Not even the rain can stop them. The Island’s outsized contribution of athletes to Canada’s teams to the Summer Olympics has revolved mainly around outdoor sporting pursuits such as rowing, triathlon, cycling, field hockey and rugby. The gymnasts, however, are looking to take the proceedings inside.
B.C. won the Under-13 girls’ 2022 Western Canadian gymnastics championship in Winnipeg with three of the five provincial team athletes — Paige Hall, Elly Martin and Jayah Niedoba — hailing from Inspire Sports-Victoria.
That’s quite a rise for the Saanich club. It only opened in 2018 in a 22,000-square-foot facility on Boleskine Road, which used to be a food distribution freezer.
Beside the team gold medal, Niedoba individually was the Western Canadian all-around champion, the floor co-champion tied with Martin and second on vault. Martin was floor co-champion and second all-round. Hall was the uneven-bars champion.
Chantelle Altares and Mia Angus coach the Inspire Victoria elite girls program.
The Inspire Victoria male gymnasts appear headed to the same level of success with Maximus Hewstan-Gates, Jack Dompierre, Hayden Toupin and Gage Reilly touted in the 16-17 category for the B.C. men’s championships to take place May 26-31 in Richmond.
“All these athletes have been identified and are tracking to the national team or NCAA scholarships,” said Inspire Sports-Victoria co-owner and boys’ head coach Lucas Tiefenbach. “I am so proud, looking back to where we started, to where we are now,” said Tiefenbach, also a B.C. team coach.
The success of the club filters deeper to the recreational level.
“We have 85 competitive elite gymnasts but more than 2,000 members,” said Tiefenbach.
“I’ve always believed fun comes first. Before you rise to elite competitive level, you have to first love it and enjoy it.”
He labels gymnastics a “foundational” sport which can help form a base set of physical skills with applications that can be transferred for use in so many other sports.
The Inspire Sports-Victoria facility includes equipment for all gymnastic disciplines — rings, pommel horses, balance beams, parallel, uneven and horizontal bars, trampolines, a vault run-up ramp leading to vault tables, and a 42-foot by 42-foot sprung surface for floor exercises.
There is even an introductory kids’ area with pared-down equipment, because that’s where dreams begin. For some, that could eventually be a vault to the elite program. “We are looking to continue growing as a club,” said Tiefenbach.
Maybe even one day to Olympic proportions.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
