This International Federation wishes to clarify some aspects of the situation that arose last weekend at the 2024 Pole Art World Championship in Rome.
We like to point out that there was a misunderstanding in the past few months regarding the questions the athlete asked POSA, and we take some of the responsibility for what happened, but we also like to emphasize that some of the blame also lies with Paulina’s superficial behaviour, which led to the problem that she explicated on her Instagram channel. However, checking all the email exchanges, it emerged that Paulina Zamora did not clearly define how she would use the silk, and for this reason she was given an incorrect answer.
Before explaining point by point, we can say that Paulina Zamora’s video on social media left us stunned, as she could have spoken directly to all the federal staff and the local organising committee in Rome and clarified the situation (as well as obtaining an apology).
Unfortunately, we realise that it makes much more of an impression to only tell one’s version of the facts on social media to gain more visibility and likes and followers, as well as to discredit the international federation, which has already received vulgar messages and insults from all those ‘headbutt lions’ who only know one version of the facts.
POSA, being a Sports Federation, wants to avoid any kind of social network drama, only acting to collect easy likes and new followers (as the athlete Zamora preferred instead), but we prefer to tell the facts directly with this statement on our website.
Below we want to clarify the situation point by point:
1- On 16 August, Paulina sent the first request regarding the silk she would like to use, asking if it were allowed.
Please note, in the video below you can clearly see that she makes no reference to the fact that the silk would not be as in the photo, but would have had to support her completely, completely suspended from the truss, as if she were locked in a cocoon.
We would like to point out that the email was received and contact@posaworld.org, i.e. the general email of the POSA, which is not always handled by the same person, but by several volunteers.
The answer (on the 19th of August) to the question was yes, i.e. that in a Pole Art competition, it was possible (as a prop) to use a silk.
Attention: the answer was positive because the silk used as in the photo, would not have created any kind of safety problem since the weight would not have been completely suspended in load from the truss
2- On 13 September, the athlete Paulina Zamora received the competition’s Workplan from POSA, with all the information for registering for the event and the details for sending the documents.
Please note: This should have been sent to a different email from that of POSA (i.e. the email of the local organising committee).
In the Workplan, in fact, it is well specified that the email to be used to communicate with the organisation would be worldpoleart2024@gmail.com and this can be seen on the following pages of the document: pages 4, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16.
3- On 3 October, the athlete sent POSA a new email, asking (with photos) if the 2024 World Championship truss would be the same (or similar) to that of the 2022 World Championship.
Paulina also attached a photo of how she would attach the fabric to it.
Again, she did not mention at all the intention to start the performance totally suspended in the silk for several seconds, but on the contrary, she emphasized the following: “I want to hang up a silk on the truss in the beginning on my performance like this”
Attention: “Like this” = as in the photo
It is very clear in the video below:
Unfortunately, the person who answered this question answered positively, precisely because in that specific way of using the silk (and in line with the previous answer), there would be no safety problems. Those who replied were not yet aware that there would instead be the self-supporting pole system (with the straps fixed to the wall/ground), but above all, he/she knew nothing of Paulina’s real intentions, which was to begin the performance closed (wrapped) inside the silk, totally suspended in the void, further overloading the structure of the poles.
4- On 3 December, Paulina received all the latest information regarding the stage rehearsal, but she never asked the Local Organising Committee about hanging silk again.
5- On Thursday, 12 December, it was the day of stage rehearsals, the day on which, as foreseen by both the Workplan and the latest information sent to the athletes, the following would be possible (in addition to testing the poles):
- Check the music and/or video
- Test the objects (props) on the stage that the athletes would use for their performance
- Warn the lighting technician of any preferences for lights on or off for the beginning or end of the performance.
The athlete Zamora, in a totally negligent and superficial manner, despite having taken part in the stage rehearsals, despite having been able to see that the pole system was not the one with the truss, and even though her silk was (effectively) a prop, she did not ask anyone from the organising staff how she could hang her silk. If the athlete had been more careful and had maintained the behaviour of one who wants to have everything under control (since her silk was part of the performance), she would have asked the staff how she could hang her prop.
