Savannah Vinsant

Savannah Vinsant
— Gymnast —
Vinsant at the White House, 2012
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Bannie
Country represented	United States
Born	(1993-06-25) June 25, 1993 (age 23) Lafayette, LA
Hometown	Lafayette, LA
Height	5'3" (160 cm)
Discipline	Trampolining
Level	Senior International Elite
Club	Trampoline and Tumbling Express
Head coach(es)	Tara Guidry, Dmitri Poliaroush

Savannah Vinsant (born June 25, 1993) is an American trampolining gymnast. She competed at the first Summer Youth Olympic Games. Vinsant also represented the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She became the first ever U.S. trampoline athlete to qualify for the finals. Savannah finished sixth place during the trampoline finals. She was the youngest female trampoline competitor at the games.

Vinsant's parents are Neil and Ramonda Vinsant. Savannah Vinsant began gymnastics in 2000. She had always lived in cities that had trampoline gyms. However, when her family moved, in 2005, to Newton that changed. Her family drove her a constant back-and-forth trips to practices in Orange and Lafayette, La. until it became too much. It seemed as though at this point Vinsant's trampoline career would likely end, just shortly after it had started. "We didn't think she was going to bounce again," said her father. Savannah made it quite clear that she was not going to take giving up the sport quietly. "I hate y'all. I hate y'all for making me quit," Ramonda recalled Savannah telling her during one heated argument. The parents, who had taken courses in judging and coaching, began training Savannah on their own. They trained her on a 7-by-14-foot competition trampoline (a rectangular trampoline with a different bed than regular outdoor trampolines) – in their backyard. Soon roughly 40 children began coming to Savannah's house and joined her with her practices. Her parents then offered to build a gym in their front yard.

In 2007, Vinsant filled out an application to attend the U.S. Olympic Training Center without her parents' permission. She called her mother from Newton High School and told her she was sick and her parents would need to get her now. Her mother took her home from school, where the then 14-year-old Savannah received a call from the Olympic Training Center saying she was a few years too young to attend. Vinsant lived in Newton from the time she was 10 until one month before her 16th birthday, when she left home to train for the Olympics.

The gym now is the headquarters for more than 200 aspiring trampolinists.

On November 21, 2011 in Birmingham, England, Vinsant finished tenth at the 2011 World Trampoline and Tumbling Championships with a score of 98.445. With her performance, she advanced to the women's individual trampoline final and secured a spot for the U.S. team at the next summer's 2012 Olympic Games in London.