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Gymnastics Clubs Australia (GCA) has recognised the industry’s highest achievers and new members of its Hall of Fame at its Recognition Plus Awards Gala.

Presented yesterday evening during the GCA National Congress at the Yarra Valley Lodge in Victoria, awards were presented in the following categories:

Diversity and Inclusion Award
With GCA valuing inclusive practices, clubs who embrace diversity and the facilitation of access the award was presented to the Essendon Keilor Gymnastics Academy (EKGA) from Melbourne.

Community Service Award 
Keen to acknowledge the tremendous work done by clubs in assisting their broader communities, the award was presented to Allstar Gymnastics, Toowoomba.

Customer Experience Award
GCA’s Customer Experience Award recognises outstanding practices in delivering rich and rewarding customer experiences.
Winner: Delta Gymnastics

Workforce Development Award 
GCA’s Workforce Development Award recognises amazing efforts to gain, train and retain exceptional people to the staff team.
Winner: Reach

Emerging Leader 
A new addition to GCA’s National Excellence Awards, the first recipient, in 2023, was Delta’s Ashleigh Dale. With people and culture being so critical, GCA sees developing and recognising emerging leaders as being vital.
Winner: Siobhan Cash from Kids in Motion                      

GCA Hall of Fame
To date, the GCA Hall of Fame has recognised two Outstanding Contributors - with Gai Forrest and Nadine Weight, four Pioneers - John Dorrington, Val Norris, Ken Benson and Gail Melinger and two legends - Mark Forrest and Bill Parsons.

This year, three Pioneers were inducted: Dr Les Sharpe and Tanya and John Hart.

Dr Les Sharpe (deceased)
Dr Sharpe had an extremely significant impact on the sport of gymnastics in the ACT both at Club and the Association levels.

Dr Sharpe was the President of Gymnastics ACT and was awarded Life Membership of the Association for his dedication and outstanding contribution to the development of the sport in the ACT.

During his tenure he introduced several innovative programs, including bringing high profile international coaches to Australia to conduct coaching clinics for both gymnasts and coaches.

Such programs significantly raised the overall standards of coaching within the ACT which in turn greatly contributed to the on-going improvement of the gymnasts’ performances.

Dr Sharpe also introduced numerous governance initiatives which were well ahead of such activities being introduced into general sport in Canberra during that era.

He was instrumental in shifting the culture of the Association from a club focussed organisation to one focussed on strategic planning and long-term development of the sport.

These systems, policies and procedures at the time were recognised and praised by the ACT Government as being some of the best in the ACT for any sporting organisation.

Being a physicist it was logical that Les would apply physics and physiology into the training programs not just for Canberra city but for the other clubs in Canberra as well as GACT teams (well before this became common place across the sport).

While he was a staunch Canberra city advocate, he regularly saw beyond the club level and used his passion for the sport to drive his agenda to improve the sport across the country.

He was extremely free with his advice and the provision of his experience to new clubs and coaches. For example, when Southern Canberra started up planning for its purpose-built facility, Les provided extensive input into the design of the facility based on his long experience.

Tanya and John Hart
In March 1994, Tanya Johansen - a bright eyed young lady in the middle of her university degree took over the running of the Waverley Advanced Gymnastics Club at a ‘run down’ factory.

At the time, the club had reduced to 50 members and there were questions as to whether the club should shut down.

Fast forward 30 years - and Waverly Gymnastics is one of the pre-eminent gymnastics clubs in Australia - or even the world, with John and Tanya Hart and the Waverley Gymnastics Club recognised as Pioneers in the delivery of High Performance Gymnastics from a club in Australia.

The club has been leading the industry and sport in many aspects over the past 30 years, but tonight we honour John and Tanya for their significant contribution to High Performance Gymnastics in Australia.

From 1994, the club had to be turned around on a foundation of high quality gymnastics classes done the right way. The old warehouse had to go and Tanya negotiated with the Monash Council and In 1996 the club moved to Mount Waverley.

Built on strong foundations, a young John Hart was attracted to the club with a dream to build high performance in a club environment. Building a team of talented coaches meant that step by step, year by year the club built the capabilities to become a force in Australia and the World.

With many knockers who said that a club could not produce the standard of gymnastics needed - and only High Performance Centres could produce at an international level - Waverley proved them wrong.

With sights set on Beijing 2008 - the Waverley team nurtured Georgia Bonora and Shona Morgan to be the club’s first Olympians. Success built on Success, the club grew its influence and prepared many girls for international assignments at World Championships, Commonwealth games and Olympics. Georgia Bonora again in 2012 in London, Larissa Miller in Rio 2016, Emily Whitehead in 2021 in Tokyo and now Breanna Scott and Emily Whitehead in Paris 2024.

While the medals and the accolades grow, some of the most important aspects of the development of High Performance Gymnastics in clubs have been because of the trail blazing John and Tanya have lead.

The citation for Tanya and John noted that with a review of High Performance in 2007 “recommending that as the bulk of results in gymnastics had come from the four key State High Performance Centres - all money should be directed to these.

“As time went on, It was not a good look that a club in Victoria could produce better results than these State and Nationally Funded centres receiving a quarter of a million dollars each year.

“Due to the investment in these centres, it was commonplace that the policies, the systems and the structure of our sport - were designed to best support these state and national programs.

“John and Tanya were the battlers and battled they did. Not only did they work to propose reform to the system in Australia - they actively supported other clubs to build capability to compete in this arena.”

After Australia failed to qualify a Women’s Artistic team into the 2016 Rio Olympics (Waverley’s Larissa Miller the only competitor), in 2018 another review was conducted of High Performance Gymnastics in Australia. This time one of the key recommendations was that keeping children in their own home in a local well resourced club was the best way to produce results.

While none of the funding previously put into the High Performance Centres found their way to clubs, Waverley continued to lead the way and produce athletes and support other club programs to produce as well.

While all this was happening - Tanya was hard at work at Waverley, negotiating the development of a world class gymnastics facility at Oakley, a dream that became a reality in 2021.

Always innovating and moving forward, the club continues to lead the way and share resources in child safety, business practices, talent identification and coaching support.

John Dorrington
In addition, John Dorrington, the inaugural Pioneer to be inducted into the GCA Hall of Fame during the 2022 ceremony, received his pin badge noting his achievement.

Dorrington announced the 2024 Pioneers.

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