This was the best week of my life! I will never forget competing at Worlds with all my closest friends!
He said
It is crazy how something that seemed so far off a year ago has came and already went. When last week we were talking about being on the eve of Worlds, here we are today, a couple days later than our usual Sunday evening post – Tuesday night – sitting back home. This morning we were in Florida with Worlds all wrapped up and us getting ready to head back home. Last night, we wrapped up with a special night at Hollywood Studios exclusive to all the attendees of the Worlds and then today the slow route back begins. It’s hard to believe it’s over but, by the same token we did so much stuff in the week we’ve been here!
Last Tuesday began our journey down here and while the flight was delayed a couple of hours and it ended up being a long day of travel, we were with friends on the team and it made the delays and the travel all the more easier. It was somewhere after 2am before we were finally settled in our suite and able to get to sleep. The place we are staying at (Mystic Dunes Resort) is absolutely perfect and we would stay here again in a heartbeat and it has the perfect mix of giving us the space to relax, that is close to all the places we needed to be. The next day there was nothing on our itinerary, so we pretty much got to explore and enjoy which was perfect as we had a great, relaxing day where Emelia spent probably half of it at the pool with friends from her team.
Thursday the preparation proper began for ValiaNT. They had two practices—easily the most important for them was the first one which was the iconic Worlds experience of the practice on Football Field at the Disney All-Star Sports Resort. It is the one you see in all the photos of the event. And, you’re practicing on the same field and even possibly at the same time as the very well-known teams from all over the world. The girls had a blast and it was very emotional for the parents to take it all in too. They put in a couple hours there and that was the beginning of what would be a very busy next few days.
When it came to the actual competition on Saturday, the women never fashioned themselves as having a high chance of making the cut from day one to get into to day two as they were up against some very talented teams, and in especially tough competition among the other Canadian teams there. They were there to have fun and do their best and to soak it all in. After all, to a teammate, not a single one had ever been on a Worlds team, and the team itself was in its first year as such. They showcased all the work and improvement that they had made over the year, but in the end, there was one wobble on a stunt, and that was enough to decide it in such a talented division. Later that evening we found out they were not moving on. Emelia was not surprised, not upset and ready to just take in every minute in the rest of the experience.
We spent the next two days enjoying our park-hopper passes taking in Disney’s Animal Kingdom yesterday morning and Magic Kingdom and the fireworks last night. And then today we did Epcot and are heading off to Hollywood Studios this evening. The whole experience this week has been absolutely amazing and sure enough Emelia has once again switched gears and admitted she wants to do another year and try to qualify and compete again at Worlds next year. And, to be honest after having seen and experienced it all, I want to her to have it again too!
She said
This entire week has been a fever dream! It has been exactly what we could have ever hoped for. We flew out of Detroit on Tuesday, meeting up with our friends Eberley and Abe with their kids Camryn and Bella. It was great for Emelia to be able to fly out with Cam (one of her teammates) and it allowed the two families to build on the excitement of the entire week ahead. We arrived really late after a flight delay and finally crashed in our room well after 2 in the morning. We were really lucky to find a place that both teams were staying together so the girls have spent much of the week being back into each other suites and back and forth to the pool.
We arrived a day earlier than we needed and this allowed us to have a nice, quiet start of our week here. It let us get groceries and also to go get some shopping done with our friends and even were able to bring Emelia’s cheer bestie Avery along with us. This made sure that the girls also got to go into the training relaxed and excited. The real start of Emelia’s Worlds experience started on Thursday. This was their first field practice. This practice is iconic. It is the practice on the ‘football field’ at Disney All-Stars Sports. The girls sported their amazing practices gear and along with Virtue that were blessed to show off their stunts along side with some other teams competing. This is one of the core memory moments. Emelia and her teammates who were all first time World’s athletes were taking it all in. Emelia had a smile plastered across her face the entire time. this is a day she will never forget. After their practice they were going over to ESPN to cheer on some of their friends from their gym who were competing on Team Canada. The entire team along with their families were all there to cheer them on and in the end watch them to have a perfect run and bring home the gold!
The rest of the week was a constant stream of practices, team lunches, more practice and even team photos. The girls were going constantly. Before we knew it we were off to ESPN to watch Emelia and her team compete. They were all going in pretty relaxed and all they wanted was to execute their strongest more energetic routine of the year. They were there for the experience and all were remembering how far they had come, this was a first year team, 85% of this team started the year coming off level 3 or lower and by the time they ended their season they were executing a level appropriate routine and were going on the floor to give it their best. The parents and other athletes were nervous but excited as we waited for them to hit the floor. The girls put it all out there, and it was by far their most energetic routine of the season, they had one stunt partial come down that was a 3 point deduction. The did not advance to day two but they didn’t expect to. They came off the floor a bit disappointed only because they were so close to a hit zero but know they did their absolute best. They were so proud of what they put on the floor and most are so ready to get back again next season to do it all over again!
With their competition done we were finally able to switch to vacation mode. Yesterday morning were got up super early to get to Animal Kingdom by 9:00, we did the Safari and puttered around before leaving to head over to Magic Kingdom again with our friends. Emelia and Cam hung out with us until they were ready to explore on their own. We took in all new memories and going back to some of Emelia’s favourite rides from our trip years ago. We ended our evening meeting up with another one of their teammates so the three girls could experience the end of a perfect day together. It will be a day I will remember forever.
Today was another packed day. We slept in a bit more today and took the day at a lazier pace. We again met up with our friends to head to Epcot. We made our way around World showcase and even got Emelia over her fear of rides by hitting up a few rollercoasters. The heat and exhaustion had started to hit us all so we decided that we were done with the parks for a bit and opted to come back to the condo to relax before we are off to the last big event of our week. The end of the competition celebration. Hollywood Studios is closed to everyone other than the athletes and families of the Worlds. We have the whole park to ourselves and I cannot imagine a better way to wrap up the most incredible week of Emelia’s life!