This week Canadian legend, Olympian, World vault finalist, 13-year Cirque du Soliel veteran, entrepreneur and NCAA team champion, Stella Umeh tells her story. Known for her incredible power combined with her dance background helped Stella perform floor routines that ballerinas and jazz dance fans alike sigh with ecstasy. Jessica joined Stella and her 3-month-old daughter, Billie (cue adorable baby gurgles in the background), in November while Stella and her husband, Sam, (head electrician for Cirque's Kurios show) stopped in California.  We discuss:
On being an A-typical Canadian gymnast in her era and being labeled as difficult for standing up for herself and doing things her own way: "I work hard, I play hard. I'm responsible because I love what I'm doing, I'm not going to jeopardize it (also because I don't want to get injured).... I would always do the job but because I didn't fit the mold, it looked like I was fooling around or Mickey Mousing or I wasn't taking things seriously. But I don't think you have to completely conform and lose yourself to take something seriously--because if you are meant to do it, and it is your passion, it's going to be serious regardless of who you are or what you look like. You see a person's heart and soul in what they are doing; and that is what people should be looking at."

Injuries and accidents:

Crying and developing an eye twitch every single day for a year she performed on Teeter Board in Cirque du Soleil's Mystère because she was terrified of the apparatus.
Competing with a sprained neck and back .
Competing with labyrinthitis, a condition caused by California-specific seasonal allergies, which led to a broken bone and very scary crashes.


College Culture Shock

Moving to LA immediately after the 1994 earthquake when UCLA looked like "Beirut"
Not finding the United States to be as multi-cultural as her home in Mississauga, near Toronto, Canada.
Getting booed in a college meet.
Her opinion of current college difficulty compared to her era in the 90's and how the loss of compulsories effect the current skill level of incoming elite gymnasts.


Being Different

Her dance foundation and wanting to be like her famous choreographer sister, Anastasia (Stacy) Umeh
Feeling out of place in school and in her upper middle-class gym
Being bullied--being chased home from elementary school by rock-throwing girls
Gymnastics always being the happy, safe place.


Elite Gymnastics

Scoring low domestically
Her advice for learning a painful skill, doing it
Fashion show, changing leotards for each event, mobster leos
Hair fashion when Stella didn't have enough hair for a scrunchy, but the head coach wanted her in one (cue comedy)
"I never saw myself as a black athlete. I always come back to, this is what I love to do. I don't really care what my color, my creed, my size, my shape is. This is where I am supposed to be.  If someone wants to sort of, discriminate against me or make things difficult for me because I'm different, then that's their shit. I'm still going to go out and do what I need to do."
Dealing with the reputation of being difficult and non-conforming because she stood up for herself and her teammates. For example:

The time Stella asked a judge what rumors she has heard about her.
The time Stella told off a Canadian judge for giving the Canadians lower scores than the international judges from the window of a taxi, as she took Larissa Libby (née Lowing) to the emergency room!




Artistic Style

The story her coach, Alex Bard, loves to tell about the time she refused to dance for him!
Her unique style was "not revered in Canada," but it was abroad because being different was an asset. "I was loved internationaly, because in the end of the day, it was just about what I was doing on the floor."


The Barcelona Olympic Games  in 1992

She cried for 30 days after the games because of the emotional investment in the journey and how fast it came and went.
Parties, make-out sessions and how