Depending how you view it, the members of the Mission Skip Stars are separated by three time zones, six provinces or more than 4,000 kilometres. But the physical distance hasn’t prevented them from coming together to qualify for the upcoming world championships in Japan.
The jump rope athletes – Jacob Nussey, Samuel Kliever and Casey McAvay – will be among the roughly 50 members of Team Canada at the 2025 World Jump Rope Championships in Kawasaki, Japan this summer.
Nussey, 19, who lives in Halifax, N.S., made his way west to join his B.C.-based teammates (Kliever from Penticton, McAvay from Mission) last year for the qualifiers.
“Back in November, I travelled to B.C. in Abbotsford, where I competed with my team (at) a qualifying event, and we had one shot to qualify,” Nussey told CTV News.
Two months later, after their qualifying videos were judged online, the team learned they qualified.
“I’m really excited! I think it’s just a good opportunity.”
The team has thrived, despite its long-distance arrangement, adopting technology to assist with training.
“We train together, generally two to three times a week,” Nussey explained. We’ll all join a FaceTime call and we decide where we’re at and what we’re going to work on next. That’s when we break off and we’re individually on our own training (on) those things.”
When attempting to perform together, the virtual approach does present challenges.
“It’s harder to stay in synch,” Nussey, who is slated to compete in 11 events in Japan, said. ‘We’ll share (one person’s) music with the whole call so we all can hear it. We just have to trust and know that what we’re doing is just right. When we come together as a team and practice, that’s on me to see what was going right and what wasn’t.”
Nussey says Team Canada will have its work cut out for them in Japan as 34 countries will be represented, including jump rope powerhouses Hong Kong, Belgium and Denmark.
While qualifying for worlds was the major hurdle to overcome, the team still faces the financial cost of the trip. Nussey says since jump rope isn’t recognized nationally, they don’t receive any funding and have to pay for the whole trip out of pocket.
“I think personally, it should be (supported by government) because it’s a really challenging sport and it requires the exact same amount of dedication (as other sports), if not even more,” Nussey adds.
The Mission Skip Stars have created a GoFundMe (Fundraiser by Mission Skip Stars : Mission Skip Stars - Journey to the IJRU World Championships) campaign to help raise funds for their travels.
“A lot of us, outside of our training, we’re working and going to school and just trying to balance that life and practice,” Nussey said. “We’re trying to raise money so we can spend more time being able to train and focus on our goal (of) being in the finals.”
Nussey, who has been a jump rope athlete for a decade, will be competing in his third world championships, but his first outside of North America. He previously participated in an entirely virtual event during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the subsequent in-person championships that took place in Colorado Springs, Colo.
He’s looking forward to experiencing Japanese culture firsthand and returning to the championships’ positive atmosphere where “everyone is cheering for each other.”
“We’re all just one big family at competition. We all take photos together, we’re all doing jump rope clips together for Instagram.”
The world championship events, which run from July 27 through Aug. 3, will be available for viewing through the International Jump Rope Union website and on YouTube. Nussey encourages anyone interested in the sport to reach out to their local jump rope club.
