A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Some of the world's best athletes come in pairs of siblings - Peyton and Eli Manning, Travis and Jason Kelce, Venus and Serena Williams. Now, that is also true for jump rope. Here's Montana Public Radio's Austin Amestoy.
AUTOMATED VOICE: Ready, set...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEP)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Okay.
AUSTIN AMESTOY, BYLINE: In a middle school gym outside Missoula, Montana, two jump ropes are moving so quickly, they're hard to see.
(SOUNDBITE OF JUMP ROPES CLICKING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Good. Stay (ph).
AMESTOY: Speed jumper Sydney Schmidt almost levitates over the gym floor for 30 seconds straight. Then her foot catches a rope.
SYDNEY SCHMIDT: I also am not warm at all...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Laughter).
SCHMIDT: ...So my pace and my feet are probably not quite on.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Jo (ph), can we turn a little bit more?
AMESTOY: Schmidt can jump more than 100 times per minute. Her rope turners have to be in perfect sync to make that happen. It's a good thing hers are sisters. Jordan and Kylee McCloney grew up jumping rope. So did Sydney's sister and teammate, Cameron. All four are headed to the International Jump Rope Union World Championships in Japan. Today is just practice, but they're in uniform - Jordan's idea.
JORDAN MCCLONEY: I can't resist a matching outfit.
(LAUGHTER)
J MCCLONEY: There's just something about it.
AMESTOY: Synergy.
Jordan, the team's head coach, is the oldest among the sisters at 28. Kylee recalls when she and Sydney were too young to compete with their sisters.
KYLEE MCCLONEY: We would be out in the hallway. We'd run in, go practice some things and then run back to the gym to see what they were teaching other people. And so after, I think, a year of us doing that, they finally let us join the team.
AMESTOY: This sport relies on precision. One wrong move can throw off an entire routine. The sisters say it helps to know what your teammates are thinking - easy when you grew up together. Monica Foster, this year's world tournament director, has a son and daughter also on the U.S. team competing in Japan.
MONICA FOSTER: But they would come and they'd play around, and eventually they found that they also loved it as well. Overall, it's kind of become a family affair.
AMESTOY: Montana's Super Skippers team is a part of 220 Team USA athletes competing in Kawasaki, Japan, for a week. And if jump rope is added to the Olympics someday, all of them hope to be there - no matter how old they may be, says Sydney.
SCHMIDT: We have so many people who are going to be just, like, the most OP oldheads. Like, we'll - I'm like, we'll be, like, 30-plus, and I feel like we'll still slaughter. Like...
AMESTOY: The sisters are joining more than 2,000 athletes from around the world competing in speed and freestyle events.
For NPR News, I'm Austin Amestoy in Missoula, Montana.
(SOUNDBITE OF HOUSE OF PAIN SONG, "JUMP AROUND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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