Club History

Val Norris and Olympic Dreams


Val is the founder of Olympic Fun & Fitness. Val started gymnastics at 15 years of age and went on to represent Australia at two Olympic Games: Tokyo in 1964 and Mexico in 1968.

 

In 1966, Val competed at the 1st World Championships for Women's Gymnastics in Dortmund, Germany. In fact, Val was the only West Australian gymnast to be selected to attend that event.


In the same year, Val Buffham married cyclist Ken Norris(OAM) Val is a four-times Australian National Gymnastic Champion (1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969) and even won the North Holland Gymnastics Championships in 1967, while training overseas.



She is listed as a Life Member with Gymnastic WA, an All time great with the WA Sports Federation and the City of Cockburn's Sports Hall of Fame.

A Club is Born


In 1978 Val started a gymnastics club. Back then it was called the 'Val Norris Christian College of Gymnastics Inc'. In 1985 the club was renamed the 'Olympic Gymnastic Academy' and focused on recreational and advanced competitive gymnastics. Numerous state, national and even Olympic athletes started their career at 'the Academy'.


While coaching, Val saw how gymnastics could benefit all shapes and sizes and not just the bodies that were 'made' for gymnastics.

This experience led Val to create a range of programs that had a foundation in gymnastics but focused on training young people for participation in a wide variety of sports.


In 2001 'Olympic Fun & Fitness' was formed to focus exclusively on promoting young people's participation in gymnastics and all sport.

With these beginnings, the culture at Olympic remains committed to promoting participation and sporting excellence in young people.


Innovation. Today's Modern Club.


The club's 'STEP' program founded in 2006, is Olympic’s flagship junior gymnastic program made specifically for primary school aged children. It is an extremely effective fundamental movement program for kids, that has had a positive effect on thousands of young children since its inception.


In 2016 a new and emerging form of movement was founded at the club called "Parcour". In the 1980s, David Belle, the son of a real life Parcour Warrior, learned the special forces training from his father. David and his friends re-enacted the training method in the urban concrete jungle of Lisses, FRANCE. It's title with French origins means, a course, a path or way through. Essentially, to get from point A to B as efficiently and creatively as possible. Hence a curriculum and a program is born under the entity "The Wilding Project".


Olympic continues to provide innovative programs that maximize participation. The club strives to successfully deliver non-competitive Recreational Gymnastics and Parcour to promote healthy lifestyle's, improve activity levels in young people, and build confidence in a safe environment.



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