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Orchard, who trains Olympian Michelle Conway at the Sport Seneca club in Ontario, commented favorably on Ashley Peckett, who won the Elite Canada event held earlier this month in Winnipeg. Peckett was not a member of the Olympic team.
"Ashley is a beautiful gymnast - very elegant, deceivingly powerful and with a lovely line," Orchard said.
Peckett trains at Gymnastics Mississauga in Ontario, where Alex Bard, Svetlana Degteva and Craig Smith coach her.
Past Gymnastics Mississauga standouts include Stella Umeh, who placed 17th all-around at the '91 world championships, 16th at the '92 Olympics and 15th at the '93 world championships; Stacey Galloway, who placed 21st at the '93 world championships; Theresa Wolf and Lena Degteva, who competed at the '94 and '95 world championships; and Shanyn Maceachern, a '96 Olympian.
Kate Richardson, Canada's top all-arounder at the Sydney Olympics, competed on only two events at Elite Canada "because her coach, David Kenwright, didn't want to push her to prepare full routines now," according to Orchard. "(Kenwright) would rather work the new code without the pressure of full routines. Kate did compete vault, and she did a world class beam routine that would take your breath away - simply gorgeous, 9.95."
Orchard told IG that Conway is recovering from knee surgery, following an injury sustained during training in Sydney. "At the Olympics, they thought she had torn her meniscus; when they finally went in to do the surgery, they found she had torn it twice," Orchard said today. Conway, who traveled to Elite Canada host city Winnipeg to speak about her Olympic experience at local schools and gym clubs there, is training again. "She is still the spark plug of our gym at Sport Seneca," Orchard said. "She has been an absolute inspiration to all of our other athletes as an Olympic athlete and as a 'coach' during her rehab time."
According to Orchard, Olympian Crystal Gilmore did not compete at Elite Canada due to a wrist injury, and Emilie Fournier is "still healing" from the leg injury that she sustained in pre-Olympic training in Sydney. "She is back in the gym training," Orchard said of Fournier.
The other three members of Canada's 2000 Olympic team have retired from international gymnastics competition: Yvonne Tousek is attending UCLA, Lise Leveille is attending Stanford University, and Julie Beaulieu has taken up diving.
Taken from International Gymnast - December 2000 online news
© 2001 
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