor and vault disciplines.

Olsen qualified for the vault final in second place and maintained that position through the finals. She scored 14.400 and 14.050 on her first and second passes, respectively, to finish with a combined score of 14.225 and the silver medal.

In the floor final, Olsen moved up from third place in qualifications to second place and the silver medal with her impressive routine. She finished .200 points ahead of the bronze medallist with 12.950 points overall.

"I feel very happy with the results and it makes me feel very confident heading into worlds and future competitions," Olsen said. "The highlight of the competition was competing with all the different athletes from different countries. Leading into worlds in October, I'll be upgrading my routines for them to be more difficult and to hopefully medal."

On the men's side, Kevin Lytwyn of Burlington, Ont., qualified in second place for the high bar final, scoring 14.150 in preliminaries. In the finals, Lytwyn fell three times to finish in eighth position with 11.150 points.
 
"Unfortunately, the finals didn't go as planned today," Lytwyn said. "I fell trying my upgraded routine containing my own original skills. Although today wasn't so good, I had a great time in Varna and I'll take what I learned here to the Montreal world championships."
 
Olsen and Lytwyn will both compete for Team Canada at the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, QC from October 2nd to 8th.