Since Bryony Page made her Olympic debut in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro winning Silver in the trampoline event, and Bronze at the Tokyo Games in 2021, this year, Bryony became Olympic champion winning Gold in Paris in the individual trampoline competition, resulting in her being Team GB’s flag bearer at the closing ceremony alongside triathlete Alex Yee. At this year’s British Championships, Bryony became the individual British champion for the fifth time, and in April, she won two Gold medals at the European Championships in Guimarães for the individual event and synchronised with her trampoline partner Izzy Songhurst. Last year, at the Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships in Birmingham, Bryony became the individual champion and won Bronze in the synchro event with Izzy and in the all-around team alongside her British teammates. Bryony trains at Poole Gymnastics & Trampolining Club, and is hoping to compete at the 2025 World Games alongside Izzy in the synchro competition, and since 2018, she has been a Quatro ambassador with her own leotard range. Answering our questions, Bryony chats about becoming Olympic champion in Paris this summer, being five-time individual British champion and how it feels to be the most decorated female gymnast in GB history.
What was it like competing at this year’s British Championships and becoming British women’s champion for the fifth time?
It was really strange competing at this year’s British Championships, because it had been an interesting time returning to training after coming home from winning the Olympic Gold medal! I felt there was a lot of expectation for me to win, in a good way – I felt really supported and I was really excited to see everyone in a home environment. I designed a really special leotard for the event, based off my first ever competition leotard all the way back from 2000! It was important for me to perform well in this nostalgic leotard and remind myself of how far I’ve come since nine-year-old me started trampolining. 24 years later and I finish this last year as reigning British, European, World and Olympic champion – a set my younger self couldn’t even dream of! And what’s more is that I still find new things to love and be grateful for in the world of trampolining.
How did you find the experience competing at your third Olympic Games this summer in Paris?
The whole experience was amazing! I felt really supported by my team and Team GB, especially as soon as we arrived in France for the holding camp (in Reims) and the Olympic village in Paris. Since it was my third Games, I felt more comfortable with a lot of things logistically and, although magical, I wasn’t overwhelmed by the magnitude of the Olympics – in all aspects – like the emotional significance of achieving dreams of becoming a Paris Olympian, the scale of an Olympic village filled with the best athletes in the world, and the importance of the competition that comes around only every four years. I had some really enjoyable times during the build-up, despite being incredibly nervous towards the competition and sometimes feeling frustrated or disappointed with the progress of my training. I was going into the competition as reigning World champion, so I knew what was possible, and so I really felt the impact of every setback in training. Yet, I really value all my experiences and these Olympic Games were definitely filled with amazing ones! The Paris Olympic opening ceremony was my favourite to be part of by far, being on the boat with the team, seeing all the other boats for all countries, the amount of people filling the streets along the Seine to support the athletes and be excited for the Olympics… everything was so special and I didn’t even mind so much getting drenched by rain! The competition itself and the Champions Walk at the Trocadero Gardens with the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop was, of course, wonderful too. My whole family, including my very young niece and nephew, came to watch and support, which was incredibly special to me. I was able to watch different sports and see sights across Paris. I loved that Paris brought together its history and Olympic sports together, utilising locations like the Eiffel Tower for beach volleyball and the Grand Palais for fencing and taekwondo events, adding metal from the Eiffel Tower into the medals and having the opening ceremony across the Seine.
To be chosen as the female flag bearer for Team GB at the closing ceremony, was such a special way to finish these Games. It meant so much to me and will always be something I cherish – for myself and a smaller sport to be recognised in that way, and to lead the whole team out alongside Alex Yee to celebrate all our Olympic experiences, it was such an honour.
As a bonus, I am also really proud of my Olympic pin collection from these Games, which includes many pins from countries that had less than 10 athletes on their teams and a flashing pin from The Gambia!
You came away with the Gold medal in the individual trampoline competition, how did you stay focused during the final and what was it like collecting your medal?
For the final, I was up seventh of eight athletes, so I had a while to wait, and a lot of performances to follow. I wasn’t watching the performances, but I was very aware of the crowd and athletes’ reactions, their rankings and their scores. So I knew what I needed to do to achieve a medal, and what I may need to score to take the lead. I also believed I was capable of doing this! I felt it was important for me to understand the progress of the competition, but before my performance, I knew I needed to refocus on my routine, how I wanted it to feel and how to do that technically. I focused on my approach to the routine, which was to try and perform my best within my comfort zone, some of my top end work what I’ve been doing in training – but not to allow my nerves, excitement and adrenaline to overpower my work, which can lead to a high risk high reward scenario. I focused on containing my nerves to focus well on what I was doing through my routine rather than use it all in the jumping before my routine and have my starting height too high outside my norm. I felt focused during the routine and despite one obvious mistake with travel and a quick change to my final skill, downgrading the difficulty by 0.2, I am really happy with my performance. Watching the routine back, I am really proud of my composure, rhythm and tidiness of my work. I really feel like my experience (I’m 33, and was seven years older than any other gymnast in our final) helped me so much to remain focused on what was important.
