CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The trampoline is a staple in lots of household backyards internationally.
However many individuals might not know that it was created by a person from Cedar Rapids.
George Nissen was impressed to construct the trampoline after watching acrobats bounce onto security nets on the circus in 1930.
“Then he developed the thought whereas he was a extremely stand-out pupil athlete on the College of Iowa. I consider he was a 3 time nationwide champion in tumbling. He was additionally a notable diver within the pool after the swimming coach requested him to affix that crew,” historian Kevin Mason mentioned.
That led Nissen to open the Griswold-Nissen Trampoline and Tumbling Firm in Cedar Rapids in 1941.
Then he acquired the patent for trampoline in 1945.
“Individuals throughout the state have actually fond reminiscences of bouncing on Nissen trampolines,” Mason mentioned.
As his invention grew in recognition, Nissen started to market the product internationally.
He even bounced with a kangaroo on a trampoline to promote the product.
“Nissen at all times had these concepts. Like he wished to take a trampoline to the highest of the world’s largest pyramid in Egypt, and so he did,” Mason mentioned.
That advertising and marketing led to trampoline turning into an official Olympic sport, debuting on the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Nissen’s daughter Dian was capable of go together with him for these video games and he or she nonetheless goes to trampoline competitions each probability she will be able to.
“Truthfully once I’m at these, I really feel my dad’s presence there. And there’s at all times a second the place I’m there and I believe: ‘What about this? what would he suppose?’,” Dian Nissen mentioned. “Simply the entire massive image of what he began and the place we’re at. It’s at all times type of superb,” she mentioned.
Right now – trampoline parks and yard trampolines are a staple for youngsters’s leisure.
“He bought to see numerous this and he was very thrilled by this. He liked that individuals had accepted his invention and will see how different sorts of issues have come from his invention,” Dian Nissen mentioned.
George Nissen died in 2010, however his daughter is carrying on his legacy by educating individuals easy methods to train utilizing health trampolines.
“You may have children on this health trampoline. You may have elite athletes coaching for conditioning. Now we have assist bars for those who want particular assist or are older,” Dian Nissen mentioned.
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