Shallon Olsen of Team Canada competes on the Vault during the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Team Final on day four of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on July 30, 2024 in Paris, France.Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
When Canadian gymnast Shallon Olsen was just nine months old, she jumped out her crib.
Tony Olsen, right, and his son, Chas Olsen, hold the Canadian flag while after watching Canadian artistic gymnast Shallon Olsen, Tony’s daughter, perform at the 2024 Olympic Games on July 30, 2024, in Paris.Siegfried Modola/The Globe and Mail
“She basically said that she was a vaulter when she was a baby,” said her dad, Tony Olsen, who was in the audience at Bercy Arena Tuesday night in Paris to cheer on his daughter and the rest of Team Canada in the women’s artistic gymnastics team final.
“Shallon just had a natural for it. She walked at a very young age. She was extremely strong. She used to do chin ups on the kitchen table. She did a back walk over on my legs when she was, like, two years old.”
Olsen, 24, is a vault specialist on the Canadian team and scored an impressive 14.400 on the apparatus during the team final. Strong performances from all five women throughout the competition earned them a fifth place finish in a packed event, which included the powerhouse Team USA with Simone Biles.
At various points throughout the night, several teams — including Canada — were striking distance for a bronze. But for Team Canada, the goal was always just to qualify for the event.
The Canadian women haven’t competed in the team final in 12 years.
“Today is the cherry on top. They made it to the team final. That was the goal,” said Binh Au, Cassandra Lee’s mom.
Au and her husband David Lee were there to watch their 18-year-old daughter’s Olympic debut on Sunday during the qualifying round.
Asked how it felt to watch her daughter about to take the stage in the final, Lee gritted his teeth.
“I’m very nervous. I know she’ll do well, but I am nervous for her,” he said. (After the teenager nailed her bar routine — her first apparatus on the rotation — Lee and Au cheered and pumped their fists in the air, while waving a Canadian flag.
“We are so proud, so proud. I can’t believe this. It just hasn’t hit us yet. Not until we get home and we reflect back on it,” said Au. “I just want her to do what she is capable of doing and what she has trained for 15 years… it takes a village to raise an elite athlete.”
After the event, Lee spoke to reporters about what it was like competing at her first Olympics.
“Honestly it was surreal. Especially in the first day in qualifications,” she said. Lee admitted to feeling very “stressed” about performing her beam routine in both days of competition, but the fear went away as soon as she got going.
“Once I got on the beam all of it just went away and I just felt confident,” she said.
Team veteran Ellie Black, who has been to four Olympics, said they all felt good about where they landed with 162.432 points.
“I think we’re all really excited. You know, it was a really great atmosphere out there and I think we did a phenomenal job,” the 28-year-old said..
The final standings had the Americans taking gold with 171.296, Italy winning a hard-fought silver with 165.494 and Brazil finishing bronze 164.497.
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