Yvonne Tousek-Renne (born February 23, 1980 in Kitchener,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

) is a retired artistic gymnast who competed for her native

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

and the 2000 Summer Olympics in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Elite career

Tousek-Renne qualified to the all-around finals at both Games, placing 26th all-around in Atlanta and 32nd all-around in Sydney. She also competed in four

World Gymnastics Championships Gymnastics World Championships refers to a number of different world championships for each of the disciplines in competitive gymnastics. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) organizes World Championships for six disciplines: acrobatic ...

: 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999. Her best finish at a Worlds was 8th place on

floor exercise In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, which is considered an apparatus. It is used by both male and female gymnasts. The gymnastics event performed on the floor is called floor exercise. The English abbreviation for t ...

at the 1999 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

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 ...

. At the 1999 World Championships, she also performed an original gymnastics skill that bears her name in the

artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

Code of Points: the Tousek, a cross-wise back handspring on

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes simply referred to as "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring i ...

. At the 1999

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, Tousek-Renne won floor exercise and

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

and placed 4th all-around. In 2000, Tousek-Renne won the all-around, bars and floor exercise at the Canadian National Gymnastics Championships, and she placed second on

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

and balance beam. During her elite career, Tousek-Renne trained with coach Elvira Saadi at Cambridge Kips in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Eponymous skill

Tousek has one eponymous skill listed in the Code of Points.

College career

During her college career with the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

Bruins, the freshman Tousek-Renne earned the

title at the 2001

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

women's gymnastic championships. She placed fifth on bars in the event finals at the 2002 and 2003 NCAA championships, and she placed fifth on balance beam in the 2004 NCAA championships. She also scored perfect 10s on uneven bars in the 2003 UCLA vs. Arkansas meet and the 2004 UCLA vs. Michigan meet.

Cirque du Soleil

In 2006, she went to work as an acrobat for the Cirque du Soleil show ''Corteo.'' Her acts in the show included "Animation," which sets the stage for the show, plus the trampoline act "Bouncing Beds" and the high-bar act "Tournik." She also performed two comedic turns as an oversized golf ball and as half of a costumed horse. As of 2016, Tousek-Renne, who plays an Amazon in the show, continues to travel the world with Cirque du Soleil.

Personal

In 2012, Tousek-Renne married Yohann Renne, a Cirque high-bar artist from France. Tousek-Renne and Renne had their first child, a girl, in early June 2014. Tousek-Renne was on maternity leave in early 2014 and toured North America with Renne, who is head coach on Cirque du Soleil's 2014 touring show, Amalun.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tousek-Renne, Yvonne 1980 births Living people Canadian female artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 1999 Pan American Games Gymnasts at the 1996 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Canada Sportspeople from Kitchener, Ontario Pan American Games medalists in gymnastics Pan American Games gold medalists for Canada Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics NCAA gymnasts who have scored a perfect 10 UCLA Bruins women's gymnasts