BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Athletes dream of being national champions. Few are ever able to actually accomplish that feat. Even fewer do it twice.
Bismarck native Ella Fleming has been curling almost her whole life. In 2022, Fleming was crowned as a USA Curling U18 Junior Champion. On March 30, Fleming did it again, this time as a U21 Junior Champion.
“It was surreal, that’s for sure. It was kind of just a relief. Just the stress of the whole week, and we did it. And just a lot of emotions. I don’t know how to explain it, I was just everywhere. My head had kind of just exploded with emotions,” said Ella.
Only Ella and one other curler on the team are from North Dakota. The rest of the team was made up of girls from Minnesota and Wisconsin whom Ella had previously competed against.
Few people would expect a team that had never practiced together to win a tournament, much less nationals.
“Putting all the stuff together that we had been working on separately, together, then going out there to see how it works. We did pretty well in our first tournament and a lot of teams were like ‘Oh, you guys are really good, how long have you been together?’ And we’re like, ‘This is our first weekend together.’ And everyone’s in shock. So I knew at that moment that ‘Okay, this is going to be good,’” said Ella.
“If teams are already noticing in a different country that we’re pretty well and we’ve only been together for a few weeks, then it’s okay and we’re going to be good,” said Ella.
Craig Fleming is Ella’s dad. He’s also coached Ella for much of her life and played a big role in putting together this year’s U21 Nationals winning team.
“Her mom and I are very, very proud. She started her curling at six years old, just to see if she wanted to try it. Her other siblings had tried it a little bit in high school, and she fell in love with it immediately. It was like a sport she had tagged onto immediately,” said Craig.
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