Strathmore gymnast headed to the Alberta Winter Games

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Hailing from Strathmore, 12-year-old Olivia Jarvis will be attending the Alberta Winter Games, taking place in Grande Prairie, come February.

“She has been taking gymnastics since she was three. She started in Strathmore and then we were not really going in the direction we wanted, so we started training out of Calgary,” said Laura Jarvis, Olivia’s mother. “She trained there for a year, but she did not start any of her competitions until we started at the club that we are at now, which is KIN Gymnastics … and this is her third competitive season.”

Jarvis added Olivia was preparing to begin competing in 2020, but those plans were put on hold as the COVID-19 pandemic began.

This year will mark Olivia’s third competitive gymnastics season. According to Jarvis, she tried out for the Alberta Winter games at a trial event on Dec. 16. 

“You have to do trials, and how it works is Alberta is broken down into eight zones, and the top four girls are chosen from each zone and they go to the games and they compete against each other,” said Jarvis. “It was set up like any other competition would be. (Olivia) competes in her four events: bars, vault, beam, and floor, and so just like they would at the Olympics – they each get their scores from each apparatus, they are added up and the Top 4 girls with the highest scores from each apparatus were chosen to compete at the games.”

Jarvis reported Olivia had the highest scores out of any competitor in her age group for the zone, securing her invitation to the Alberta Winter Games.

This year marks the first that Olivia is eligible to qualify for the games, as they require participants to be a certain age, and demonstrate skill at a certain level. Additionally, the games only take place every two years.

“I am really excited to go to the games … (doing gymnastics), there is a lot of fun skills and the teams,” said Olivia. 

The games will be taking place in Grande Prairie, Feb. 16-19. Though she said information about the event is hard to come by, Jarvis explained Olivia will have a team portion as well as an individual portion of the competition to participate in. 

Her fellow teammates and competitors will all be roughly her age, with a variance of up to four years her senior. In order to prepare, as well as to maintain her physical conditioning, Jarvis trains an average of 19.5 hours per week.

Olivia added the games are just the next step in her goals to eventually receive a scholarship with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, as well as to participate in the Olympic Games.