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Swimming coach Greg Young, track coach Sarah Rinehart and head chaperone Anna Young with Chloe Jepson, Madeline Corbett, Sydney McCallie and Saayeh Zarei of Team Chesterfield (courtesy Gretchen Simard)
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The swimming event at the International Children’s Games (courtesy Gretchen Simard)
At the International Children’s Games in Kaunas, Lithuania, this past July, just four teams represented the United States. They hailed from Cleveland; Oakland, California; Florence, South Carolina — and Chesterfield County. How did Chesterfield get involved?
Meet Gretchen Simard, a former teacher and competitive gymnast who coached gymnastics for 30 years. When she found out that the Children’s Games were going to be held in the U.S. (in Cleveland) in 2004, she assembled a team with her daughter, Ashley, who was also a gymnast. She applied again for the 2006 event in Bangkok, where Team Chesterfield athletes brought books and school supplies to a foundation that was starting a school. Since then, Chesterfield has been represented at the games each summer — and sometimes at the winter events as well.
Modeled after the Olympics, the Children’s Games were established in 1968 with the goal of promoting peace and friendship. Each year, athletes ages 12 to 15 from about 100 cities around the world compete with their peers. A selection committee chooses Team Chesterfield’s athletes based on their academic record and volunteer work, in addition to their accomplishments in sports. Each athlete pays (or raises) up to $2,500 toward their trip, and local sponsors cover some of the costs, Simard says.
“We make sure we have role-model students,” she says. She believes her group’s goodwill projects — including a visit this year to a children’s rehabilitation hospital — have played a big role in Team Chesterfield’s continued invitations to the Children’s Games.
“These athletes do become almost like young ambassadors for each country,” says Greg Young, a history teacher and volleyball coach at The Steward School who accompanied this year’s group as a swimming coach.
“It was really interesting to meet people from all over the world and see their cultures and how they competed in the same sport I did,” says Madeline Corbett, a participating swimmer and rising sophomore at Cosby High School. None of the Chesterfield athletes earned medals, but all achieved personal bests, including Madeline, who attained four of her best times in events.
With this year’s trip behind her, Simard is beginning to assemble a team for the next Children’s Games in Jerusalem. To find out more, visit teamchesterfield.org.
