Shallon Olsen
Shallon Jade Olsen is a Canadian artistic gymnast who represented Canada at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She is the 2018 World silver medalist and 2018 Commonwealth Games champion on vault.
Junior career
2011
Olsen earned the junior national vault championship in 2011 and held it until 2014 when moving up to senior level.In the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Olsen won gold and bronze medals as a 10-year-old Grade 5 student.
2012
Olsen made her international debut at the Élite Gym Massilia in November, winning gold with her team and silver in the all-around behind compatriot Rose-Kaying Woo.As a 12-year-old, Olsen won the overall gold medal at the 2012 Canadian Gymnastics Championship in Regina, Saskatchewan.
2013
In January, Olsen competed at the International Gymnix, winning gold on vault and silver with her team. That spring, she competed at the Canadian Nationals, winning gold in the all-around, vault, and floor exercise, and placing fourth on bars and fifth on beam. In the Master Team division at the Elite Gym Massilia in November, the Canadian team placed third on vault, fourth on beam, fifth in the all-around and on bars, and seventh on floor. Individually, she won silver on vault and placed fourteenth in the all-around. She qualified to the Top Massilia and placed fourth on vault.Olsen was recognized as Kate Richardson Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year by Gymnastics BC.
2014
In February, Olsen competed at the Elite Canada, winning gold on vault and floor and silver in the all-around, uneven bars, and balance beam. A couple weeks later, she competed at the Gymnastics Legends Invitational in California, winning silver in the all-around behind compatriot Audrey Rousseau. At the International Gymnix Junior Cup, she won gold on vault, silver with her team and on floor, bronze in the all-around, and placed seventh on balance beam. In late March, she competed at the Junior Pan American Championships, winning team gold, vault silver, and placing fourth on floor exercise. She competed at the Pacific Rim Championships, winning team and floor exercise silver, vault bronze, and placing sixth in the all-around and on bars.In May, Olsen competed at the Canadian National Championships, winning vault gold, all-around, uneven bars, and balance beam silver, and floor exercise bronze. In November, she competed at the Elite Gym Massilia in France. In the Open division, she won gold on vault, silver with her team, and placed fifth on floor, sixth on beam, and eighth in the all-around. In the Master division, she won silver on vault, and placed fifth with her team and eleventh in the all-around.
2015
Olsen competed in the senior division of the Elite Canada in late January, winning vault gold, floor exercise bronze, and placing sixth in the all-around and eighth on beam. In March, she competed at the International Gymnix, winning team and vault gold and placing eighth in the all-around. At the City of Jesolo Trophy, she won team and vault silver and placed tenth in the all-around. She competed in the senior division at the Canadian National Championships.Senior career
2016
Olsen made her senior debut at the Elite Canada in February. She placed fourteenth in the all-around and won the title on vault. She went on to compete at the WOGA Classic in Frisco, Texas, winning vault and floor exercise gold and all-around silver. In March, she competed at the International Gymnix, winning gold on vault and bronze on floor, and placing fourth with her team and twelfth in the all-around. In April she competed at the 2016 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships winning vault gold, team silver, floor exercise bronze, and placing fourth in the all-around and seventh on balance beam. In June, she competed at the Canadian National Championships, winning vault gold, floor exercise silver, and placing fourth in the all-around, ninth on uneven bars, and eleventh on balance beam. She was named to the Canadian Olympic team in late June.Rio Olympics
Canada competed in the last subdivision of qualifications, starting on floor exercise. While Canada did not qualify to the team final, finishing out of the top 8 by less than 0.200, Olsen debuted an Amanar, and while she overrotated, her average was enough to qualify her to the vault final in sixth place. She finished eighth in the final after touching her knee to the mat on a lunge forward on the Amanar.2017
