Parkettes National Gymnastics Training Center , widely known as Parkettes , is a gymnastics club located in Allentown, Pennsylvania . It has produced several teams and individual gymnasts representing the United States, the Czech Republic , and Canada in international meets, including the Olympic Games .
3-463: Parkettes was founded by Bill Strauss and his wife, Donna Strauss . It started as a backyard after-school workout program at the Strauss home. It was later in a barn, school, and church basement as they got the program established. Former Mack Trucks CEO, Alfred Pelletier, helped the program move to a permanent home. The first Olympian produced by the club was Jody Yocum, who was named as an alternate for
6-819: Is an American gymnastics coach and the co-founder and proprietor of the Parkettes National Gymnastics Training Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania , which she founded with her husband Bill in the 1960s. Donna and Bill were named USA Women’s Gymnastics Coaches of the Year twice and 1998 USOC Women’s Gymnastics Coaches of the Year. They earned the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Woman’s Sports Foundation of Lehigh Valley in 1996. This biographical article related to
9-583: The 1976 Summer Olympics . In 2003, CNN aired a documentary, Achieving the Perfect 10 , which contained some criticisms of the demanding and competitive nature of Parkettes's training program. In 2008, Jennifer Sey , the 1986 National Champion from Parkettes, published a book, Chalked Up , which was critical of Parkettes and elite gymnastics. 40°36′02″N 75°27′49″W / 40.60050°N 75.46361°W / 40.60050; -75.46361 Donna Strauss Donna Strauss (born August 12, 1942)
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