Trampoline gymnastics is a competitive discipline where athletes perform acrobatic skills, including somersaults and twists, while bouncing on a trampoline. It became an Olympic sport at the 2000 Sydney Games and has grown into a global competitive discipline governed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), with 32 athletes (16 per gender) competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Four Competition Disciplines
Trampoline gymnastics includes four distinct categories of competition: individual trampoline, synchronized trampoline, double mini-trampoline, and tumbling.
In individual trampoline, a single athlete performs a routine of ten consecutive skills on a full-sized trampoline, aiming for height, complexity, and precise form. Synchronized trampoline pairs two athletes on side-by-side trampolines performing identical routines at the same time. Judges evaluate not only the skills themselves but how closely the two gymnasts mirror each other in timing and height.
Double mini-trampoline uses a smaller, sloped apparatus. Athletes sprint down a runway, launch onto the device, perform skills during one or two bounces, and dismount onto a landing mat. Tumbling takes place on a 25-meter spring track, where gymnasts execute a rapid series of flips and twists in a straight line. Of these four, only individual trampoline currently appears in the Olympic program.
What Happens During a Routine
A competitive trampoline routine lasts only about 20 seconds, but it packs in extraordinary athletic demands. Athletes can reach heights of 8 meters (roughly 26 feet) above the trampoline bed while executing complex combinations of somersaults with multiple twists. At the bottom of each bounce cycle, the trampoline’s reaction force generates extreme loads on the body. Accelerometer measurements have recorded peak forces of approximately 11.5 g during the lowest point of a jump, meaning the athlete briefly experiences a force more than 11 times their body weight.
That combination of extreme height and rotational speed is what makes the sport visually stunning and technically demanding. A single skill might involve three full somersaults with a twist added to each rotation. The athlete must track their position in the air, control their spin rate by adjusting body shape, and land precisely in the center of the trampoline bed to set up the next skill.
How Routines Are Scored
Scoring in trampoline gymnastics breaks down into several components: difficulty, execution, and time of flight. Difficulty reflects the complexity of each skill. More somersaults and more twists mean a higher difficulty value. Execution is judged by a panel that evaluates body form, consistency of height, and how well the athlete stays centered on the trampoline. Deductions apply for bent knees, separated feet, or drifting off the center cross marked on the bed.
Time of flight is measured electronically. Infrared sensors mounted beneath the trampoline detect the exact moments an athlete leaves and returns to the bed. The total airborne time across all ten skills is converted into a score. This system works within 5-millisecond increments, meaning even tiny differences in height translate into scoring distinctions. A separate electronic system using force plates beneath the trampoline legs can also measure horizontal displacement, tracking how far the athlete drifts from center during the routine.
Changes in the 2025-2028 Code of Points
The scoring system just received its most significant overhaul in two decades. FIG’s Trampoline Technical Committee rebuilt the difficulty values for the 2025-2028 Olympic cycle after finding that top competitors were all performing nearly identical routines. Certain backward elements that had been undervalued for years, like the “full-full-full” (a triple back somersault with a full twist on each rotation), now carry higher difficulty ratings to encourage gymnasts to include them.
The committee also adjusted landing rules. Athletes no longer need to bring their feet closer than shoulder-width apart at the end of a routine. And if a gymnast lands on their feet but then falls, they lose all difficulty credit for that final skill. In tumbling, split-legged double layout elements are now permitted, and an extra 1.0 bonus per skill applies to tumbling passes containing multiple elements worth more than 4.4 points. The goal across all these changes is more variety in what audiences and judges see at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Common Injuries and Risks
The primary injury mechanism in competitive trampoline is landing from incomplete or mistimed skills. When an athlete loses spatial awareness mid-air or under-rotates a somersault, the landing forces are absorbed by joints and limbs in positions they aren’t prepared for. Research on competitive trampoline, tumbling, and acrobatic gymnastics has found that intrinsic and behavioral factors (like fatigue or misjudged takeoffs) are the main injury determinants rather than equipment failure.
Forearm and knee injuries are particularly associated with trampoline compared to the other acrobatic disciplines. Upper limb fractures occur when athletes put their hands out to catch themselves during a bad landing. The landing surface itself also matters. The flexible trampoline bed absorbs force differently than a tumbling track or mat, which changes how energy travels through the body on impact.
Physical Benefits Beyond Competition
Trampoline-based exercise offers measurable benefits even outside elite competition. The activity is inherently a multicomponent workout that challenges strength, balance, coordination, and spatial orientation all at once. A study published in Clinical Interventions in Aging tested a mini-trampoline program with older women who had low bone density. After the training period, participants improved their single-leg standing balance by 33% and completed a timed mobility test 19% faster. The control group, which did not train on trampolines, showed no improvement and actually declined slightly on the mobility test.
Bone density at the hip showed a small but clinically meaningful 2% increase in the trampoline group, enough to help counteract bone loss and potentially reduce hip fracture risk. The lumbar spine did not show a statistically significant change. These findings suggest that the repetitive impact of trampoline bouncing, combined with the constant balance adjustments it demands, provides a unique stimulus that many other forms of exercise don’t replicate as efficiently.