Cockburn ties Canadian record with medals at 3 straight Games

Wheeling through the air and dancing in white on a wonky wheel are both old hat for trampolinist Karen Cockburn.

"My wedding was two weeks after my surgery last November," Canada's latest Olympic medallist was telling a medal-hunting pack of Canadian media in the mixed zone on a memorable Monday night. "But I danced the night away, anyway."

Here's guessing there's a twinge or two inside that right knee again today. But, like those mid-November nuptials, any discomfort will be well worth it.

Instead of a ring on her finger this morning, Toronto's Cockburn has another Olympic medal around her neck -- her third in as many Summer Olympics. She won silver yesterday to go along with the silver she won in Athens in 2004 and the bronze she picked up in Sydney, Australia, in 2000, the first year trampoline was part of the Olympic program.

"Is she a trailblazer?" Cockburn's coach of 17 years, Dave Ross, said as he glanced over at his prize pupil who stood holding the bouquet of flowers medallists receive on the Olympic podium. "She is the trailblazer.

"In Sydney, when Karen won a medal, her boyfriend, now her husband (Mathieu Turgeon), said, 'Damn! Karen got a medal. I've got to get one, too.'"

Thus inspired, Turgeon went out and matched her bronze. That's the sort of ripple effect Cockburn's success has infused in this largely unknown sport in Canada.

Downing Celebrex to ease the ongoing ache in her reconstructed right knee, Cockburn bounced into Canadian Olympic lore yesterday.

Cockburn joined track star Phil Edwards (1928-36, three bronze), rower Lesley Thompson White (1992-2000, a gold, silver and bronze) and kayaker Caroline Brunet (1996-2004, two silvers and a bronze) as the only athletes from the land of Bruno Gerussi and Relic to win medals at three consecutive Summer Games.

The knee was so sore that she decided not to train the day before the final.

"How did she get through it?" Ross tapped his temple knowingly. "Mental strength."

And, miraculously, until the last competitor, China's He Wenna, ended her routine, Cockburn still had a shot at reaching the only Olympic podium level that has eluded her -- the top one.

Slotted in fourth from the end, with qualifying results going in reverse order, her score somehow stood. Clubmate Rosie MacLennan, also from Toronto, and Russian world champion Irina Karavaeva both faltered. The door was still open, a sliver.