DENVER—Two Colorado girls are getting ready to compete nationally in freestyle flying.
Yes, it's a sport and some local girls are doing everything they can to be the best.
Sydney Kennett and Kaitlyn Cummings aren't your typical athletes.
They are indoor skydivers, and use wind tunnels to develop advanced routines that they can use to compete against other flyers.
"If more people know about it, it would grow quickly,” Mike Silva, lead instructor at iFly Denver, said.
“We just saw the building and was like, 'Is this a thing?' And then we tried it and this was lit,” said Kaitlyn Cummings, freestyle flyer.
"The best description is tunnel dancing, and so you are flying to music -- performing tricks and flips that are really difficult -- and the judges score you on your difficulty, on execution, much like gymnastic or diving,” Silva said.
At just 10 and 14 years old, Sydney and Kaitlyn are pushing the limits and competing in a sport that a lot of their friends have never tried before.
"It feels like nothing matters, like what you do, because you get to have fun and do what you want,” said Sydney Kennett.
"You don't have any limits, I guess, and you can be free to do whatever you want. It's not restricted, so that's pretty cool,” Cummings said.
While it looks like a lot of twirling and twisting, there’s a lot more to it than that.
Freestyle flying involves a lot of muscle control and muscle memory while moving against winds whirling by at close to 140 mph.
"It's like a partner thing -- you work with the wind on certain moves, and then other ones you fight against it,” Cummings said.
As the girls continue to train and push the boundaries in wind tunnel flying, they have big goals for the future.
"I would like to become an instructor when I am older, so I can teach other people and help them,” Kennett said.
"My dream is to probably win a world championship or a world cup and bring that home to the USA,” Cummings said.
The girls will compete IFly Virginia Beach National Competition on April 22 and 23.
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