MINNEAPOLIS — Great Falls gymnast Jenny Hill came to the Special Olympics USA Games to compete. She'll head home with five medals, memories to last a lifetime and friendships that began with a documentary but continue well beyond the cameras.
Hill earned one silver medal, one bronze medal and three fourth-place finishes in artistic gymnastics during the USA Games in Minneapolis. Her trip to the national competition also marked the culmination of another unique journey — serving as one of three athletes featured in the documentary Soaring.
WATCH: Great Falls gymnast Jenny Hill makes lifelong friends through documentary experience.
Produced through a collaboration between Red Baron and Special Olympics, the film follows three female gymnasts from different parts of the country as they prepared for the USA Games. As part of the project, the athletes spent time together and trained with Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson East.
For Hill, the experience started months earlier when a production crew traveled to Great Falls to document her daily life, interview her family and film her training sessions.
"They came to my house, interviewed me, my parents, and they came to my gym and watched me practice for hours on end," Hill said.
The documentary also introduced Hill to fellow gymnasts Paige Trombley and Liz Viele, two athletes she had never met before.
"We connected very quickly," Hill said. "We just became friends ever since. It just blossomed from there."
Johnson East helped the athletes fine-tune their routines, offering advice that Hill carried with her onto the competition floor in Minneapolis.
"She taught me how to do my turns, how to make it look good without being messy," Hill said. "She taught me just to lift my chin up, make sure that the judges know that I'm done and have a smile on my face."
Those lessons came full circle during the USA Games, where Hill competed alongside her new friends before sharing hugs, photos and celebrations after their events. The week also included another unforgettable moment as Olympic gymnastics legends Suni Lee and Nellie Kim presented medals to athletes during the awards ceremony.
For documentary producer Tanya Belk, the project became about much more than documenting gymnastics.
"These women are so motivational, so inspirational," Belylk said. "They really have life figured out. They are just living positively and lifting everybody else up."
Belk said the relationships formed during production have continued long after filming wrapped.
"We became a family with these women," she said. "We keep in touch, we text back and forth all the time. They've included us in their lives in a way that I'm just so honored to be a part of."
Hill believes the friendships are among the biggest rewards to come from the experience.
When asked what she thinks others learned from spending time with her, her answer had little to do with gymnastics.
"I think they learned positivity and courage and always have a smile on your face when you're out there competing," Hill said.
