Strathmore Gymnast takes provincial bronze

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Strathmore local athlete, Olivia Jarvis (11) placed third in the province for her category, during a tournament hosted in Calgary last month.

Olivia competes in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) and currently occupies the Junior Olympian 6 (JO6) performance category.

“She does … beam, vault, floor and bars … so basically in WAG there are five levels. There is JO6 to JO10, which is the highest you can go and that is what national athletes and Olympians compete at,” said Laura Jarvis, Olivia’s mother. “Right now, Olivia is JO6, which is the lowest level, and then as she gets skills, then she can move up depending on what she learns.”

Athletes are expected to demonstrate certain sets of skills on each apparatus at a competition. The skill and performance expectations are defined by the JO level the athlete is competing at. 

“For instance, on floor, Olivia’s routine has to have two tumbling lines, which includes a front and a back tuck, she has to have certain jumps included in her floor routine, (and so on). On beam, she has to do a certain dismount which is a back tuck off the beam,” Jarvis explained.

The April 14 competition was Olivia’s first time competing at the JO6 level, though has previously competed provincially. 

Jarvis explained she went to provincials last year, but competed in compulsory gymnastics, which is designated separately from WAG. During that competition, Olivia placed second overall.

Introduced to gymnastics at the age of three, Olivia was enrolled in a recreational class taken in Strathmore. 

“On her first day, we noticed that the coach had the kids walk across a beam and they were all too scared to do it and they all held their coach’s hand. Olivia yelled, said ‘No,’ ran across the beam and did a front tuck off of it,” said Jarvis. “From that day on, we knew that she was our little gymnast, and she has been doing flips ever since.”

Though Olivia said she was excited about her podium finish, she felt as though she could have done better. 

“At the time, she was quite mad … she is always gunning for first. She had done her floor and her vault, and going into bars, she was sitting second and then she fell, which knocked her down to eighth place,” explained Jarvis. “She got back up and she did her beam and she got a super high score on that, which bumped her back up to third.”

Olivia added she is excited to continue competing at the provincial, if not national level and has large aspirations for herself. 

“I was really nervous, but excited … I get to learn new things and try out different levels,” said Olivia. “I am thinking about wanting to go to the Olympics.”

Olivia trains four days of the week in Calgary, and will continue to do so over the summer. Jarvis explained the demanding nature of the sport requires constant physical conditioning in order to maintain an athlete’s abilities.