When Athletic Centre users pass the display commemorating U of T Olympians, a photo of third-year BPHE student Rosie MacLennan soaring through the air is front and centre. MacLennan lived up to her star status again June 1st when she defeated eleven-time Canadian champion Karen Cockburn at the national gymnastics championships in Hamilton.
MacLennan finished seventh at in Beijing last summer and has her sights on the 2012 Games in London. “It feels great to win the title but Karen didn’t have the competition she was hoping for,” MacLennan told reporters after the event. “She messed up a bit in the preliminary round which gave me a bit of an edge going into the final.”
MacLennan has won two world championships in synchronized trampoline with Cockburn. The two are friendly competitors and train side-by -side at Skyriders Trampoline Place in Richmond Hill.
MacLennan has been balancing her intensive training with her studies at the Faculty of Physical Education and Health. She’s even in school this summer, currently enrolled in a course examining the history of the Olympic Games.
“What an exceptional young woman,” exclaimed Dean Bruce Kidd, who is also MacLennan’s instructor the summer course on the Olympics. “Despite the pressure of preparing for a major championship, she has been extremely conscientious about lectures and assignments and thoughtful and considerate in her views. She will become a leader in whatever she chooses.”
For more on MacLennan see the Spring 2008 issue of Pursuit magazine.