Collecting the medal was a beautiful experience. There were so many Brits in the crowd and I loved having their support at an Olympics. So standing atop the podium singing the National Anthem with many others was just so amazing. Many Brits stayed in the arena and gathered around the media zone on the field of play after the medal ceremony too to cheer me on – I think many know I’m a little shy so it was helpful to have their support there too! I still can’t believe I became an Olympic champion!
What did you enjoy most about your time in Paris and how was it walking down the Champions Park catwalk in front of the Eiffel Tower as a Paris Olympic medallist?
It’s really difficult to choose between so many magical moments. The opening and closing ceremonies and the competition day were my favourite memories because they are so special to me, but I also really enjoyed the smaller moments in between – like exploring the Olympic village, collecting pins, laughing with my team, watching other sports, meeting other athletes, playing table tennis with friends, seeing my family and boyfriend at the Team GB Nearest & Dearest sites and in the audience at the competition venue, the postcard and paint-by-numbers stations at the Powerade Mindfulness Zone in the village, accessing all the freebies and free food… the list goes on!
Walking down the Champions Park catwalk was so much fun! The crowd were electric and the view of the Eiffel Tower was stunning! It was such a unique experience and I was able to share the moment with my parents and boyfriend who got front row access and behind the scenes celebrations! This Champions Walk catwalk was a first, the French Olympic Committee came up with this idea and I think it was really special for everyone involved. It was open to the public and free, so those who couldn’t access event tickets, they still had the option to experience seeing their favourite Olympic medallists in a really unique way that had never been done before. I thought this was really cool!
In April, you won two Golds at the European Trampoline Championships in GuimarĂŁes in both individual and synchronised with Izzy Songhurst, what was this competition like to be part of, and how was it becoming European champion in an Olympic year?
Competing at the European Championships was really important to me, for a checkpoint of my progress and a stand-alone competition that means a lot to me and Izzy. Coming home with the individual and synchronised gold medals was really special. All year, I hadn’t felt as prepared as I wanted to going into competitions, so I was nervous about my capabilities of performing my routine with the quality I wanted to for this competition. The competition took a lot out of me mentally and physically to produce the routines to the quality needed in the right moments, so I felt incredibly happy but also very relieved and tired to win the title of European champion and European Synchronised champions alongside my teammate Izzy. It boosted my confidence that I could perform in the right moment under more ‘pressure’, so doing this in the Olympic year was incredibly helpful in propelling me forwards in my training.
How was it competing in front of a home crowd at the 2023 Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships and becoming individual champion, and winning Bronze in synchronised with Izzy and all-around team with the rest of the British team?
This was one of my all-time favourite competitions! I was actually really worried about how I would cope or deal with competing in front of a home crowd, so I worked a lot with my sports psychologist with this as my focus in the build-up to the competition. In the end, I really enjoyed the home crowd and it made the competition so much more special – and to be able cope with the extra nerves that the crowd brought me, and to win in front of a home crowd and celebrate with everyone was truly super special and gave me a lot of confidence going into the Paris Olympics where I knew there was going to be a large British crowd in the audience. We started the finals day with the synchronised final, so it was amazing to start the day directly alongside my teammate and friend and to win a medal together at only our second World Championships as a pair was amazing! We then competed alongside each other in the individual final, which was Izzy’s first – where qualifying into the final meant she had qualified a space for GB to the Olympics – it was a great final to be part of and we were both happy with our performances so could celebrate again together – and with the home crowd. To win a bronze in the all-around team with my teammates across the different disciplines (where a male and female representative from the individual and synchronised trampoline, double mini trampoline and tumbling events compete) was, again, a really special moment and this was the final event of the day and the crowd was still there supporting us!
How does it feel being the reigning Olympic, World and European champion, and the most decorated female gymnast in GB history?
It really doesn’t feel real! I hope it sinks in one day soon, but a coach I know well put it this way to me, which I think is a really nice way to see it: “You have a whole lifetime for it to sink in” – meaning I will always be an Olympic, World and European champion in trampoline gymnastics. This sounds so surreal to me! I just feel so complete with my trampolining career whilst also believing I have so much more to be part of and more personal goals to strive to complete! I am inspired by the Olympic gymnasts before and alongside me, so I hope my achievements can help others believe they have it in them to achieve it too and inspire others to either take up or continue their trampolining and gymnastics.
