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Osage athlete to compete in Pole & Aerial Sport World Championship in Italy

Ten years ago, Carley Ann Viviani was a collegiate gymnast until an injury ended her career. In 2020, her parents’ Oklahoma City gym closed. By 2024, she seriously needed a change and her mental health pushed her to return to the gym. Months later, she won gold at the U.S. Pole Sport Federation National Championships. Now she’s raising money to compete on the world stage in Italy.

Carley Ann Viviani had only been practicing aerial hoop for a few months when she earned a gold medal at the U.S. Pole Sports Federation national championship. Now, she is raising money so she and her parents can attend the Pole & Aerial Sport World Championships in Italy from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1.

Her success comes as no surprise to her Osage father Jeff Carter, who is from Pawhuska and the son of local drag-racing legend Nelson Carter Sr. Viviani was raised in their family gym in Oklahoma City, which closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although their daughter had not competed as an athlete for ten years when she won the national competition, her parents knew she had it in her.

Viviani said that everything has been coming together for her.

“When I walked on stage and got in my starting pose [at Nationals], I was starting to shake with nerves. But then, as soon as I heard my music, that went away – and I went back into that competitive headspace where I don’t hear anything else and it’s just me and it’s just like do it, boom. Honestly, all of this has been falling in line and it very much does feel meant to be. Even this morning, my son noticed a dragonfly on my backpack and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s good luck.’”

Carley Ann Viviani competes at the U.S. Pole Sports Federation National competition in Tucson, Ariz., where Viviani earned a gold medal. Courtesy Photo/Marco Mendez

Viviani attended Team USA training camp in Georgia this October, where she worked with coaches and choreographers.

For her day job, she works as a yoga teacher and her husband works as a diesel mechanic for the Oklahoma City Fire Department, together they have two young boys.

“I definitely want [my parents] to see me compete, too,” Viviani said, explaining that having them there would be very supportive. “We’re trying to fundraise enough money that they can come to Italy with me … I don’t know if what I’m doing is correct. All I can do is go off each day where I went to the competition and I placed. I’m doing something right but is it good enough for world?”

The Carters haven’t seen Viviani compete in aerial hoop just yet, but her mother Trish said that in videos she’s seen, her daughter’s power moves stand out. Viviani has been training with her boss at a local pole and aerial gym, Jeanette Sealey, who is Cherokee and competing at World.

Sealey said she was the one who asked Viviani to compete. She hired Viviani in May, only a few months after getting to know her – starting when Viviani walked into Sealey’s Oklahoma City business CHROME Pole and Aerial in February.

Together, the Cherokee pole athlete and the Osage aerial hoop competitor have a lot of fun, even while preparing for what Sealey described as a very serious competition.

“There’s exact moves in a book, and you have to submit the moves ahead of time. You have to complete the moves according to their rules, and there is a code of points with all of the moves listed,” Sealey said. She gave the example that in a move where an athlete opens her legs, they must at least be open 180 degrees or in certain positions, the athlete’s body must be parallel to the floor.

The International Pole Sports Federation has been advocating for pole and aerial hoop to become an Olympic sport for 15 years, according to a Vox article. The next Olympics will be held in Los Angeles in 2028. If pole and aerial hoop sports are added to the Olympics event schedule, Sealey and Viviani will be part of Team USA.

According to the USPSF website, they are “working towards Pole Sports being recognized globally as a sport and the eventual inclusion into mainstream sports events and the Olympic Games.”

Carley Ann Viviani competes at the U.S. Pole Sports Federation National competition in Tucson, Ariz., where Viviani earned a gold medal. Courtesy Photo/Marco Mendez

A new beginning

Ten years ago, the USPSF had just been founded, and Viviani was a collegiate gymnast with her career ending early because of two herniated discs. In 2020, when her parents’ gym closed, it was another blow. By the beginning of 2024, her young children and husband were beginning to notice she just wasn’t happy. Her mental health pushed her to return to the gym and now her sons know when she is going to the gym.

“‘Are you going to the gym today?’” Viviani said, quoting her young son Enzo.

“Gymnastics started because my parents owned [the gym] and I don’t know, gymnastics was just always my life … I missed pointing my toes and just having to totally exhaust yourself working out … When I got injured I was really lost because my gymnastics career did not end on my own terms. I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do now.’”

“My whole identity has been gymnastics,” Viviani continued. “Finally, I found this place. The thing with aerial hoop is it just feels very free – with all the spinning – and I get to still do gymnastics things. A lot of people on the hoop are more dancey, artistic, flowy … but I still like gymnastics things, because gymnastics is in my blood.”

Viviani excels in dynamic moves, such as dropping and catching herself by her knees, she said.

“One of my dynamic elements in my routine is I hang from my knees and I swing my body. I turn 180 degrees and catch with my hands,” she said. “I’m using bars, which is ironic because I didn’t use to like bars, and this feels very much like bars. [But] it’s not so shoulder-heavy. 

“It feels very healing, especially coming from gymnastics where they push your body so far … I started coming to classes more for my mental health than my physical health … but I have adrenaline in my bloodline,” Viviani said.  

Not only is she the granddaughter of Nelson Carter Sr., her mother was a competitive gymnast who trained in the sport since the age of 8. “When Carley sets her mind to something, she does it,” said Trish Carter. “She’s always liked to compete.”

Her father Jeff is very proud of Carley Ann and cannot wait to see her compete. “I hope we can raise the money … we’re just so very proud of her.”

To support Carley Ann Viviani’s trip to Italy, donate at https://fundly.com/road-to-worlds-2. She is also accepting donations on Venmo @Carley-Viviani-1 or Cash App @$EmbraceDiscovery.

Viviani teaches classes in aerial yoga on Tuesdays at 12:15 p.m. and in aerial hoop on Thursdays at Native American-owned CHROME Pole and Aerial in Oklahoma City.

Carley Ann Viviani competes at the U.S. Pole Sports Federation National competition in Tucson, Ariz., where Viviani earned a gold medal. Courtesy Photo/Marco Mendez

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Chelsea T. Hicks
Chelsea T. Hickshttps://osagenews.org
Title: Staff Reporter
Email: chelsea.hicks@osagenation-nsn.gov
Languages spoken: English
Chelsea T. Hicks’ past reporting includes work for Indian Country Today, SF Weekly, the DCist, the Alexandria Gazette-Packet, Connection Newspapers, Aviation Today, Runway Girl Network, and elsewhere. She has also written for literary outlets such as the Paris Review, Poetry, and World Literature Today. She is Wahzhazhe, of Pawhuska District, belonging to the Tsizho Washtake, and is a descendant of Ogeese Captain, Cyprian Tayrien, Rosalie Captain Chouteau, Chief Pawhuska I, and her iko Betty Elsey Hicks. Her first book, A Calm & Normal Heart, won the 5 Under 35 Award from the National Book Foundation. She holds an MA from the University of California, Davis, and an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
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