Though Allentown's Parkettes might not inspire the same reverence 24 years later, the program founded in 1968 by a curious phys-ed teacher and her husband - USA Gymnastics Hall of Famers Donna and Bill Strauss - remains among the nation's elite producers of top-flight gymnasts.
"What the Strausses have done for all these years has been an incredible gift to gymnastics," Miller said.
Formed in the gymnastics dark ages of 1968 with the help of a Philadelphia club, the Parkettes started out in the Strausses' backyard, then moved to an unheated barn, a church basement, and a room above a concert hall before settling in a state-of-the-art, warehouse-size facility here.
In those 40 years, the program has produced a flock of world-class gymnasts, sending at least one competitor to every Olympics trials since 1976.
And even though the center of the American gymnastics universe has shifted south and west, the Parkettes' streak will continue this weekend in Philadelphia.
When the U.S. Olympic trials begin Thursday at the Wachovia Center, the Parkettes' Amber Trani will be one of the 19 girls hoping to earn a berth on a team that will be favored to win a gold medal in Beijing.
Should she do so, Trani, an 18-year-old from Richlandtown who has trained with the Parkettes since she was 2, would be the fifth from the program to represent the United States at the Olympics, joining Kristin Maloney (2000), Kim Kelly (1992), Hope Spivey (1988) and Jodi Yocum (1976).
They were among the more than 100 national team members, including five in 1992 alone, produced by the Parkettes. The Strausses coached the U.S. Olympic team in 1988. In 1992, the Parkettes won the national team title.
Today, 130 elite gymnasts are being trained here, in addition to 900 other students, from 1 on up.
