National Competitive
At the national level, athletes are competing much more difficult routines and skills with multiple flips and twists. Here, there are four more levels: Level 5 (National), Level 6 (Espoir), Level 7 (Junior), and Level 8 (Senior). Similar to the provincial level, national athletes compete several times a year on the four events. However, these athletes also attend competitions outside of Alberta, such as National Championships. At Nationals, competitors from across the country (even some from across the world), come to compete their routines. In addition, these high-level competitors have opportunities to compete internationally. As the skill level increases dramatically at this level, more training hours are required. National-level groups train four days a week for 2.5-3 hours each day.
Thank you Alberta Gymnastics Federation and Dave Holland Photography for some of the pictures used throughout this site. Bounce onto https://www.flickr.com/photos/albertagymnastics to see more.