There was a bit of frustration in his expression. Ángel Hernández was performing well in the trampoline gymnastics final at the Olympics. He executed several double and triple twists, combined with somersaults. There were only a few seconds left in his routine when the least desired happened: he jumped near the edge, so when he landed, he fell off the bed and onto one of the padded mats.
Hernández fell and was out of the race for an Olympic medal in his discipline. The judges gave him a score of 53.1, securing another Olympic diploma for our country, which added to those he had already secured in March, archery, golf, boxing, artistic gymnastics, and BMX Racing.
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How was the qualification for the final?
When he got off the trampoline after his second routine at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Ángel Hernández looked happy, satisfied with his performance. The Colombian-Spanish gymnast, who is 28 years old and trains at the Jorge Hugo Giraldo Coliseum of the Atanasio Girardot Sports Unit, hugged his mother and coach Katish Rescalde, looked her in the eyes, and they both smiled and fist-bumped.
Ángel, who was born in a town near Madrid, Spain, but is the son of Colombian parents, executed a couple of somersaults with double and triple twists in his routine. The judges scored his presentation 58.640, placing him in eighth place in the qualification phase and allowing him, for the first time in his career, to reach the final of the Olympics, where the athletes with the top eight scores qualify.
He has been practicing trampoline gymnastics since he was six years old and, along with his mother and sister, is one of those responsible for trying to popularize this sport in Colombia for a decade since, due to an offer from the Colombian Gymnastics Federation, they decided to settle in the national territory. He told this newspaper last May that he at least wanted to secure an Olympic diploma: he has already achieved that.
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This is the second Olympics for the Colombian-Spanish athlete, who has lived in Medellín since 2014. In Tokyo 2021, which were his first multi-sport games, he finished ninth in the qualification round: he was one position away from reaching the final round.
Hernández, who is a cheerful and simple person, likes to listen to reggaeton while training and usually goes out with friends on weekends, won the gold medal at the 2022 South American Games in Asunción. He also secured the gold medal at the Pan American Games held in Rio de Janeiro in 2024 and at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, establishing himself as the best Colombian athlete in this discipline.
Hernández is making history at the Paris Olympics. This is the first time a native-born Colombian has reached the final in trampoline gymnastics. The country has had prominent representatives in other disciplines of this sport such as Jorge Hugo Giraldo, who in Athens 2004 was the first Colombian to qualify for the Olympic Games in this sporting discipline, Jossimar Calvo, and recently Ángel Barajas. However, there was not a significant history in trampoline.
But Ángel, his mother Katish Rescalde, his sister Katish Hernández, and his brother-in-law Álvaro Calero, have achieved the goal of getting more people to practice the sport.
In the National Games held in 2023 in the Coffee Region, more than 100 athletes participated, and now, with his standout performance at the Olympics, they hope that the “mania” for this sport grows in the country.