Katherine "Kat" Driscoll (born 13 March 1986) is a British
trampoline gymnast
Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle position to more com ...
, and has been ranked as world number one. She became a full-time athlete in 2010, and has since won team and synchronised medals at the
World and European Championships. She was chosen for the British team for the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
after earning Great Britain a spot in the Women's Trampolining following her performance at the
2011 Trampoline World Championships
The 28th Trampoline and Tumbling World Championships were held in Birmingham, England, from 17 to 20 November 2011 at the National Indoor Arena. This event was the first qualifying round for the 2012 Olympics which was held in London. The top 8 ...
.
Career
Driscoll was born in
Chatham, Kent
Chatham ( ) is a town located within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham.
The town developed around Chatham ...
,
on 13 March 1986. She took up the sport of
trampolining at the age of seven after taking lessons during her school holidays.
Driscoll attended
Rochester Grammar School
Rochester Grammar School (known as Rochester Grammar School for Girls until 2006) often abbreviated to RGS is a grammar school for the education of girls between the ages of 11 and 18. It has academy status. It is now known as just "Rochester Gr ...
for Girls.
Whilst a member of Jumpers Trampoline Club in Gillingham (Kent) she first took part on the international circuit when she competed in the World Age Games in 1998.
Between September 2003 and July 2004, Kat also studied at
MidKent College on a
BTEC First Diploma The BTEC First Diploma is a vocational qualification taken in England and Wales and Northern Ireland by young people aged 14 and over and by adults. The qualification is organised and awarded by the Edexcel Foundation within the BTEC brand.
Quali ...
in Sport course.
[MidKent College Notable Alumni Accessed 4 August 2012] She had also been interested in swimming, but chose to compete in trampolining.
Until 2010, Driscoll worked full-time at bank
HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...
whilst training. Funding became available from
UK Sport
UK Sport is the government agency responsible for investing in Olympic and Paralympic sport in the United Kingdom. It is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.
It was created ...
enabling her to become a full-time trampolinist.
She has described the ability to take up the sport full-time as a crucial turning point in her career.
She won gold at the Aalsmeer Flower Cup in 2009.
She has won the British championship twice, and finished in the top three spots on two occasions during the 2011 World Cup competitions.
Driscoll went into the
2011 Trampoline World Championships
The 28th Trampoline and Tumbling World Championships were held in Birmingham, England, from 17 to 20 November 2011 at the National Indoor Arena. This event was the first qualifying round for the 2012 Olympics which was held in London. The top 8 ...
held in
Birmingham, England, as world number one in Trampolining due to her high attendance and good results at World Cup competitions giving her more points than other competitors who did not attend as many.
She was described by
BBC Sport prior to the Championships as "Great Britain's secret world number one".
She finished in ninth place, but, as
National Olympic Committees are only allowed to send a maximum of two athletes to the Games, and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
had four competitors in the top eight,
she obtained the seventh place Olympic berth for a sole trampolinist at the 2012 Games.
She would still need to qualify for the place in a series of competitions. She repeated that feat at the World Championships in Denmark 2015 by finishing 7th in the Individual Final, thus again securing a GB place this time in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – the only GB trampolinist to secure two consecutive berths at the Olympic Games – and again, she will still need to qualify for the place in a series of competitions.
At the
2012 Gymnastics Olympic Test Event
The 2012 Gymnastics Olympic Test Event took place between January 10 and January 18, 2012. The event featured the artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline disciplines. It qualified the last four artistic gymnastics teams for the 2 ...
at the
O2 Arena O2 Arena may refer to:
*The O2 Arena (London)
*O2 Arena (Prague)
*The 3Arena
The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 Decemb ...
in January 2012, where the trampolining events for the 2012 Summer Olympics would be in July, Driscoll finished in fourth place.
Despite finishing in eighth place in the individual events at the 2012 European Championships, she won the silver medal in the synchronised competition alongside
Amanda Parker
Amanda Jane Parker (née Backhouse) is a British businesswoman, philanthropist, and volunteer. She was appointed as a magistrate in East Lancashire in 2005, sitting in both Adult Crime and Family jurisdictions. In 2015, she was appointed by Eliza ...
, and was part of the British team that won the gold medal.
Just over one month prior to the naming of the British team, she won the North West Gala on 3 June, which was also an Olympic trial.
At the
2012 Olympics Individual Trampoline competition, she finished in 9th place after the preliminary routines and failed to qualify for the finals.
Personal life
Driscoll is married to former British trampolinist, Gary Short.
References
External links
Katherine Driscollat
British Gymnastics
British Gymnastics, also known as the British Amateur Gymnastics Association (BAGA), is the sports governing body for gymnastics and Trampolining in the UK.
History
It was founded in 1888 as the Amateur Gymnastics and Fencing Association. Gy ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Driscoll, Kat
British female trampolinists
Living people
1986 births
Gymnasts at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Olympic gymnasts of Great Britain
European Games silver medalists for Great Britain
European Games medalists in gymnastics
Gymnasts at the 2015 European Games
Sportspeople from Chatham, Kent
Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics
World Games gold medalists
Competitors at the 2013 World Games
Medalists at the Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships
People educated at Rochester Grammar School
21st-century British women