Since 1960, the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre has not only been a staple in Westboro, but has also put Ottawa on the map within the world of competitive gymnastics.
The not-for-profit has long been a place for kids and adults alike to come together in a safe space to face fears, find community and sometimes even compete at the sport’s highest level. Because of this, OGC’s impact has not been lost on its regulars.
“For me and I think for my daughter as well, it’s kind of like a second home,” said Nausikaa Muresan, a competitive coach at OGC. “We spend so much time here and we love the place.”
Operating as a not-for-profit means the OGC relies on memberships to fund their equipment, which isn’t cheap. For example, their most recent floor ran them back $100,000. While that’s a pretty large piece of equipment, taking a look at OGC’s gym will quickly reveal there’s a lot more gear than just a floor. All that without even accounting for rent.
In the club’s early years, it operated out of various high schools where the equipment would have to be packed up and put away daily. The club moved to two different permanent facilities in 1980 and 1988, but finally settled in the old hockey arena on Elmgrove Avenue in 1992.
Today, the OGC runs programs seven days a week for over 3,000 members with ages ranging from six months old through adulthood. For coaches and the club’s more competitive members, it’s an almost daily commitment. Since the OGC was established, the club has trained a number of high level athletes. While this list most notably includes four Olympians, the club has also sent seven athletes to world championships and eight to pan-American championships.
According to Amanda Pepin, OGC’s director of programs, gymnastics provides kids with valuable skills that go beyond sport. Pepin of all people would know, as she was once an extremely active kid who seemed to scale whatever she could find around the house.
“I was like five when I fell off the fridge and I would be in cupboards,” Pepin said. “My mom just said, ‘well, at least if she goes to gymnastics, she’ll learn how to fall.’”
Pepin would go on to compete in the sport and found the lessons she learned at the gym often applied in everyday life.
“When I got older, I realized that gymnastics really helped me to focus, to manage my time really well, to be patient, to be disciplined,” Pepin said. “all those life skills that carry on with you into adulthood.”
Even while her focus shifted as she grew up, Pepin couldn’t turn her back on the sport she loved, often coaching part time in between studying geology and chemistry at university.
“One day, I think I just woke up and I was like, clearly this is what I want to do,” Pepin said.
Similarly, Muresan – commonly known as Naus to her OGC students – also couldn’t stay away from the sport.
Growing up in Romania, gymnastics was a huge part of Muresan’s upbringing, eventually leading her into national level competition.
“I started when I was quite young,” Muresan said. “I think I was five or six and I trained a lot and my coaches were not always very nice, let’s just leave it at that.
“In Romania, you’re either a competitive gymnast or you pick another sport.”
Muresan was a national level gymnast in Romania before she moved to Canada to pursue an education at the University of Ottawa. But she still found a way back into gymnastics when she joined OGC as a coach.
While her life experience in the sport certainly helps her as a competitive coach today, Muresan has sought to create a more comfortable environment to teach her competitive students. That group notably includes her own daughter, Dalia and it created a unique dynamic between the mother-daughter duo.
“At OGC, I don’t call her my mom, I just call her Naus, which is what everyone else calls her,” Dalia said. “At the gym, she’s my coach. At home, she’s my mom.”
While her mother tries to keep talk of gymnastics limited to the gym and the car ride home, it has been a passion the two have been able to share since Dalia started baby gymnastics at OGC.
“Being in gymnastics together adds an extra layer of connection,” Nausikaa said.