The History of Salto Gymnastics
The club has come a long way since 1995, this short history illustrates just how far we have developed since then. Salto Gymnastics are run and staffed by volunteers and this progress pays testiment to the thousands of hours of hard work put in by hundreds of these volunteers. Thank you

SALTO was born in 1995 from a very fine pedigree. Stopsley Gym Club (SGC) and Luton Gym Club (LGC) were both formed in the early 70's, training at Stopsley High School and Luton Youth Club respectively. The two clubs both grew independently, offering many local youngsters the chance to participate in the sport of gymnastics. Members competed successfully in County, Regional and National Artistic Championships, notching up an impressive array of medals. A friendly rivalry was to be seen between the clubs in competition, although they also frequently combined for training sessions. Both had many claims to fame within the field with the girls of LGC forming the nucleus of the British Gymnastics squad in the early days, whilst SGC had their star in Eddie van Hoof, who after a successful competitive career, became the Men's National Coach, coaching Neil Thomas to win Great Britain's first ever World Championship Medal, as well as two very much sought after display teams.

Time passed and circumstances caused both clubs to change venues, with Stopsley moving to Luton Regional Sports Centre and Luton being forced to seek new premises, moving to the top floor of an old hat factory in Guildford Street.

As both Stopsley and Luton Gym Clubs were growing ever more popular and space to accommodate classes, now being run seven days a week at one or the other site, becoming a problem, a need to expand was seen. With the promise of a specialist sporting facility being planned for Luton by the Eastern Region Sports Council, both clubs saw this as the way forward and plans were put in place to win the privilege of having this facility as a new home. As discussions progressed it was soon evident that in order for the facility to best suit the needs of the sport, Stopsley and Luton Gym Clubs would have to come together to form one club. In 1995 the new club was officially launched and the name SALTO (Stopsley And Luton Town Olympic) Gymnastics Club, with 'Salto also being a gymnastic term for 'somersault', was chosen.

With the club trying to operate as one but from two sites, things were becoming difficult. In 1996, a Trampolining section was added to the club, which created a third site as training premises were at the High Town Recreation Centre. The hunt was on to relocate the whole operation into one temporary site until the funds were secured and the new facility built. This was to be a 'dry run' for the administration of the new facility when built and the club moved lock, stock and barrel to Dawsons, now JBS Business Park, in October 1996.

When the National Lottery took over the allocation of funding for sport, before SALTO managed to secure funding for the new facility from the Sports Council, a bid for funding had to be prepared. This road proved to be very bumpy and our bid for funding was eventually unsuccessful.

Determined to achieve our aim of owning our own purpose built facility the hunt was on for premises, fund raising began in earnest and in November 2004 we eventually moved to our current premises. The warehouse was devoid of any internal structure, apart from an office and one toilet, so as can be seen by the pictures, many people donated many, many hours of 'hard labour', (in between their full time employment hours!) to turn our facility into the impressive arena in which we are now fortunate enough to train.