he gymnasts have grown used to sharing their gym with a tepee, left over from an American Indian exhibition, and stretching their remarkably limber legs on metal folding chairs, the only cushioning provided by rolled-up sweatshirts or folded jeans. Their three-hour weeknight workouts stretch into the fading hours of sunlight, which pokes through the cloudy windows of the Church of the Intercession in Harlem, whose gym would seem to be the oddest of gymnastics outposts.

Their surroundings, however, do nothing to dim the ambitions of the young athletes.

"I want to be in the Olympics someday," said Lyrica Okano, 10. "That is what I'm working toward."

Lyrica and the 14 other girls who gather at the church gym to practice form the core of a Harlem-based rhythmic gymnastics program. It is run by Wendy Hilliard, who, in 1978, was the sport's first African-American athlete to represent a United States team. The program has been Ms. Hilliard's labor of love for 11 years. After ending her competitive career in 1988 - a career that included three appearances in the world championships - Ms. Hilliard started coaching elite gymnasts. But after leading one, Aliane Baquerot, to the 1996 Olympics and coaching the United States national team four times, Ms. Hilliard, now 44, said she grew tired of the high-pressure, high-maintenance world of top athletes. She decided that her real dream was to inspire children, the kind who would not normally be exposed to Olympic sports.

The children she got to know in Harlem, where she used to live, reminded Ms. Hilliard of her childhood growing up in Detroit with few available sports programs. She discovered and became enamored with gymnastics at a neighborhood gym.

Ms. Hilliard started her foundation in 1994 to subsidize her grass-roots program. Now, 350 boys and girls, from 3 to 18 years old, attend her rhythmic gymnastics program, which is held on Saturdays at the track-and-field armory. The best participants advance to her competitive girls' team.

"There is just something about the discipline you learn doing this sport," Ms. Hilliard said. "These kids learn about nutrition, how to take care of themselves. You have to show up. You have to be on time. We watch their report cards. We want to keep kids in sports at this age."

While Ms. Hilliard's goals may be modest, that does not keep some of her students from dreaming of competing one day on the Olympic stage.

She is no longer training Olympic-caliber athletes, but she does maintain ties to international competition as director of sports for NYC2012, the group handling the city's bid for the 2012 Summer Games. Though this has become her job, her heart remains with her gymnasts. She hires coaches to run the program and the team practices, but Ms. Hilliard is also there, pointing out flaws in the gymnasts' techniques, encouraging them and scolding them, telling them stories of her career and the places it took her.

When Ms. Hilliard walked in the door of the gym on a recent Thursday night for the competitive team's practice, the girls ran to greet her with smiles and laughter. They listen to her in rapt attention.

"It's awesome to be coached by Wendy," said Ziporah Roney, a 15-year-old from Harlem who has been with the program for six years. "She's the person I want to be like. She knows what it takes and she's going to get us there."

The sport is not a natural fit for most of the children. Several started in traditional gymnastics and learned about the rhythmic form from their coaches. Others were drawn to the sport by watching it when they went to the armory, where there are many recreational activities for children. Rhythmic gymnastics combines traditional gymnastics with a performance element - tumbling while tossing clubs or a hoop or ribbons. And while traditional gymnastics routinely produces the stars at the Olympics, rhythmic gymnastics - added to the Olympic programs in 1984 - remains one of the more obscure disciplines.

The girls talk about having to explain to their friends what it is that draws them to practice four times a week.

"I show off some of my moves at school," said Lyrica, who attends the Center School and became a member of the competitive team three years ago. "They think that's really cool."

Lyrica recently qualified to compete in New Orleans this summer in the Junior Olympics. Ms. Hilliard started as a traditional gymnast but then one day she spotted a ribbon in the gym she used to go to in Detroit that was used by a rhythmic team coached by several Russian women. Drawn by the performance aspect, she decided to join the rhythmic team.

When Ms. Hilliard decided to create a program in her adopted hometown, she undertook a major fund-raising effort that allows children's families to pay what they can with the foundation providing the rest.

Brenda Jones, the foundation's director of operations, said the cost of training for one year for one of the competitive team members exceeded $5,000. "When I look at them, I see 15 kids of different races and abilities working together as a team," she said. "That brings joy to my heart."

Foundation sponsors include the United States Olympic Committee, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Services and the Hospital for Special Surgery.

"The biggest challenge is finding space," Ms. Hilliard said, looking sideways at the tepee that takes up space at one end of the church gym. "They really need to be practicing one more day, but we can't find the room. That's the challenge for all Olympic sports."

Ms. Hilliard said she learned a lot about carving out a niche for her sport from a friend, the former Olympic fencer Peter Westbrook, who began his Harlem-based foundation in 1991 with the same goals as Ms. Hilliard. Five of his students have competed in the Olympics.

"We all have the same challenges," Ms. Hilliard said. "You just have to go out and make it happen."