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Westport Weston Gymnasts Compete in Switzerland

WESTPORT, Conn. – The Westport Weston Family Y's Exhibition Gymnastic Team is off to Switzerland to represent the United States in a unique international gymnastics competition.

The 15-girl team left Wednesday for a 10-day trip to Lausanne, Switzerland, where it will compete in the 14th World Gymnaestrada, an event held every four years by the International Federation of Gymnastics. It is the only YMCA team invited. The girls will join seven other exhibition teams from across the country as members of the USA Gymnastic Delegation.

"The experience for these children is unbelievable," Sally Silverstein, senior director of Sports and Recreation at the Y, said in a statement. "They work with world-renowned coaches and choreographers learning large group numbers with thousands of gymnasts from all over the world."

During the competition, the team will perform three, 10-minute choreographed routines indoors and one 15-minute choreographed routine in the city. The team was also selected to perform a three-minute choreographed performance with a U.S. theme, and will learn and perform an opening/closing routine for the PAN American evening choreographed by coaches from Mexico and Brazil.

More than 26,000 participants from more than 50 countries are expected at Gymnaestrada. The local girls, ranging in age from 8 to 14, practiced the routines for this event every weekend for the past six months.

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