Silent warrior

Canada's Karen Cockburn has won two Olympic medals, a silver and a bronze, and she's aiming for gold this summer in Beijing, though the unassuming trampolinist won't be the first to tell you.

"My goal for Beijing is to perform to the best of my ability," she said.

For an athlete ranked near the top of her sport, it's a rather modest objective. The comment comes as no surprise to her longtime coach Dave Ross.

"Karen is a silent warrior," he said. "She likes to keep her cards to herself."

Having coached the 27-year-old North York native since she was 11, Ross has watched Cockburn quietly bounce her way to the top of many championship podiums.

In addition to her two Olympic medals from Athens and Sydney, she's a 10-time Canadian national champion and has won gold at the 2003 World Championships, 2006 World Cup and 2007 Pan Am Games.

"In her first year, she competed against a girl who seemed unbeatable," Ross said. "But, by the end of the year, she beat her. She just has these non-verbalized goals,"

"It's funny because if you watch her train before a competition, she sees what she needs to do. But if you ask, 'What are your goals?' she won't really tell you. And then she'll do it," he added.

A force to be feared in Beijing

Indeed, though she might not say it, the 5-foot, three-inch, 120-pound blond-haired gymnast is a force to be feared at the Beijing Games. At a March 2008 competition, she was a mere 0.4 points off of the current world champion, Irina Karavaeva, a 33-year-old from Russia who has won four other world championships and gold in Sydney.

Beijing will bring the two together again. Can Cockburn do it? Can she win gold? Beijing represents a huge challenge, more than her other two Olympics, because she's recovering from knee surgery.

"Beijing is completely different from the other times before," she said. "I never had a huge obstacle like this."

In October 2007, while training for the world championships, she hurt herself during a trampoline routine. As she tells it: "I lost my sense of air. That's when you don't know where the trampoline is. I landed on my face. My knees were underneath me and hyperextended."

"She was at the height of her game when she injured her knee," said her husband and fellow Canadian trampolinist, Mathieu Turgeon. "She was very worried if she was even going to be able to practise the sport again, let alone compete at the world championships. It was devastating for her."

Cockburn injured the same knee in 1995, but this time it happened while training for the Olympics. Fortunately, though she'd torn cartilage in her knee, doctors said that despite the pain, she could still compete in the championships a qualifying event for Beijing.

Determination and painkillers

She could have opted out, relying on a teammate to earn the Olympic spot. But that would have meant that Cockburn, once recovered, might eventually take her teammate's position.

"I didn't want to take anyone else's place. I wanted to earn my own spot," she said.

With determination and painkillers Cockburn bounced to fifth place in the preliminaries, winning her ticket to China. As well, she and teammate Rosannagh MacLennan (who also qualified for Beijing) won first place in the doubles event. This summer, they'll both compete in the women's individual event.

"It was an amazing outcome for what could have been really bad," Cockburn said.

With dreams for Beijing beginning to brew, Cockburn faced an agonizing decision: if she had the surgery, doctors couldn't guarantee she'd be able to compete in China. But without the surgery, she knew she could never perform at her best.

That was when she encountered Canadian Olympic wrestler Daniel Igali, a gold medallist at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and an athlete who had overcome a serious knee injury. He told Cockburn she had to have the surgery. "It was really motivating," she said.

Under the knife

The athlete went under the knife in December 2007 and got back on the trampoline in February of this year.

"Everyday she works on something to get a little bit better," Ross said. "That's the difference between hoping you'll be good and being on a mission."

Turgeon, too, is impressed by her perseverance.

"Karen is a pretty amazing and driven person. On the trampoline, she's focused and in charge," he said, adding that she would "never boast" about her accomplishments.

Cockburn is ranked as one of the best in the world Ross says she's number one or two and she believes the injury has given her a stronger appreciation of the Olympics.

"I realize that it's never a shoo-in, I'm just excited to go and compete," she said.

Ross clearly remembers when 11-year-old Cockburn first stepped in his gym. In a recreational class, Ross taught her a basic move. Within 15 minutes, she had not only mastered the skill, she'd taught herself the next manoeuvre.

"When you see real talent it hits you in the head," Ross said. The founder of SkyRiders Trampoline Place has been her coach ever since, and says they share a special bond. "We're two people on a quest that the rest of the world doesn't understand."

But as the sport of trampoline grows and develops, more people are starting to understand. Cockburn recalls the days not that long ago when even people on Team Canada would ask if trampoline was a demonstration sport.

"People used to ask if I trained in my backyard, " she laughs.

Eight years later, gymnasts ask for her autograph, and she's sometimes recognized at the gym.

'Aren't you that gymnast?'

"People will come up and say 'Aren't you that gymnast?' It's kind of fun," she said.

Others aren't as familiar, and the humble athlete isn't quick to reveal her Olympic status.

"People will be like, 'Oh my God, that girl's squatting 225 pounds'," she said, noting that she trains at the gym or trampoline club six days a week.

With her training on track, Cockburn says she's excited about Beijing, which will likely be her last Olympics- and last chance to add gold to her collection.