Litchfield Park gymnast takes gold in Baku trampoline games

A Litchfield Park trampoline gymnast led her team to the 2021 Trampoline Gymnastics World Age Group Competition and left with a gold medal.

Josie Bain, 16, a double mini trampoline athlete, delivered the top-four women's 15-16 double mini performances on the final day of the games held Nov. 25-28 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Double mini trampoline is a sport within gymnastics, which is similar to the more common artistic gymnastics, but instead of performing a routine solely on a padded mat, the sport incorporates a trampoline element.

Athletes take a running head start along a mat, before launching themselves into the air on a 9.5-foot by 3-foot trampoline doing a combination of acrobatics, before landing on an adjacent mat. Unlike artistic gymnastics, double mini is not yet an Olympic sport.

A look at the 2019 double mini trampoline finals in Tokyo:

Divisions for ages 11-12, 13-14, 15-16 and 17-21 are divided between female and male competitors. Trampoline sports include individual trampoline, tumbling, double mini and synchronized trampoline.

Bain, of North Valley Gymnastics, has competed nationally since 2016 and placed first in seven competitions. The last time she competed in the World Age Group Competition was in 2017, in Sofia, Bulgaria, when Bain was 12. She took fifth place.

A total of 12 U.S. gymnasts across divisions took home medals this year, including a silver from San Tan Valley resident Rosalie Thongphay.

Bain was among just three U.S. gold medalists from the Baku games.