Canadian gymnasts have final chance to qualify for Olympics

The Olympic dream may come true for a few Canadians this week.

Or, they could be over.

Gymnastics Canada is heading to Rio de Janeiro beginning Saturday for the Aquece Rio test event. The tournament is the Canadian athletes last chance to qualify in men's artistic gymnastics, men's trampoline and rhythmic gymnastics. Athlete's performances will dictate whether or not they head back to Brazil this August for the 2016 Summer Games.

Bezzoubenko leading the charge

Three-time Canadian senior-national champion Patricia Bezzoubenko, 19, is one of those athletes.

The rhythmic gymnast had a slow start to the season, but spent time in Russia at the beginning of the year to work on new routines. Bezzoubenko went on to have consistent performances at March's World Cup event and again in this month when she finished 23rd in the all-around at another World Cup in Italy.

"Patricia has all the tools to succeed and is an outstanding athlete in a very challenging sport," said Teresa Orr, national team director for rhythmic gymnastics at Gymnastics Canada. "Her goal at the test event will be to hit clean routines with all four apparatus.

"If she does this, she will have an excellent chance of qualifying for the Olympic Games."

The Thornhill Ont., native needs to finish in the top six to qualify for Rio. If she does, Bezzoubenko will be the first 
Canadian rhythmic gymnast to compete at the Olympics in the individual event since Alexandra Orlando, who placed 18th in Beijing 2008. 

Burnett hoping third time's a charm

Nine-time Canadian men's trampoline champion Jason Burnett is looking to qualify for his third Olympics. He won silver in Beijing, and finished eighth in London 2012. 

This past quadrennial has been a challenging one for the 29-year-old from Etobicoke, Ont. Burnett underwent surgery on his right knee in 2014 to fix a complete ACL tear, second-degree MCL tear, medial and lateral meniscus tear, and a bone bruise with microfracture. He wasn't jumping on both feet until March 2015. 

Heading into the qualifier, Burnett has been fine tuning the routine that won him gold at March's Canada Cup. He'll need a top-five finish to qualify for Rio.

"Jason's confidence level is very high despite knowing that it will be harder to get a place than it was four years ago," said Stephan Duchesne, high performance director for trampoline gymnastics at Gymnastics Canada.

"In 2012, there was only one country that didn't earn a place at the Olympics from the test event. This time around, Jason will have to beat at least three countries."

Men's artistic gymnastics

Lastly, the seven gymnasts on Canada's men's artistic squad are competing for a spot in Rio as well. The event consists of six routines: floor exercises, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and the horizontal bar.

Team members Kevin Lytwyn and Mathieu Csukassy will not be competing at the event, which changes what the team will focus on in their routines.

"The loss of [Lytwyn and Csukassy] to injuries were huge hits to our difficulty level, and can only be made up by perfecting our execution," said Tony Smith, national team director for men's artistic gymnastics at Gymnastics Canada. "The team's goals for this event are to perform exceptionally clean routines focusing on the best execution possible and sticking their dismounts.

"It's my expectation that we can count on significantly higher 'E' scores at the test event then we had at World Championships."

If the team can't finish in the top four but fall between fifth and eighth place, Canada could still potentially send one male gymnast to Rio. Canada would need an individual athlete to place high enough in the men's all-around competition of the test event to secure the spot, in which case Gymnastics Canada's selection committee would choose which team member goes to the Games. He would be announced alongside the rest of Canada's Olympic gymnastics team on June 30.