OKANAGAN GYMNASTICS’ TEAMS SHINE IN VIRTUAL COMPETITIONS
For OGC’s top athletes, the world of training and competition is their life. Many train for up to 5 days a week, for 5-6 hours a day, to be able to compete for spots on Team BC and Team Canada. Attending competitions from January to May is vital to their ability to qualify for provincial and national teams.
Like so many businesses, OGC was shut down in March 2020 under the Covid-19 Provincial State of Emergency. The impact of this closure on the competitive athletes and their training could have been devastating however, the deeply committed competitive coaches at OGC were just not going to let that happen. For three months, they provided daily zoom training sessions and did all they could to keep up the spirits of Team OGC.
When OGC was able to welcome back a small number of athletes, the competitive team returned but had lost significant ground in their training. Amid equipment sanitizing, temperature checks, physical distancing and restricted equipment use, these young athletes put their heads down and got busy, working towards regaining the physical strength and skills that they had lost.
News came last summer that it would most likely be a year without in-person competitions. That was a tough pill to swallow for everyone. Competing is a key motivator for competitive trampoline and gymnastics athletes. With encouragement from the coaching team, the athletes accepted that 2020-21 would be a season to master existing skills, learn new skills, and enhance their strength, coordination and balance.
By late fall, it was decided that competitions may actually be allowed – virtually. Athletes and coaches accepted that although they were not sure what this might look like, they were up for the challenge. Under strict guidelines, athletes performed their routines inside the OGC gym while being recorded on video. These videos were submitted electronically to virtual judging panels that were watching the routines from their home computer. Not easy, but the results were worth the extraordinary effort.
During the BC Provincial Championships, the youngest OGC competitive team came 2nd in BC in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. The most recent virtual event was the Western Canadian Trampoline Competition where the OGC trampoline team swept the podium with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in Level 4 trampoline, competing against clubs from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Despite the obstacles Covid-19 has put in front of these young athletes, and maybe even because of it, the 2020-21 has been a year of tremendous growth and opportunity for Team OGC.
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Okanagan Gymnastics Centre, a non-profit society, has been providing the Okanagan Valley with quality gymnastics training since 1981. Throughout 40 years of dedicated commitment, Okanagan Gymnastics has had a solid history of building strong athletes at all levels and for all ages. This year, Samantha Smith, who trained in Trampoline with Okanagan Gymnastics for 6 years before moving to Vancouver, will be representing Canada at the Tokyo Olympics.