Parilla Athens-bound

Steve Virgen

For the past four years, Jennifer Parilla’s eyes have been seemingly

fixed on Athens, Greece.

Ever since Parilla, a Newport Beach resident and an Orange Coast

College student, finished ninth in the trampoline at the 2000

Olympics in Sydney, Australia, she vowed to get to the 2004 Games,

which begin August 13, and win a medal.

She took one step closer to fulfilling her goal by winning the

United States’ Olympic team trials for the trampoline at San Jose

State Saturday. She won with 101.70 points and will represent her

country in the event in Athens. Each participating country has one

representative for trampoline competition.

Parilla will be introduced as a U.S. Olympian for the trampoline

at the finals of the U.S. Olympic gymnastic trials Saturday and

Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim.

“I think I’m going to Athens with a different level of focus than

Sydney,” Parilla, 23, said after her winning performance. “Sydney, I

was just excited to go. It was the first Olympics as a sport for

trampoline. The man who invented the trampoline was there. And the

first world champion was there.

“In my second Olympics, I’m more looking forward to the

competition and going home with a medal.”

In Parilla’s case, the trials seemed to have been just a

formality. She’s the U.S. champion and she’s also responsible for

qualifying the United States for trampoline competition for the 2004

Olympics.

Parilla, who was the first U.S. women’s trampoline Olympian in

2000, won her fifth national all-around trampoline title at the U.S.

championships in Nashville, Tenn., June 5.

Parilla also qualified the U.S. for a position in the 2004

Olympics by placing 16th at the 2003 Trampoline World championships

Oct. 27 in Hannover, Germany. She has been the poster girl for the

Americans in regard to trampoline for the past four years, gaining

some notoriety because of her rapid improvement and because of the

relationship with her coach, Lionel Rangel, who is also her

boyfriend.

Parilla used to have coaches who would need her to train outside

of California, and sometimes in another country. But Rangel provided

the opportunity for Parilla to stay close to home. Rangel has been

training with Parilla for the past five years. For the past year, he

has been coaching her.

Rangel said his bond with Parilla was based on friendship and that

aspect remains. As Parilla was preparing for the national

championships a month ago, Rangel was there for her in her time of

need.

Parilla sprained her ankle last month, but Rangel never worried.

“My reaction was, ‘You’ll be fine,’ ” Rangel said. “I’ve seen

sprained ankles before.”

Parilla, with the help of a local training facility, Pro Sports

Physical, came back strong. She worked with Lee Perkins and built her

way back to full strength.

The motivation she acquired from the 2000 Games kept her going

throughout her rehabilitation. Rangel also encouraged her.

“Our goal has always been not only to make the U.S. Olympic team,

but to do well in Athens,” Rangel said. “We went into this year with

a dominant run and we want to go and have a dominant outing there. We

don’t plan to go through all this work just to go to Athens and have

fun. The goal must be to win, otherwise there is no sense in going.”

It has seemed Parilla has always been serious about trampoline.

Parilla first began competing in gymnastics when she was 5. But then

she received a free trampoline lesson for her sixth birthday and when

she was 7, she decided to focus solely on the trampoline.

“She was a natural right from the get-go,” said Parilla’s father,

Paul. “She started with gymnastics at 5 and you could tell she was

gifted.”

Parilla’s talents allowed her to dabble in other sports, as well.

When she was nine she tried out for the U.S. Junior Olympics diving

team and made the squad, Paul Parilla said. But she injured her foot

while diving and she dropped the sport.

Jennifer Parilla also picked up snowboarding as a hobby, but gave

that up, too, all in the name of the trampoline, in which a typical

routine lasts only 20 seconds. The trampoline also tends to shoot her

up 30 feet in the air. She then must land on a 3- by 5-foot painted

area within the trampoline. She performs various skills to gain

points from the judges.

Jennifer Parilla hopes to have her best if and when she goes to

Athens.

“She set her sights on the 2004 Olympics as soon as she got off

the floor in Sydney,” Paul Parilla said. “She’s been focused on that

since then and I have never seen her more focused.”