Parkettes National Gymnastics Training Center, or Parkettes for short, is a gymnastics club located in Allentown, Pennsylvania that had its beginnings in the early 1960s with a middle school gymnastics program in Allentown that gradually grew into an intramural program and then into a facility that has produced several teams and individual gymnasts representing the United States, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, and Canada in international meets, including the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. The husband and wife team Bill Strauss and Donna Strauss have served as the head coaches at Parkettes since its inception.

History

In 1986, Parkettes's gymnasts took the 1st (

Jennifer Sey Jennifer Anne Sey (born 1969) is an American author, business executive, and retired artistic gymnast. She was a seven-time member of the U.S. Women's National Team and was the 1986 U.S. Women's All-Around National Champion. She was also a member ...

), 2nd (Hope Spivey), and 4th (Alyssa Solomon) places at the United States National Gymnastics Championships. At the

1988 Olympic Games 1988 Olympics refers to both: *The 1988 Winter Olympics, which were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada *The 1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul ...

, Parkettes-trained gymnast Hope Spivey represented the United States. In 1992, Parkettes' gymnast Kim Kelly caused a considerable controversy in that after she was selected for the 1992 Olympic gymnastics training squad, she was then not selected for the competition team extremely close to the opening of the games in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. In 1998 and 1999,

Kristen Maloney Kristen Ann Maloney (born March 10, 1981) is a retired gymnast from Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, in the United States. She won bronze in the team event at the 2000 Olympic Games. Maloney was also the U.S. senior all-around national champion in 1998 ...

won the United States National Senior All-Around gold. In 2000, she competed at the Olympics in Sydney, winning a bronze medal. Kristal Uzelac won the United States Junior National All-Around gold in 1999, 2000, and 2001. In 2002, Vanessa Meloche, a Canadian gymnast at Parkettes, finished third at the Canadian championships and first on the

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

. In 2022, 11 Parkettes' gymnasts made misconduct complaints to the

United States Center for SafeSport The United States Center for SafeSport is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 2017 under the auspices of the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017. SafeSport is tasked with ad ...

that resulted in an ongoing investigation of five Parkettes coaches.

Media coverage

In 2003,

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

aired a documentary, ''

Achieving the Perfect 10 ''Achieving The Perfect 10'' is a television documentary film released on CNN on August 10, 2003 about young girls training gymnastics at the highly competitive Parkettes National Gymnastics Training Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The documen ...

'', which contained some criticisms of the demanding and competitive nature of Parkettes's training program. In 2008,

, the 1986 National Champion from Parkettes, published a book, ''Chalked Up'', which was critical of Parkettes and elite gymnastics.

Notable alumni

Christina Desiderio Christina Lydia Desiderio (born August 22, 2000, in New Jersey) is a retired American artistic gymnast. Desiderio was named to the 2015 U.S. Junior National team, after her performances at the 2015 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships. Person ...

* 2016 Olympic Trials competitor *

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associat ...

gymnastics * 2019 NCAA team silver medalist

Margzetta Frazier Margzetta Bryantina Frazier (born February 25, 2000) is an American artistic gymnast. She was a US National Team member from 2017–2018 and was the 2018 Birmingham World Cup silver medalist. She is currently a member of the UCLA Gymnastics ...

* 2018 Birmingham World Cup silver medalist *

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

gymnastics * 2019 NCAA team bronze medalist

* 2000 Olympic Team Bronze Medalist * 1996 Pacific Rim Team champion * 1998 Pacific Rim Team and All-Around champion, Balance Beam bronze medalist * 1998 & 1999 US National Champion *

gymnastics * 2001 NCAA Team champion, Balance Beam bronze medalist * 2004 NCAA Team champion, Uneven Bars silver medalist * 2005 NCAA Vault and Balance Beam champion, All-Around silver medalist Vanessa Meloche *

2002 Commonwealth Games The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002 were held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August, 2002. The 2002 Games were to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coin ...

Team, Vault, and Uneven Bars bronze medalist * 2002 Canadian uneven bars champion Elizabeth Price * 2012 U.S Olympic team alternate * 2013 U.S World Championships team alternate * 2014 American Cup champion * 2014 Pacific Rim All Around, Team, Floor Exercise, & Uneven Bars champion * Stanford Cardinal gymnastics * 2015 NCAA Vault champion * 2018 NCAA Uneven Bars champion and All-Around bronze medalist

* 1985 World Championships team member * 1986 US National Champion Kristal Uzelac * 1999, 2000, & 2001 Junior US National Champion

References

External links

* {{authority control * Gymnastics organizations Gymnastics clubs Gymnastics clubs in the United States Sports venues in Allentown, Pennsylvania