The dream started many years ago.

It came true on the weekend with 130 gymnasts from across the country and Alaska competing here in the first Midnight Sun Gymnastics Invitational.

Not only did it attract young athletes ranging in age from five to 17. It also welcomed members of Canada’s national team, including two-time Olympian Brittany Rogers who was here to provide inspiration and answer questions from curious mines.

“This year was the year we were putting it in the schedule, and we were going to make it happen,” head coach Kimberly Jones of the local Polarettes and Polar Tumblers Gymnastics Club said in interview during competition Saturday.

Jones said many of the local gymnasts aren’t able to travel to meets Outside for one reason or another.

“I think for 21 of our girls this was their first competition ever,” she said. “It just happened to be we were able to bring up athletes and show them what a true competition looks like, and that was big.”

Jones said as part of the funding provided by the Yukon government and Lotteries Yukon, there was $136,000 to buy new equipment which was set up on the curling floor at Mount McIntyre. It’s going to be moved to the Polarettes facility at the Vanier Catholic Secondary School to replace the equipment there that has seen it’s day.

Jones noted in addition to the 951 club members, there are loads of schools who use the facility, and others who like to host special occasions like birthday parties there.

“We have about 7,000 individuals coming through the gym every year. It’s going to benefit a lot of people.”

The invitation got underway Thursday and ended Sunday. The event included a variety of clinics, such as the clinic put on by Olympic coach and two-time Olympian Jana Ball.

Ball provided guidance on injury prevention to the athletes, coaches and local physiotherapists.

For the 25-year-old Rogers, who competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and is still a member of the national team, it was her third trip to Whitehorse but her first in the summer.

She competed here in the 2007 Canada Winter Games.

“It’s very hard to explain the beauty that comes with the sun never going down,” she said.

The Olympian has been in gymnastics for 22 years, having started at the age of three.

“It’s hard to believe and that is why I like coming to these competitions,” Rogers said. “It takes me back to where I started from and appreciate how much work I have done. It’s very humbling.”

She said to succeed in gymnastics you have to the love the sport, just like anything, relationships....

Her commitment in the peak of her training amounts to about 32 hours a week in the gym, not including the time put into conditioning, physiotherapy and such.

“It’s a full-time job.” she said. “It’s a tough sport, it’s tough love. As high performance athletes, we expect a lot of ourselves and if things don’t go our way, it can be very challenging. It’s been a wild ride.”

Rogers said she’d doesn’t know if she’ll be representing Canada at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. If she is, great. If not, her experience has been great.

While her role here was one of inspiration, signing autographs, she did hold a question and answer session with the young gymnasts.

There were questions about overcoming fear, not just fear of achieving sophisticated routines that can seem daring to the faint of heart, but also the fear of failure, she said.

Rogers said for the gymnasts competing in the invitational, some are as far as they are ever going to go.

“That is how I connect with these girls, knowing they are doing it because they love it.”