OLDS — Zoe Boyd of the Inspire Dance Studio and Baton Twirling Club in Olds placed in the top five in three individual categories, and first and third in two team categories during the International Baton Twirling Federation’s Nation Cup championships in Turin, Italy.
During that competition, held Aug. 3-10, Boyd placed fifth in A Jr artistic twirl, B Jr 2-baton and A Jr 3-baton.
Boyd was also invited by a Calgary team to join their ranks for the competition, due to her individual rankings and accomplishments last season.
That team took first place in dance twirl team A and third in twirl team A.
During her competitions as an individual, Boyd faced 30 to 40 competitors from all over the globe in each division, says Inspire Dance Studio and Baton Twirling Club owner Jenna Jemieff.
Boyd has been baton twirling since she was six or seven years old.
Up until now, she has competed internationally three times: in the Pan Pacific competition in 2020 at age 10, the Worlds in Liverpool England in 2023 and the Pan Pacific competition in 2024 in Calgary.
“Out of all of those competitions, I did my best at this one, and I'm proud of that,” Boyd said during an interview with the Albertan.
She said the atmosphere and the amount of competition was different during the Worlds in Italy.
“It was definitely a lot different from the other international competitions I've been to, especially with all the routines that I had to do, and the volume of athletes that were there,” Boyd said.
“I'd say there were probably, like 2,000, 3,000 athletes. It was just kind of a lot, but it was very exciting to see how well I could perform under those conditions.”
Boyd said the dance twirl team competition was a crazy situation for her because at the last minute, she had to fill in for a teammate who injured her knee.
She described that as a sad situation for that teammate, but very rewarding.
Boyd has come away with some ideas of what she needs to work on to become even better.
“I think just consistency of everything and maybe more cross training will help with stamina,” she said.
“I really think that my sport is a mental game as well.
“Physically, I can do it all, but it's just mentally, that challenge. I find myself wondering if I'm good enough and that really hinders me.”
Boyd said she came away feeling she was more confident in Italy than she had been in previous international competitions, but she feels that becoming even more self-confident and determined could help her improve.
To that end, she may explore the possibility of getting some help via sports psychology.
Boyd believes she has plenty of baton twirling ahead of her.
She said generally speaking, baton twirlers stay in the sport until their late ‘20s. Some have even come back after retiring and competed again in their 40s.
“I think with any athlete like you can't really ever reach the top, because there's always constantly, room to improve and grow and everything, like every aspect of the sport,” she said.
Jemieff is proud of Boyd’s accomplishments.
“It’s incredible that she started the sport when she was six years old and now at 17 she’s competed twice overseas,” Jemieff said.
“This is the first year that she’s competed individually internationally. For her to make finals and top five in those categories is a huge accomplishment.”
Jemieff said Boyd has reached the point where she not only trains with the club in Olds, but also in Airdrie and with the elite club in Calgary that took her with them to Italy.
“We have collaborated together with a lot of other coaches and athletes just so that she can train with athletes that are closer to her level of intensity of training and skills, so that’s been really good,” Jemieff said.
