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Adrienne Arnold

As a child growing up in the outskirts of Toronto in the province of Ontario, I dreamed of being a ballerina.  But being a long time ago, classes in gymnastics were all that was available in my small, almost rural area, so I ended up at the age of 8 beginning my first gymnastics class.  I took to the sport easily and with a passion and it became the focus of my life outside of school for many years.  Back then the sport was not that well organized provincially and certainly not nationally.  It would be another tens years or so (the next generation in fact) before gymnasts in Ontario would reap the benefits of a high level competitive training environment.  Nonetheless, we were an excited and enthusiastic team training at the West Hill Police Club and enjoying monthly advanced training sessions at the Winstonettes Club in Scarborough.  A decade or so later the Winstonettes Club, with the arrival in Canada of rhythmic experts Tamara Bompa and Liliana Dimitrova, would become the foundation of the Seneca Gymnastic & Rhythmic Gymnastics programs that are well known today. 

Gymnastics had a huge impact upon me as a child and to this day I vividly remember the excitement I felt each time before entering the gym to practice….the sounds and the smells and the images of an artistic gym still have the ability even now to jettison me back to those incredible days of training in my youth.  Back then we trained without mats quite often and we were pretty fearless in retrospect.  The balance beam was a high wooden and squared off with very hard, sharp edges….and the horse was huge for small girls to manage.  Needless to say our bodies were often bruised and took quite a beating on a regular basis and we were often in pain.  But somehow that didn’t really matter because what thrilled us was the challenge and excitement that we gained through learning new moves, pushing our limits, choosing our floor routine music, mail ordering a new leotard and traveling to competitions in Canada and the US.  Really, it was an exciting new world for a young girl and I loved every minute of it.  As I got older, I also had the added enjoyment of being able to compete around the Province of Ontario for my high school team and the moves we learned in gym made us great candidates for cheerleading…which, at the time,  we certainly considered as an added bonus. 

I left gymnastics behind when I graduated from high school and when my interests turned elsewhere (work, travel, studying design, marrying, childbirth, moving from Toronto to L.A., more work and studying, another child, moving to Vancouver and then another child).  In 1984 rhythmics was quite strong in L.A., the Olympics had just happened (yes I saw the rhythmic competitions) and one of the US Olympians was from a local Los Angeles club, LASG.  Megan, my eldest daughter, joined LASG and began her training with Olympic Coach, Alla Svirsky (who still runs her club there to this day).  I think I was as instantly smitten with the sport as Megan was and the rest is more or less history what with my ongoing extensive volunteer involvement (that started out so innocently mind you) and of course my role in the establishment and ongoing management of Club Adagio in Vancouver.

When I reflect back, attempting to understand why I have stuck with this often challenging and unrelenting job for so many years now, the rationale that seems uppermost is that there is something about this sport that long ago ignited a creative passion in me and that passion and love has, surprisingly, survived to this day.  Beyond that, though, I feel a strong sense of satisfaction knowing that by doing a good job with our girls in the gym that our actions and words can have a lasting positive impact on these girls well into their teen years and beyond into their adult lives.  As a parent, I understand only too well, the importance of influence upon young children and that awareness inspires me to strive to always provide the kind of teaching, learning and social environment I would have dearly wished for both of my daughters when they were young athletes in this sport. 

All in all, I feel blessed on many fronts.  Blessed that in the early days I was fortunate enough to have the resources to carry this club through the initial struggling years, blessed that the club continued to grow through gentle and positive word of mouth about our club gently throughout our community and I feel particularly blessed that I was always surrounded with wonderfully talented coaches (past and present) who assisted me, hand in hand, over the years towards our mutual goal of providing a stable, strong and healthy athletic environment for the all the young girls we train in the most beautiful sport - Rhythmic Gymnastics!