In February, Olsen competed at the Elite Canada, winning gold on vault and placing fifth on bars and sixth in the all-around. Based on solid showing at Elite Canada she was selected to compete at both the International Gymnix and the City of Jesolo Trophy, winning vault at both competitions and winning silver in the all around and bronze on floor at the International Gymnix, the first time she has ever won an all around medal at a senior international competition. Later that year at the Canadian National Championships she won her seventh consecutive national vault title and was named to Canada's World Championship team along with Olympic teammates Ellie Black and Isabela Onyshko and first year senior Brooklyn Moors. The other two Rio olympians Brittany Rogers and Rose Woo were named alternates, placing all five members of Canada's Olympic team in the world championships selection camps. She competed at the Varna World Cup before the world championships, winning silver on both vault and floor, debuting a new floor routine. At the World Championships, she competed vault and Floor Exercise, Qualifying 4th into vault finals, debuting a new vault for her and the hardest vault at the championships, the Cheng and competing a clean routine on floor to score a 13.133, just three tenths behind the eventual final qualifier and compatriot Ellie Black. Before the vault final she submitted the Triple Twisting Yurchenko, a vault that only one other woman, Hong Un Jong, had ever attempted and a vault that no woman had ever gotten credit for. However, she decided to only compete the Amanar in order to avoid injury. Even with the Amanar and the Cheng, she tied world champion Maria Paseka of Russia for the highest vault difficulty in Event Finals. However, she overrotated and crashed her Amanar, finishing seventh, upgrading only one spot from the eighth-place finish she received at the Rio Olympics. Her vault average from the qualifying rounds would have been enough to earn her the bronze medal. Afterwards, she revealed that she had committed to the University of Alabama’s gymnastics team, and will begin competing for them in the 2018-2019 school year.2018
She began 2018 at Elite Canada, continuing her streak on vault by winning the title again. She was selected to compete at the International Gymnix, where she again won gold on vault. Based on her strong performances on vault at the first two competitions of the season, she was selected to the Canadian team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia. The Canadian team for this championships was exactly the same as the one that went to Rio until Rose Woo pulled out due to injury and was replaced by Jade Chrobok. Competing on only vault and floor, Olsen qualified in first to the vault final and tied for third to the floor exercise final and helped the Canadian team win the team gold medal. In the vault final she scored a 14.800 for her first vault and a 14.366 for her second, winning the gold medal. In the floor exercise final she scored a 13.266 to conclude her Commonwealth Games, enough to secure the bronze medal.Olsen joined the Alabama Crimson Tide women's gymnastics team in the fall of 2018 and was named to Canada's world championship team as well. At the world championships she qualified in second into the vault final and contributed to Canada's historic fourth-place finish as a team. In event finals she repeated her placement from qualifications, finishing second. This is Canada's third world medal ever, second in apparatus finals and first on vault. This also ties Ellie Black and Ana Padurariu for best Canadian finish individually, as Black also won a silver medal in the individual all-around at worlds the previous year, and Padurariu won a silver in the balance beam finals one day after Olsen's vault performance.
2019
Olsen made her debut as a collegian at Alabama on January 5, 2019, winning the vault title in a quad meet against Southeast Missouri, Temple and Northern Illinois. At the Southeastern Conference Championships, Olsen helped Alabama finish third behind LSU and Florida. She also received All SEC and SEC Freshman honors for her performance on the balance beam where she received a 9.925. At regionals she contributed to Alabama’s third place finish behind Michigan and UCLA, just missing a spot at nationals for the first time since 1982. She was named Alabama Gymnastics Rookie of the Year at the conclusion of the 2019 season.In May Olsen competed at the Canadian National Championships. She only competed on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise. She won gold on vault and placed fifth and fourth and beam and floor respectively. In June Olsen was named to the team to compete at the 2019 Pan American Games alongside Ellie Black, Ana Padurariu, Brooklyn Moors, and Victoria-Kayen Woo. At the Pan American Games, Olsen was slated to compete on vault and floor. She performed relatively simple routines on both events than she had the previous two seasons in addition to mistakes on her landings, causing her to qualify only fifth into the vault final and missing out on the floor final. During the vault final Olsen upgraded her López to a Cheng and was able to win the bronze behind Black and Yesenia Ferrera of Cuba.
On September 4 Olsen was named to the team to compete at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany alongside Ana Padurariu, Ellie Black, Brooklyn Moors, and Victoria Woo. During qualifications Olsen helped Canada place fifth, thereby qualifying Canada a team to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Individually she qualified to vault finals. During the vault final she finished in fourth place behind Americans Simone Biles and Jade Carey and Ellie Downie of Great Britain.