What do you remember most from making your Olympic debut in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and winning Silver, and how different did you find competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games during the coronavirus pandemic, where you won Bronze?
I actually have really vivid memories of Rio Olympics, in some ways more so than Tokyo, despite there being an extra five years for them to fade. Rio was incredibly special to me. It was when I first felt I had reached my potential I believed I had in me. I dreamt of becoming an Olympian and was hugely motivated and driven to get there, I gave everything I had to achieving this dream and on that day I did the best routine I had ever performed, in the Olympic final! In my 24 years of trampolining, doing the best routine I could have possibly done in a competition final has only happened two or three times. So for this to happen at my first Olympics, it meant everything to me. I was overwhelmed with my Olympic experience and my routine in the final before I had even seen the scores come up – so to see my personal best scores show and later know I would be on the podium was simply the best and strongest emotions I have ever felt in my life. The Olympic Gold came close, but I think because Rio was the first time I had made a major championships podium, the relief of having the weight of my worry of never achieving my potential taken off was an extra emotion I didn’t feel when I won the Olympic Gold. In Rio, I felt so many different emotions so intensely, I felt like I was radiating them out to fill the entire arena!
Tokyo Olympics was a very different experience! I went in aiming to win gold and fell short. Rio, competing my routine how I wanted to compete it felt like winning a gold medal to me. Winning a bronze medal at an Olympics Games I went in hoping to win Gold, it was a difficult set of emotions to experience. I was disappointed with my routine, knowing my training routines had been going a lot better, but for that routine to be good enough to stand on another Olympic podium and win a medal, I was incredibly relieved and happy! However, there was also a layer of guilt to feel disappointed with a bronze medal when I knew it also meant so much to me. They were conflicting emotions and difficult to process. The Olympic competition experience was also really difficult to process because I really missed not having the full Olympic crowd and atmosphere in the arena. It felt like I hadn’t competed in an Olympic Games, yet I was incredibly grateful for it to have gone ahead and to have competed there. Again, another layer of guilt added on and some more complex memories and emotions to process! I look back now, feeling incredibly proud of this achievement because we all had so much to deal with and it was a very unique experience for everyone! I hadn’t competed internationally for a whole year and the Olympics was my first outing. I was super anxious about catching COVID before the Games and this high level of anxiety really wasn’t helpful around my training and I had to learn very quickly techniques to help these emotions. I also put a lot of pressure on myself to win a medal! I am really proud with how I dealt with things and how hard I trained in the build up to the Olympics, in order to deliver a medal-winning performance under difficult circumstances!
What are some of your favourite highlights from your gymnastics career so far?
In addition to the three Olympics and 2023 World Championships mentioned already, I loved competing in my first World Championships back in 2010. I made the finals, which was a huge surprise at the time. In the final I was competing alongside my trampoline idols: Olympic, World and European champions and Olympians. I was almost in happy tears just marching out for the final before even competing, I was so overwhelmed to be amongst them. In the final I competed the best routine I had done at that time and placed 4th – I have never looked back with any disappointment not to have made the podium. I still see this competition as one of my favourites despite being so close to a World medal. I was able to share this memory with my personal coach at the time, Paul Greaves, who was the coach matting me in the competition (this isn’t always the case), so it really was extra special. It was the first time I truly believed that I could achieve the dream of becoming an Olympian.
How is it training and competing in synchronised events with Izzy Songhurst, and how does synchro compare to competing individually?
I find competing in synchro can be a lot more fun because you are with a friend, but there is sometimes an element of extra pressure because your performance also determines the fate of your teammate too! You win together, you lose together. Izzy never puts any extra pressure on me and she is always there to support me, I try to return the favour, so the partnership works really well. We both know that the synchronised event is a bonus for us, since it isn’t in the Olympics, but we also know how much experience we gain from competing in it together that will help us in the individual event too. We know the priority is individual, so we can use the synchro event to have more fun and explore new things. The first time Izzy competed her two triple routine internationally was in synchro with me! One of Izzy’s strengths is maintenance of height within her routine, so partnering with her has helped me improve that aspect of my routine, since I have to give my best to stay in sync with her and not make her do all of the adjusting – although she has had to do that quite a few times, and she is very good at it!
Since 2018, you have been a Quatro ambassador and have designed your own leotard range, can you tell us about this?
I have loved drawing leotard designs since I first started gymnastics and trampolining many, many years ago. I loved having special leotards made up when I was in my teens for competitions I was allowed to do this for (not very often), so it really was a dream to see my leotard designs being sold in Quatro’s collection! They have allowed me to get really creative with my design ideas and make stunning, comfortable leotards. I love seeing my designs on a sketchpad or computer made into real life leotards!
