USA’s Ruben Padilla reacts after winning gold in the Men’s Double Mini Trampoline Final during day three of the 2023 FIG Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships at the Utilita Arena, Birmingham. Picture date: Saturday November 11, 2023. (Photo by Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images)
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U.S. trampoline and tumbling (T&T) gymnastics teams struck gold this weekend in Pamplona, Spain. The U.S. contingent clinched both the men’s and women’s team titles in Friday’s double-mini trampoline event at the 2025 FIG Trampoline World Championships. Ruben Padilla also repeated as the double-mini individual champion for the third straight year.
For the men’s team, Friday’s gold marked their second straight world title, and the result wasn’t particularly close. Trevor Harder, Simon Smith, Ruben Padilla, and West Fowler dominated the final with 28 points.
Trevor Harder’s younger sister, Grace Harder, led the women’s team to its first gold medal since 2021, marking a rebound after missing the podium in 2023. The U.S. women edged out top challenger and defending champion, Great Britain.
The next day, 24-year-old Ruben Padilla struck gold again on double mini. The two-time defending world champion completed the three-peat in Pamplona on Saturday. Padilla posted a 31.300 to defeat Russian independent athlete Mikhail Zalomin.
Zalomin is arguably the strongest double-mini athlete of all time, owning five world titles on the event. Today, the 32-year-old veteran and 11-time world champion settled for silver behind the American phenom. American West Fowler also clinched bronze to join Padilla on the podium, marking Fowler’s first individual medal at a world championships.
Multiple World Titles, No Olympic Berths
With three consecutive world titles, Ruben Padilla has solidified his name as an all-time great in men’s double-mini trampoline. Padilla now owns a staggering 10 world championship medals on the event.
However, despite Padilla’s years of dominance on the event and recent victories, Padilla and the golden U.S. double-mini teams will not compete for gold at the 2028 Olympics. Mikhail Zalomin, with his five titles, has also never added an Olympic gold medal to his crowded trophy case.
Interestingly, Padilla made the 2024 U.S. Olympic team as an alternate in individual trampoline, one of his weaker events. Thus, despite his prospects for Olympic gold on double-mini, the American cannot yet call himself an Olympian.
Why? Double mini-trampoline (often referenced as ‘DMT’) was founded in the early 1970s and first introduced at a world championship in 1976.
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) describes the apparatus as a complex “routine,” consisting of two flight elements and the “all-important landing.” The flight elements are often colloquially referred to as the “mount” and “dismount.”
Though DMT has impressed spectators on the world stage for nearly 50 years, the event has not yet landed on the Olympic stage. While there have been concerted pushes for the event’s inclusion at the Olympic Games, efforts – thus far – have been fruitless.
Proponents are numerous, with the prolific Instagram page @doubleminitrampworld dedicating extensive coverage to the sport. “Why is DMT not in the Olympics yet?” – EVERYONE,” the account’s description reads. Currently, the account retains over 120,000 dedicated followers.
Trampoline In The Olympics
Trampoline first became an Olympic sport at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. However, the sport’s inclusion was – and has been – limited to one discipline: individual trampoline.
Though the event’s inclusion marked a pivotal step in the sport’s progression on the international stage, there is still a long way to go.
Trampoline and tumbling gymnastics extend far beyond the individual trampoline competition. The sport includes multiple disciplines: individual trampoline, synchronized trampoline, tumbling, and double mini-trampoline.
PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 02: Noemi Romero Rosario of Team Spain competes during the Trampoline Gymnastics Women’s Qualification on day seven of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 02, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
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The annual world championships and world games also include exhilarating team competitions, which are also excluded from Olympic recognition.
Despite the extensive competitive options for athletes at the world championships and world games, the Olympics remain elusive to the majority of the sport’s top athletes.
What Makes A Sport ‘Olympic’?
The International Olympic Committee determines which sports are included in the program for an Olympic Games, working in conjunction with the governing bodies of respective sports. In this case, the IOC reviews proposals from the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
Currently, a sport’s Olympic eligibility is evaluated according to 35 criteria. The IOC partitions the criteria into five sections: Olympic Proposal, Value Added to the Olympic Movement, Institutional Matters, Popularity and Business Model.
After implementing the Olympic Agenda 2020 in 2014, the IOC further emphasized that the decisions are made to “enhance the popularity of the Games while ensuring that the numbers of athletes, and the cost and complexity of the event, remain manageable.”
Caps on athlete participation also inhibit the inclusion of athletes competing in events like double-mini, tumbling and synchronized trampoline.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the FIG imposed a strict cap on the total number of athletes, permitting 318: 192 in Artistic Gymnastics, 94 in Rhythmic Gymnastics, and 32 in (individual) Trampoline.
Will T&T Ever Get Its Olympic Moment?
With the defending world champion leading the charge and the U.S. double mini and tumbling teams performing at their strongest levels in recent memory, many feel the 2028 LA Olympics would provide an impeccable opportunity to introduce the sport on the Olympic stage.
However, DMT, tumbling, and synchronized trampoline will be excluded once again.
Earlier this spring, the IOC announced its official program for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Though the program features 22 more medal events than Paris 2024, the majority of T&T gymnastics events remain excluded from Olympic competition.
Instead, the IOC and FIG introduced a new Mixed Team Event in Artistic Gymnastics, featuring a pair of male and female athletes from their respective qualified teams. The event strategically both increases medal opportunities for participating nations while preserving the intended athlete cap.
2032 As The Next Olympic Hope
So, what’s next for T&T? Brisbane 2032 – a distant seven years away. The IOC announced earlier this year that the initial program proposals for the 2032 Olympics will be determined at an internal session in early 2026.
The deliberations will take place earlier than typically scheduled, providing additional opportunities for federations and local organizers to propose adding new events.
The Brisbane 2032 Olympic Committee and IOC jointly agreed that the expedited timing enables the IOC to “further refine the approach to the sports programme” and allows the organizing committee to “propose to the IOC one or more additional events from new sports once the initial sports programme is finalised.”
If LA 2028 is a lost cause, Brisbane 2032 seems like T&T’s best shot at Olympic glory.