Rhythmic Gymnastics Our Club Our Programs Special Olympics Coaching Staff Class Location New Registration Job Opportunities Guest Book Achievement/Medals RG Movie Clips

Special Olympics RG Program "Ottawa Rhythmic Spirals" Season: Sept 2011 - June 2012 Time: Saturday 8:30am Location: 50 Maple Lane, Ottawa Registration Fee: $30/yr (Payable to Special Olympics Ottawa) Training Fee at ORGC: Free Head Coach: Xinhong Jin SO Program Manager: Kathy Campbell Ages & Abilities: Ages 7 and up; all ability levels welcome; gymnasts will refine skills and attend weekly practices and competitions throughout the season. "Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt" Our club has been proudly sponsoring the Special Olympics Rhythmic Gymnastics (SO RG) Program since 1997. The club was the first and is the only generic RG club in Canada that offers a regular weekly SO RG program that is affiliated with Special Olympics Canada. Our certified volunteer coaches are dedicated to enriching the lives of Canadians with an intellectual disability through the sport in the Ottawa and its surrounding area. During the past 12 years, our SO RG program has been proved to be very successful and even be dubbed as the "Cradle of Special Olympics World Champions in Rhythmic Gymnastics" by some parents and gymnasts. We have reached some milestones. Here's a timeline: 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games, NC, USA, June 26-July 4, 1999 Level 3 Special Olympics gymnast Claudia Richards won three gold medals for Canada (Claudia registered with her mom's SO club in Quebec at the time. Our club worked with her technical skills and provided many performance opportunities for her to prepare for the competitions). 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games, Dublin, Ireland, June 20-29, 2003 Level 3 Special Olympics gymnast Ada Chan won five medals for Canada: gold in ball, silver in hoop and all-round, and bronze in ribbon and rope. Ada registered and trained in our generic RG program between 2002-2006 (Ada registered with another SO club at the time. Our coaches worked with her technical skills and did all her choreography for the competitions). 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games, Shanghai, China, Oct 2-11, 2007 Our Level 3 Special Olympics gymnast Christina Campbell won five medals for Canada: gold in rope, silver in hoop, ball, ribbon and all-round. Christina has been training in our SO program as well as the generic RG program since 2005. The other 3 Team Canada Rhythmic Gymnasts (Catherine, Emily, and Teagan), who had all trained in our club before the Games, had won a total of 15 medals for Canada (8 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronze). From Left to Right: Catherine, Teagan, Coach Sing, Emily and Christina. 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, Athens, Greece, July 1-3, 2011 Our Level 4 Special Olympics gymnast Christina Campbell won five medals for Canada again. Along with the overall gold in rhythmic gymnastics, she also won three individual gold medals (ball, clubs, ribbon), and a silver (hoop) during the Games. Christina has been training in our SO program as well as the generic RG program since 2005. * Our club's current annual volunteer coaching time devoted to the Special Olympics RG program is around 250 hours (2hrs/wk, 2-3 coaches per class, equivalent to around $10,000.00/yr for the coaching, gym rental, insurance, costumes, travel, and apparatus fees, etc). Recognition From Special Olympics Ontario From the certificate: "Special Olympics Ontario Certificate of Appreciation presented to Xinhong Jin for outstanding dedication as a coach for Special Olympics athletes and providing exceptional training and support." From the letter: "October 25, 2006 To Award Dinner Attendees: It is my pleasure to provide this letter to recognize the contributions that Xinhong (Sing) Jin has made to Special Olympics programs as a volunteer coach. Sing has been a coach with Special Olympics Ontario for many years and only she can confirm exactly when she was first introduced to our programs. Sing has been instrumental in the success of many rhythmic gymnasts through her coaching, but Special Olympics athletes are truly fortunate to have her expertise and technical knowledge to help bring their training to a new level. Not only does Sing bring a great deal of experience to her coaching, but she also cares for her athletes and wants to see them succeed in all aspects of their life. Winning is not the only goal Sing sets for her students; self confidence and having fun during training and competition is what tops her list of priorities. Sing's contributions are echoed in the following statement from a parent of one of the gymnasts she has coached who feels that our athletes "... have benefited from her truly extraordinary talents as a coach which includes being able to communicate with and effectively motivate athletes with limited intellectual capacity" and that most important is "the ethic of sportsmanship which she displays in the respect and interest which she shows in supporting each individual athlete to do their best". Sing has coached two Ottawa area athletes to the World level of competition and has also assisted athletes from across the province in their preparation for National level competition. This requires a great deal of dedication of time and energy to train the athletes to compete at such a high level, but Sing embraced the challenge with enthusiasm and eagerness. Through her dedication to Special Olympics Sing has also been involved with increasing the level of competition across the province and has been involved with judging as well. The ethics of judging is imperative in any sport organization and having such a positive role model for upcoming judges and coaches to look up to is crucial to the future development of rhythmic gymnastics in Special Olympics. Her professionalism and allegiance to Special Olympics was demonstrated once again in 2005 when she started a new program in the Ottawa area, volunteering her time to coach athletes of all ability levels, with a specific interest in targeting youth in the community. Sing, thank you for all you have done to bring rhythmic gymnastics to such a high caliber across the province. You are truly deserving of the Wild Rose Development Coach of the Year Award and Special Olympics looks forward to continuing our work together to increase the growth and caliber of training of rhythmic gymnastics in Ottawa and across Ontario. Sincerely, Shelley Freake Ottawa Area Coordinator Special Olympics Ontario" News Christina Takes Gold Again at the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games Local Athlete Headed Back to World Stage - The Cornwall Standard Freeholder, Aug 15, 2010 Thanks Special Olympics, Thanks Shanghai - Shanghai Daily, October 4, 2007 A Spotlight on Rhythmic Gymnastics - Down Syndrome Express, Fall 2007 Ottawa gymnast bound for Special Olympics - The Ottawa Centretown News, Sept. 28, 2007 Local gymnast takes five medal sweep in Dublin - The Sports Community, Aug. 21, 2003 Ottawa Rhythmic Gymnastics Club P.O. Box 74162, Ottawa, K1M 2H9 Tel: 613-741-8808, Fax: 613-741-7881 ORGC@goldenbridge.ca Return to the Main Page Copyright © 1996-2012  ORGC. All rights reserved.