Where does your love of trampolining come from and how did you get started?
My parents got me into lots of sports when I was younger and I just really took to gymnastics. When I was in the classes, I spent a lot of my time just watching the trampolinists jump really high and do really cool somersaults and just thought it looked like a lot of fun and asked my parents if I could try it and do a class of just trampolining. They enrolled me on a class when I was nine years old and I have loved it ever since!
What advice would you give a young gymnast hoping to compete at major competitions in the future?
Try to focus on yourself more than what others are doing, enjoy what you do and being part of an amazing journey to get to where you want to get to! Learn as much as you can from every experience, good or bad, and from the people around you. Good luck!
What does a typical training day look like for you at Poole Gymnastics & Trampolining Club, and how has it changed over the years?
I’ve only been training at Poole GTC for the last two-and-a-half years or so it is a relatively recent change. The club was so welcoming to me and I felt part of the team right away. The atmosphere is really supportive, hard-working and fun and that’s the vibe I strive in!
A typical training day would be some conditioning in the morning, like glute, core, shoulder and ankle circuits as well as any rehab or prehab work my physio and S&C coach have set me, followed by flexibility work. I’ll refuel and rest physically before an early afternoon session in the trampoline gym. I’ll use my pulse gun or roller to just get myself ready to warm up and, again, any prehab or rehab work I have to prepare my body before warming up properly. I like to warm up on the fast track (like a trampoline tumble track) by running and doing a few tumbling skills onto a soft mat at the end of the track. It gets my heart rate up gradually and my head in the game ready for training in a fun way. Sometimes I will use these ‘flashing glasses’ as a tool whilst kicking around a hacky sack with my coach to improve my perception and reaction/decision-making skills ready for the mental and visual load of trampoline training. I’ll do dynamic stretching, activation work on all different parts of my body and then some explosive power and quick reactive jumps to potentiate before I get on the trampoline. I have a really interesting contraption at the moment that I use to prepare my achilles for a heavy trampoline session, where I wear a weights belt, attach a rope on the belt and underneath a platform beneath my feet. I’ll push my feet really hard into the platform as if to do a bent knee calf raise, but I won’t move anywhere because I’m attached to the board. It’s maximum effort and looks ridiculous as it doesn’t look like I am achieving anything, but I love it and my achilles have really benefited from this.
I’ll then get straight into my trampoline session, normally working the end of my routine, the middle and the start before putting it together into whole routine work (if in competition season) and upgrades and bonus work like learning new skills or links.
I’ll finish with stretching and chatting with my coach and teammates.
Twice a week, I will then refuel and go into a strength session in the weights gym. I basically live on the leg press! My maximum leg press is 500kg but we normally work on speed so often drive the leg press fast with the weight being between 225-325kg. We use a machine called Output to measure the speed of our movement accurately so we can monitor in real-time and see trends in our work over time. The other exercises will cover all the body but the focus is often legs, back and core work, which are essential for trampolining. I’ll then stretch off again and go home feeling great but pretty exhausted!
Do you have a favourite aspect of being a trampoline gymnast and representing Team GB around the world?
I love the feeling of flight, rotating and spinning through the air. Being propelled up and then ‘floating’ down. It’s a really unique feeling, like riding a roller coaster but you have to drive it perfectly in order to make it all the way to the end. It’s thrilling, exciting and fun! My favourite aspect other than the feeling of trampolining itself, is being part of an amazing community of people that love the sport and get excited for everyone who is doing well because it’s exciting to see the ceiling being broken and watching people achieve incredible feats. I love going to competitions and spending lots of time with my team and friends from all over the world. I’m so grateful to be part of the team and competing for Great Britain regularly since 2010, minus a couple of years due to injuries or COVID lockdowns.
How do you like to spend your time away from the gym?
In my spare time, I really enjoy playing board games, video games, and PC games. I love to spend time with my family, friends, boyfriend Jake and my cat, Grandma Sushi. I like spending time on the beach, in escape rooms, out charity shopping or eating a nice meal at a quirky cafe or restaurant. I’ve also recently got into crochet/amigurumi and jigsaw puzzles.
Do you have any competitions coming up that you can tell us about or that you are targeting?
I’ve just recently had my final competition of this year, at the British Championships not so long ago. My next competition won’t be until next year, but I would love to aim for the 2025 World Games for the synchronized event with Izzy. The World Games is a huge multi-sport event every four years – it’s basically the Olympics for non-Olympic sports or disciplines and since synchronised trampolining is not in the Olympics, it has been welcomed into the World Games! I’ve never competed at a World Games before and would absolutely love to so this would be my next major trampoline competition goal.
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