Yukon gymnasts won six medals at a competition in Calgary last weekend.

But it was the sight of Olympic gold medalist Kyle Shewfelt that continued to capture the attention of the Polarettes and Polar Tumblers Gymnastic Club yesterday.

"We're just about to get ready to train when Kyle walks in, we're all whispering to each other, ‘Oh my gosh – that's Kyle Shewfelt,'” beamed 11-year-old Fayne

O'Donovan in the middle of yesterday's training. "We were so excited.”

She added that Shewfelt, who won gold in floor at the 2004 Athens Olympics – the first ever by a Canadian in his sport – posed with the Polarettes for photographs and signed their gym bags.

Seven Polarettes competed in the Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Festival at the University of Calgary from March 25-27.

The first annual edition of the event featured Olympic-level men from Canada, the U.S. and China competing in a showcase for the young athletes.

Polarettes coach Catherine O'Donovan said the Polarettes had already been at the gym 10 hours that day competing by the time the showcase began.

"But we all stayed and watched them compete for another 2 1/2 hours. It was pretty awesome to watch – these were the people we just watched at the Olympics, and they will be going to the 2012 Olympics,” Catherine said.

No doubt seeing their sport at the highest level was inspiring.

"It was so amazing just to see everyone do what they did,” Fayne said.

Teammate Lilyanne Gale agreed.

"It was so interesting to get out and experience something like that.”

Fayne, who competed in Level 3 Tyro, won a silver in vault, a bronze in beam and a silver overall after taking sixth in bars and eighth in floor.

"I feel like I did really good: I got three medals, which I'm really proud of and I did not expect to get,” Fayne said. "I've never gotten three at one of those big competitions. I was so surprised but I was really happy about it.”

Gale, 12, won a silver in beam and a bronze in bars for fifth overall, adding an eighth-place performance in vault and a 10th in floor to her total.

"Going into the competition I didn't really think I was going to do as great as I did, but I'm really happy with what I did and I did the best that I could,” Gale said.

There's no big secret to that kind of success, she added.

"If you're having a bad event you sort of just need to throw it away and focus on what the next event is going to be.”

Thirteen-year-old Caitlyn Venasse won the Yukon's other medal with a bronze in beam, an eighth in floor and an 11th in both vault and bars for 10th overall.

Both Gale and Venasse competed in Level 3 Novice.

These three, combined with the rest of the Polarettes slew of top-10 finishes, made for results that were "better than usual,” Catherine said.

"We'll sometimes have one or two girls get a ribbon or medal, we don't always place top 10 – and everybody had a top 10 placement on one if not two events,” she said, adding that she noticed an extra bounce in the gymnasts' step after watching the Olympians perform.

"They were all pretty pumped after watching that day of competition...and watching their teammates do really well.”

Level 5 gymnast Corey Baxter, 15, was the lone 2011 Canada Winter Games Yukon gymnast to compete in Calgary over the weekend, finishing seventh overall after taking fourth in beam, sixth in vault and seventh in both bars and floor.

Thirteen-year-old Mackenzie Davy finished seventh in bars, ninth in floor, 10th in beam and 12th in vault for 13th overall in Level 3 Novice.

Reena Coyne – in her first Outside meet – also took 13th overall with a fourth in vault, fifth in bars, 12th in beam and 15th in floor.

Alyssa Bunce, 11, who with Coyne competed in Level 2 (Tyro), took 16th overall after finishing eighth in vault, ninth in floor, 13th in beam and 16th in bars.

Catherine said everything fell in place for this competition.

"It's always kind of hit and miss. I think they've just been improving. We've had this core group of girls for a while now, and we had done a lot of work last year to get them ready for the Arctics, and it was most of those girls, plus Corey, our level five gymnast, just came from Canada Games, so she had that hard-working ethic to carry through to this.”

Outside variables can also be attributed to the jump in results, she added.

"They all really liked the equipment, which makes a big difference: the floor was extra bouncy so they were sky high. That always puts them in a good mood because they know they can go out there and really showcase.”

The Polarettes used to attend the Jurassic Classic, a similar competition also held at U of C. This year's gymnastics festival was slightly smaller, which suited the Polarettes fine, Catherine noted.

Now the club members are preparing for the B.C. Gymnastics Championships in Langley starting April 7th.

The same team will attend, minus Bunce and Coyne, plus the club's one male athlete Andrew Crist, Catherine said.

With just five sessions left to go before provincial championships, Catherine stressed touching up landings and cleaning up programs rather than imposing large, sweeping changes.

"If they come back from a meet and haven't done so well then we just spend a lot of time building up their confidence. With this meet, they have so much confidence right now because they did so well that I just want to keep that momentum carrying into B.C. champs, so that they clean up what they can and just showcase what they can.”