Growing up in Broussard, La., Blanchard was inspired to pursue gymnastics after watching the 1996 Olympic Games. She took up the sport in the fall of 1996 and found great success as a trampoline and tumbling athlete. Erin went on to win her first international competition in 2001 at the World Age Group Games in Odense, Denmark.
From 2002 through 2006, she won national titles in individual and synchronized trampoline before stepping away from the sport for a time in 2007. When the U.S. secured a wildcard Olympic spot in women’s trampoline for the 2008 Olympics, she returned to the sport and went on to earn an Olympic Team berth. At the Beijing Games, Blanchard finished 13th. Significant first-place finishes for Blanchard in international competition included the 2001 Trampoline Gymnastics World Age Group Competitions, 2006 Pacific Alliance, and 2008 Grenzland Cup.
Blanchard now resides in Texas with her husband, Lucas Willis, and two children, Audrey, seven, and Cameron, three.
