Former track and field coach providing inspiration to family

By Lethbridge Herald on May 19, 2023.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Tara Gemer (right), has been inspired by her father George (right) for her athletic endeavors. That inspiration has grown through the whole family.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Tara Gemer,  who is the daughter of the former well-known local track and field coach George Gemer, has been around athletics her whole life  thanks to her parents.

Tara has been a CrossFit athlete for four years and she gives credit to father George and mother Carole, who instilled fitness appreciation and exercise into her since she was young.

“So I feel like I was involved in track and field and gymnastics through both of them,” said Tara.

“And then as my kids came around, I tried to do the same. And interestingly, my older one did gymnastics and my younger one was doing track and then my younger one got  into CrossFit. And he kind of inspired me to take it up. Now all of us do it in our family and it’s gotten  my husband back into doing… hammer thrower and so he’s throwing hammer today (Friday at Pronghorn Chinook Throws Gala) and it’s kind of a been an interesting revival of our youthful competitive years.”

Like the inspiration that George gave her, Tara did the same for her father at the Throws Gala by getting him out to do discus throwing at the age of 96.

“(And) to kind of make that feel like it went full circle in terms of his inspiration for all of us,” she said.

“And now my kids, both of them, inspiring me to get back at it.”

George started the Lethbridge Track Club, coached at the University of Lethbridge for 47 years and attended five Olympics as an observer coach.

He took players oversees to compete even it wasn’t for a national team  experiemce and give them the feeling of representing Canada in a different country.

Carole started the Westwind Gymnastics Club in town with some other parents at the time, attended two Olympics as a team manager for the national track and field team and was a track athlete herself.

She also attended other championships that included the Pan Am and Commonwealth Game.

“And she did that very bravely, I feel, because it’s a lot of work” she said.

“It’s a lot of undertaking and you’re put in an uncertain environment. And I feel like both she and my dad … ,they’ve done these hard things in their life that I’m trying to remind myself to be brave , and do things when you’re scared , and try to not shy away from doing things when they feel hard. And that’s what I’m trying to get him to do today (Friday), is to undertake something that feels outside his comfort zone but that he can do.”

At the age of 18, George’s spent six years in a prison camp between the Soviet Union and Hungary.

“So when he came out, he started to coach,” said Tara.

“Then he was my track coach and I watched him coach so many people through the years. He loves to coach and he’ll still watch these guys  train and comes out, and you can tell that never leaves him. He’s always a coach at heart. So I don’t think he likes to be coached as much as to be the coach. It is good for my heart to see all these people come back to him that say you made a difference in my life somehow.”

When George returned from prison camp he knew his competitive life was over and went on coaching.

“And that (did)  give me some enjoyment, being in my beloved sports and track and field and travel and go to places ,” said George.

“And that was good for my life.”

The inspiration undoubtedly helped Tara recently as she was able to qualify for the World CrossFit Games in August in Wisconsin.

Tara had to finish in the top 10 of her age category to move on to the World Games and she did so by finishing 9th.

“Yeah that was a pretty exciting and  nice surprise to be able to qualify for that ,” she said.

“I went through a full season of what they start with is called the Open which is a worldwide competition online. And then the top 10 per cent move on to  the quarterfinals, the top 30 people  from that competition move on to semifinals and the top 10 move on to the World Games in August.”

The online workouts included open water swimming or pool swimming to running , biking and climbing ropes to name a few.

“I love it (and) every minute of it,” said George.

“She’s sending me a link from the competition and it’s my soul right there where she competes. And I think I am very proud of her because she’s doing excellent.”

She will be in the Masters Women 50-54 category in what will be an in-person event.