Eleven talented young athletes are hard at work at the North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center with hopes of being chosen for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. It’s the third Olympic team to be trained at the Center, which is located in the Deerfield Park District’s Sachs Recreation Center.
The North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center was cofounded in 2006 by Directors Natasha Klimouk and Dani Takova.
“I do gymnastics all my life,” said Klimouk, who was born in Belarus. “I have physical education in this sport and I’m a two-time Olympic coach. This is my love, passion, my hobby, and my work.”
Takova, who is from Bulgaria, was the Bulgarian National Team Coach and has over 25 years’ experience training young people in rhythmic gymnasts.
Klimouk noted that children as young as 4 train at the Center. That includes two-time Olympian Evita Griskenas, who started at the Center when she was 4, and became an Olympian 15 years later.
The North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center first had a team that qualified for the Olympics in 2016 in Brazil. They also qualified in Tokyo in 2020.
There are currently 11 gymnasts from the Olympic Squad Team who have been training at the Center since September for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “Some of them started with us when they were six years old,” Klimouk said. They are being coached by Margarita Mamzina, who also coached the 2016 and 2020 Olympic teams.
A large committee of professionals selected the Olympic Squad members. The candidates were rated on a variety of abilities, Klimouk said, including, “ballet, coordination, flexibility, working with a team, working with a partner.”
U.S. Olympic rhythmic gymnastics individual competitor Evita Griskenas trains on ball, July 1, 2021, in Deerfield.
Some of the athletes are local but there are also gymnasts from out of state.
“They train around six hours a day,” Klimouk said. “To represent the United States on an Olympic team is a very big responsibility. And these young people take it very seriously.”
They are currently also preparing for the World Championship, which will be in Brazil in August.
Sixteen-year-old Natalia Ye-Granda, an Olympic Squad member, moved to Chicago from San Diego, California in September with her mother to train at the North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center. She has been doing rhythmic gymnastics since she was five.
“I found rhythmic gymnastics through watching the Olympics in 2012,” Natalia said. “I like the challenging portions of rhythmic gymnastics and I get to use my artistry to express different feelings and emotions.”
Natalia was a member of the Junior International Team in 2023 and 2024. Her goal is to be part of the next Olympic team.
“It’s a dream to be able to train here with all these amazing girls,” Natalia said. “It’s such a big opportunity and I’m very grateful for everything the sport has given me.”
Natalia’s group trains six hours every day. “We have warmups and ballet and we set goals for ourselves and try to improve every day and set new goals for ourselves. My long-term goal is to go to LA for 2028.”
Northbrook resident 17-year-old Goda Balsys, another Olympic Squad member, began studying rhythmic gymnastics when she was 4. “I love expressing myself through the music and being able to connect with my teammates while I get to perform at the same time,” Goda said.
She was on the Junior International team in 2022 and 2023, and is now in the Senior National Training Group. Goda’s goal is also to make it to the 2028 Olympic Team.”
She said that’s the goal of all 11 gymnasts who were selected for the Senior National Training Group.
“I’m very grateful to North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastic Center for letting us use their carpeted space all the time,” Goda said.
The Olympic Squad is only one part of the activities at the North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center. The Center has many students, as young as four, who can “grow up in the same place with Olympians,” Klimouk said. “They learn ballet skills, dance skills, they learn apparatus work, coordination, body expression.”
She noted that rhythmic gymnastics looks very beautiful “but it takes a lot of hours to polish and polish and polish and work and work and work.”
Klimouk reported that rhythmic gymnastics has so many fans that at the Olympics, “It’s always sold out first.”
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
