A different type of sport has two OKC athletes training for a world competition in Italy

OKLAHOMA CITY ( KFOR ) — The colorful curtains and suspended hoops make the Chrome gym look more like behind the curtains at a Cirque Du Soleil show, than a place to get in shape.

But this isn’t your average gym —and a pole and aerial are not your average sports.

“It is a high-level sport,” insists pole dance athlete, Jeanette Sealey. “There’s the International Pole Sport Federation, and the Pole and Aerial Sport Association.”

Sealey and Carley Viviani aren’t your average athletes either.

“There are people competing from all over the world,” she continues.

Pole dancing, especially, has its origins in the entertainment industry, but in the past few years it’s become an international sport.

Both Jeanette and Carley are nationally ranked in their respective disciplines.

This summer, Carley won a national championship in Aerial Hoops.

Jeanette took bronze in pole dancing at the same event, hosted by the U.S. Pole Sport Federation.

Sealey argues, “I think part of why we both did so well is that our routines weren’t boring, not that anyone else was boring.”

Carley grew up a gymnast, but suffered a career ending injury in college.

“I had two herniated discs,” she tells us.

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10 years and two kids later, that hunger for competition never went away.

Viviani continues, “I always wanted to take dance growing up so, for me, this is close enough to gymnastics with the strenuous activity, the flipping around, and swinging.”

Jeanette opened the Chrome Pole and Aerial Gym in OKC in 2022, for people who were looking to get in shape through a different type of creative outlet.

“What a lot of people come to my studio for is to find a community. Our motto is ‘Come where you’re celebrated, not tolerated’,” she argues.

Both athletes are headed to a world competition in the Fall — telling their stories through movement and prescribed levels of difficulty.

Recognition, they hope, will come in the form of medals and accomplishments beyond entertainment.

For more information on the Chrome Gym, click here . And to learn more information about the World Aerial and Pole Sport Championships in Italy for 2024 or the Pole Sports and Arts World Federation, visit posaworld.org .

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.