Three members of the Polarettes Gymnastics Club enjoyed a successful week at the Western Canadian Championships.

The Westerns were held in Winnipeg from April 21-24.

Representing the Polarettes were Olivia Vangel, 14, Lily Witten, 15 and Maude Molgat, 17.

It was Molgat’s first competition since March 2020. She competed in the Nationals virtually last year.

Witten and Vangel previously competed in the B.C. Championships April 1-3.

Acting head coach Stephanie Caron said the B.C. Champs went really well for the girls.

“And Westerns, they improved, all across the board in the three-week turnaround from one competition to the next.”

Caron described how the trio of tumblers did at the Westerns.

“They did really well. Olivia ended up getting eighth place on vault, which is pretty big for a first-year Level 8 at a competition like Westerns. And Maude ended up placing ninth on Beam and 10th on Floor, just missing out on the event finals for both of those events.

“Lily had a phenomenal showing. She improved on every single event. She hit all of the goals she had set out for herself and so she’s also well on her way to being prepared to go to Nationals this year.

“She was a little lower. It was a pretty big group of kids and she’s at a younger age for that one, for sure. She had some 19th, 20th places out of about 30 kids. She did well and she made some improvements from B.C. Champs as well.”

Caron said her young charges enjoyed the weekend.

“They had fun. I feel like they have come back kind of motivated and prepared. Both Lilly and Maude are competing at the Canadian Nationals in the last week of May of this year. So they came back ready to get working on some of these things and try to improve and upgrade some stuff in time for Nationals and Olivia came home – she’s pretty well done travelling for the season, but she came home pretty motivated to work on some of the areas that she wanted to work on and improve and I think getting eighth place on vault out of 30 kids – the top 30 Level 8 kids in Western Canada – was a big moment for her.”

Up next for the Polarettes is another competition for a different group of girls.

“We have seven athletes travelling to Delta (B.C.) for the Delta Invitational Competition and they range between Level 4 and Level 7. They’re a little bit on the younger side, less experience than Level 8 or 9, so these are the younger kids. Five of them have traveled this year already. They came with me to B.C. Champs and two of them, it will be their first competition since 2020. (For) one of them the first one since 2019,” related Caron.

In gymnastics, the higher the number, the higher the level.

“In the program that our athletes compete in, there’s 10 (levels),” Caron explained.

Witten, Vangel and Molgat won’t be among the gymnasts attending the event.

“Usually the back to back competitions are pretty tough,” explained Caron.

“It’s pretty hard on their bodies, emotionally and physically to turn around at that level. And with just Maude and Lily having to commit to Nationals, they’ll need a little bit more time in the gym, rather than competing right now.

“And Olivia set her goals at the beginning of the season and Delta was a little bit of an add-on because we missed a competition in February because of COVID, so she had already set out her competitions for the season.”

The acting head coach thinks the young gymnasts will do well.

“I think it’s gonna be awesome. We had a fair amount of success with these athletes at B.C. Champs and that was a month ago, and they came home and have been working hard. I’m excited to see, after having their first competition experience – that first one back was quite ... overwhelming kind of post-ish COVID.

“We don’t really know where we stand because we are so isolated here, and to be able to go down to a huge meet like B.C. Champs, which is where most athletes at that level are set to peak for the year, cause that’s the top athletes in B.C. and it was our first meet of the year and our girls showed up and they fit right in. They didn’t hesitate.

“They did well, so I’m excited to see what getting that experience under their belt this year can do for their competition now. Where are we gonna see the improvements? Where do we still need to work? I’m excited for the kids to be able to travel as a team again and for them to get to experience this more than once this year. I wasn’t sure if they were even going to get to experience more than one competition, so I’m very excited,” Caron added.

Four other athletes are travelling to a different B.C. Provincials competition for the younger kids next weekend in Port Coquitlam B.C. May 6-8 for Levels 4 and 5.

“I can’t even put into words how thankful I am that we can travel this year and how much of a difference it makes to athletes,” said Caron.

“It’s really tough to motivate athletes and kids. These kids train at 6 a.m. in the morning on Monday to Thursday and it’s really hard to motivate them when you can’t travel to compete. So it makes a huge difference.”

The Polarettes are in the midst of a very busy time in their schedule.

“Our facility is hosting Yukon Champs on May 14, so that’s here for all of our athletes. And then we have the two attending Canadian Nationals at the end of May and we have 21 athletes attending the Ogopogo Invitational in Kelowna from June 3-5,” Caron related.

The Nationals take place in Richmond, B.C. May 26-31.

Caron added what a positive experience it was for her and her young athletes to compete at the Westerns.

“The girls had so much fun and it was so motivating. These kids are finally – especially Lily and Maude – are competing against kids they’ve been competing against for years. To have not seen them for a few years and to get back into it and be able to hear the girls say ‘oh, I remember her and we competed against her when we were younger and here she is again and look at how much she’s improved and here are some different skills that we could work on. Like, wow! I’ve been struggling with this skill, but there’s another athlete doing it a little bit of a different way. Like, I want to try that. I’m motivated by that.’

“It’s really motivating for the older kids and for the younger kids to see the older kids having that mentality and coming back to the gym with this motivation and this drive makes the younger kids excited and motivated.

“And obviously, as a coach, for me to go out and see other coaches coaching these really high levels and other options for our gymnasts to compete, it’s motivating for me. It’s kind of the big take-home message, from what I’ve felt,” she added.

“It was phenomenal.”