If the staff (in this case the ‘Apole’ pole technician, Andrea Casini), had known on Thursday 12 December about the silk, the entire theatre staff would have had practically three days to solve the problem, and allow Paulina to compete with the entire performance she had prepared, but she preferred not to say anything, and to appear directly at 2 p.m. on Sunday 15 December, i.e. at the beginning of the afternoon competition.
Among other things, she demanded to check her music while the competition was in progress (which she should have done on Thursday during stage rehearsals).
6- At the time of Paulina Zamora’s performance, the technician Andrea Casini realised that it would not be safe to hang the silk with the pole-fixing system (without a truss) and stopped the routine (with the silk positioned on the structure).
From that moment on, all the organising staff looked for a solution to the problem, even consulting the theatre technicians, and to have more time to solve the problem, we decided to move Zamora’s performance to the end of the running order (the last performance).
The athlete was obviously very upset by the situation (and this is normal), and both the Head of the Organising Committee and the POSA President were trying to understand how this misunderstanding had been possible.
It was only then that we realised that she had asked to use the silk to the wrong email, instead of using the one from the Organising Committee (on the Workplan), but above all we understood that something, in any case, in the communication, had been omitted or explained poorly.
For about three hours, the technical staff (both from the theatre and the federation), tried to find a solution to the problem, and it would also be found, namely to tie the silk to the theatre truss, but the silk was too short to allow this type of solution, another solution was to try to attach the silk to the pole plate, but this would practically attach it to the pole.
For these reasons, Paulina Zamora had to perform her routine without the aid of her silk, thus changing the first choreographic part.
In conclusion, we can say that we certainly answered Paulina’s questions positively, but it must be emphasized that she did not ask her questions clearly, explaining what she really had to do with the silk, but she only referred to the photographs, which were far from reality, so we can say that the athlete was completely reckless and superficial for the following reasons:
- From 6 October onwards, she never asked anything more about it and she never specified how she would use the silk
- On the day of the stage rehearsal (12 December) she did not rehearse with her prop, she did not even mention (or remind) the organisation that she should have used a silk.
- She showed up at the theatre around 2 p.m. on 15 December, to check her music (which she should have checked on Thursday), and not even then, in front of the Head of the organisation, did she mention the silk.
We would like to point out that if she, as usual, had asked the staff how to hang the silk on the structure on Thursday (i.e. the day planned and designated for this), the organizing committee would have found the solution, since they would have had 3 days to solve it, instead of three hours.
This superficial and inconceivable behaviour demonstrates how negligent the athlete was and how she did not read in depth both the Workplan and the
subsequent general information she received on December 3, which specified that on December 12, during the stage rehearsals, the athletes would have been able to check their music and anything else related to their performance.
POSA has the task and duty to defend itself from what the athlete Zamora said on her Instagram page, in a 9-minute video, in which she throws mud at an entire federation and the work of the Local Organizing Committee and its staff, which instead completed a World Championship with almost 400 athletes in an excellent manner.
Paulina Zamora, instead of confronting the entire staff directly in Rome, preferred to dramatize herself on social media like a teenager would, to get more visibility, lots of likes and lots of “pats on the back” from all the people who were not present at the event and do not know, instead, the shortcomings of their heroine who was (according to her) treated “badly”.
We are not shirking our responsibility, we know very well that there was a misunderstanding during the exchange of messages between the Federation and Paulina, but analysing it accurately, we can state that the athlete was exceedingly superficial in her communication, she had an unclear approach in explaining how she would use the silk, she simply asked if it was possible to use it as it was shown in the photos attached to the emails, i.e. in a very different way from how it would actually be; Paulina could have spoken to the entire staff directly at the theatre, clarifying everything and perhaps realising that the situation was also created by the lack of clarity in her demands, (all of which we have shown with evidence documented by videos), but unfortunately she preferred to smear us on social media, dramatizing everything in a grotesque manner, without first analysing the situation properly.
Regarding all the above, all the staff members, and the operators of the theatre, are witnesses.
We conclude this statement, stating that if anyone has something to say, we are available.