As printed in Chicago Suntimes Letter to the Editor

Chicago gymnasts struggle with uneven bars
Park District's North Side facilities are top-notch, while South Side gets left behind
April 30, 2007
As Chicago is poised for the grand opportunity to showcase and celebrate the international feats and skills of athletes the world over, our own athletes receive less than equitable training facilities and much less fanfare.
If the 2016 Olympics take place here in Chicago, structures will be built to support the lifestyle and training of supreme athletes. There will be a conglomerate of housing, convention and training centers. It is what should be expected. Athletes require, and deserve, to train in an accessible and quality environment.
Unfortunately, Chicago does not train its own athletes in these conditions. The Chicago Park District's gymnastics team has extreme disparities in the condition of its facilities. There are brand-new, state-of-the-art facilities and equipment in some areas. However, you won't find any on the South Side of town.
This spring, at the 2007 U.S.A. Gymnastics Junior Olympics Regional Invitation, the Chicago Park District team members took the gold. In fact, they have earned the most honors and largest number of awards over the last three seasons. Still, the teams from the South Side park districts have had to commute to other park districts to train in equitable facilities.
Peterson Park, at 5800 N. Pulaski, is a two-story gymnastics center that boasts premium equipment, nice clean floor mats and carpeting throughout, and waiting areas for parents and onlookers. It is quite the contrast at Calumet Park, at 9800 S. Avenue G, whose gymnastics center is all of one room in a dilapidated field house. Here, the athletes must undress and practice all in the same room. The beams, bars and floor mats look as though they have been tumbled upon and used for years.
Chicago Park District coach Darrell Harden's team has been displaced from its Hyde Park digs multiple times throughout the past few years. He started out sharing the gymnasiums at local high schools such as Dyett and King; now he practices at Calumet Park with what is left of his team. Most of the others fell off after being unsure of where the next practice facility would be.
It is a nod to the tenacity and ambition of these young South Side athletes that they have placed first in almost all their meets. That Coach Harden's team holds the first-place positions for the Illinois 2007 USA Gymnastics women's competition, first place in 2007 USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics Men's Regional Level 4 and multiple Top 10 spots shows that these youth can perform as well, if not outperform, their counterparts. How much better would they be if their Chicago playing fields were even?
The arrogance of Chicago to boast of its ability to host the international athletic community while its own athletes get second-class treatment speaks volumes to our priorities. Chicago is whose kind of town?
La'Keisha Gray-Sewell, Englewood