GYMNASTICS: Ellie Black's wealth of experience steers Halifax Alta teammate Denelle Pedrick in her maiden world championship

It was a first for Canada’s most decorated female gymnast.

Ellie Black performed a difficult and unique skill in her bars routine at last month’s Paris World Challenge Cup in France. A half-turn so unique that the new skill is now called ‘The Black.’

New Skill Alert! @EllieBlack_ competing at the Paris World Challenge Cup with her new skill that was given a “G” for the first time, it will be named the Black! 🤸🏻‍♀️ @gymnastics pic.twitter.com/XDuFStdO61

— Gymnastics Canada (@gymcan1) September 26, 2022

“It’s really hard to get a skill named after you,” the 27-year-old from Halifax said. “Everything is so hard and the level is so high. But it’s a goal for any athlete to try and figure out a skill that you can get named after you.

“I never really thought it would be on bars,” she added. “We had to think out of the box and change the routine a little bit and that’s where the release with a half-turn came in. We started working on it December of last year and did so for a really long time. Once I finally got more consistent with it, I could put it in the routine and try it out.

“I wanted to try it in Paris before worlds so I could do it successfully and get it named after me. But I would never expect to have a skill named after me on the bars, that’s for sure.”

Black is brimming with confidence heading into the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, which begin Oct. 29 in Liverpool, England.

The Paris event was her first international competition after she spent most of the past year recuperating an ailing left ankle.

It was an injury she sustained a month before the 2021 Olympics Games opened in Tokyo. The three-time Olympian was forced to withdraw from the all-around competition but fought through it to place fourth on the beam.

“The ankle is feeling much better,” Black said. “I had to give it a little bit of rest this year. I competed in April and it was still giving me some grief so I rested it for a couple months more and that has helped. It’s getting stronger every day so now it’s about getting the skills back and routine back.

“There was a little bit of the unknown going into the (Paris) competition just because I haven’t competed in many, many months,” she continued. “But you have to trust your training and trust yourself and I was able to put those nerves aside.

“It was just great to be back on the world stage, the competition, the crowd, the atmosphere. It was definitely a good stepping stone and confidence booster for getting ready for worlds and competing on a world stage. Being in that environment helped settle me and once you get one routine under your belt, it’s just like you never left.”

Black has been training rigorously at the Halifax Alta Gymnastics Club under the watchful eye of national coach David Kikuchi.

For the past two years, another national level gymnast has called Alta home. Denelle Pedrick of Wilcox, Sask., has been training under Kikuchi and with Black while she pursues a master’s degree in kinesiology at Dalhousie.

A gymnastics star at Central Michigan University – she was the first from the school to earn two Mid-American Conference gymnast of the year honours – Pedrick will compete in her first world championships later this month.

“It’s my first year on the national team and it’s been a grind,” Pedrick said during a break from training at the Halifax gym. “It’s a year of firsts so every day is a new experience, like prepping for worlds. But Ellie has been helping me out a lot as to what to expect. I really lean on Ellie. We help each other and push each other in the gym. We keep each other accountable and help each other when we’re down.

“Each day I’ve been making little improvements so that come worlds I’ll be at my best.”

Following her acclaimed four-year NCAA career, Pedrick took a six-month sabbatical from gymnastics just as the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping across the world.

When she made her return to the sport and moved to Halifax in Aug. 2020, training was done virtually. She also held down three to four jobs at one time while attending Dal.

“It was a lot,” the 23-year-old recalled. “Now that I’m on the national team, I got rid of two of those jobs. But I still coach at the gym here (Alta). I like the school-gymnastics balance. When I come to the gym, I can focus on gymnastics and not think about school. It’s good to separate those in my life.”

Black, Pedrick and Kikuchi will travel to Montreal next week for a pre-worlds camp before arriving in Liverpool on the 26th.

The world championships are a significant qualification event for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The top three teams in both the men’s and women’s finals will qualify for the team competition at the Paris Games.

“We need to see where we’re at as a team,” Pedrick said. “The end goal is the 2024 Olympics. We’ll see how we compare this year and then next year we’ll make that big push to qualify for Olympics. But anything can happen especially when you’re dealing with a high-impact sport.”