HUNTER Olympic trampolinist Jessica Pickering's parents are "immensely proud" of her, saying being selected to represent your country on the international stage is an incredible achievement, regardless of the result.
Jessica's parents Karen and Michael, sister Sarah, friends and members of Eastlake Trampoline Sports wore green and gold to gather at Marks Point Sports Club on Friday afternoon and watch her compete in the women's trampoline qualification in Tokyo.
The 16 competitors were judged on two routines to earn a spot in the eight-place final. Both of Jessica's routines ended early and she received a total score of 34.190.
"She's thankful for everyone's support," Mrs Pickering said.
"She'd be disappointed, I know she would be, but I hope she knows how much we love her and how awesome she is.
"She's a champ through and through and she does the sport because she loves the sport."
Jessica, 20, was one of three former Youth Olympians in the qualification.
Athletes had to perform 10 skills in each of their routines.
They were able to nominate in the first routine which four skills they would be scored on for degree of difficulty.
Jessica completed four skills before coming off the mat, but had only nominated her first skill for scoring for degree of difficulty.
All 10 skills are scored in the second routine and Jessica completed three before coming off the mat.
"I could not be prouder of her, really I couldn't," Mrs Pickering said.
"I know people will say 'She did not do well', but she did amazingly just to even be on that stage.
"Other Australian athletes [in the past] had a wildcard because of Oceania [automatically receiving a place], but she had to compete, she had to earn that through qualification points."
As the Newcastle Herald reported on Friday, no other Australian trampolinist has made three consecutive World Cup finals to secure international and Olympic rankings before.
"This is monumental and historic for Australia," she said.
"As much as I'd like her to do her routines, once an Olympian, always an Olympian.
"No-one can take this back from her."
Although Jessica has been a trampolinist for 13 years, she has only been in the senior competition for two years.
"It's huge pressure for a 20 year old," Mrs Pickering said.
"She was almost in tears before she even jumped - perhaps nerves got the best of her.
"We never dreamed she would make it here. She always had Paris in her sights, but this is beyond her dreams and beyond her expectations. She never thought she'd be here one day, at the Olympic Games."
Mrs Pickering said while the Hunter had produced several Olympic athletes, many of them moved to capital cities to further their careers.
"This one trains at a local high school hall with a high school teacher [respected national trampoline coach Brett Austine]," she said.
"The people she is competing against are paid and professional athletes, that is their paid job.
"This kid gets no funding at all, she has no sponsorship.
"Brett has to forgo time with his family, his life, his salary to be there with her... he does not get paid a wage to be the national coach, he's doing this because of his absolute dedication and love for the sport."
Mrs Pickering said she put her daughter in classes because she was worried she was going to break her neck on the backyard trampoline.
She said Jessica broke her right elbow in 2012 and was told she would never jump again, but numerous surgeries helped her bounce back.
Jessica has never had a training partner her age at the club, Mrs Pickering said, and was down to earth.
When she received competition medals she'd take them off and give them to her mother, instead of showing them off.
Mrs Pickering said Jessica has to leave the Olympic Village two days after her event and was likely to quarantine at Howard Springs.
"If this is her journey, this is her journey," she said.
"I think she will continue on.
"It was never about the medals for her, it was about her love of the sport and love of jumping.
"She's done the region proud and Australia proud."
Belmont High principal Gareth Erskine said staff and students felt "very proud" watching their 2019 vice captain Jessica and teacher and colleague Mr Austine.
"There's lots of lessons the kids learned through watching Jess perform and her story, win or lose," he said.
"She's very young and lots of those athletes are close to 30 or in their early 30s, so she's still got a long way ahead, and if she sticks with it for a long time there's even the Brisbane 2032 Olympics."
He said Jessica would be one of the first people on the school's new Wall of Honour.
