Mississauga’s Stella Umeh Graces International Stages

1992 Stella Umeh Alchetron

Perhaps no Mississauga gymnast is more well-known than Stella Umeh, who was born in Mississauga in 1975. Of Nigerian and Guyanese descent, Stella went on to become one of Canada's most decorated and unique gymnasts, male or female. However, she was first introduced to the sport quite accidentally. One day her mother, Patsy, got lost driving, so she stopped to ask for directions. With 6-year-old Stella in tow, Patsy entered the Mississauga Gymnastic Club to find her bearings. Stella was quickly enrolled and had her first taste of the sport the next week. She quickly fell in love.

She continued to learn and train diligently throughout her childhood, but her time to shine on the international stage came in a most unusual way. By 1990, she was a talented 14-year-old attending Father Goetz Secondary School. She was a bit disappointed, however, when she missed qualifying for Team Canada at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand that year.

However, after returning from a family vacation, she received a frantic call and was told to get on the next plane heading for New Zealand. Teammate Monica Covacci had injured herself and so had her alternate. They needed Stella to fill in and fast. Low and behold, Stella’s performance at the Commonwealth Games was nothing less than miraculous. Earning herself the nickname “Cinderella Stella”, her performance was mature and skillful beyond her years. She returned home with a gold medal for Canada and the highest vault score of the meet.

This impressive start was just the beginning of her illustrious gymnastic career. Over the next four years, she performed on numerous international stages including representing Canada at the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain in 1992, as well as the Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games, World Team Championships, and Canadian Championships. Her world and Olympic results were unparalleled and in 1994, she chose the Commonwealth Games to wrap up her career. The only veteran returning from the 1990 Games, it was important to Stella to end her career where it began. Stella again won the all-around gold medal and was an outstanding Ambassador of her sport among her peers. In 1994, Stella was co-winner of the 1994 Mississauga Female Athlete of the Year award. In 1997, she received Gold Level Recognition from Gymnastics Canada and while not actively in the sport anymore, Stella still lent her knowledge as a co-analyst for CBC at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. That year, she was honoured by being inducted into the Mississauga’s Sports Hall of Fame.

However, Stella Umeh’s story does not stop there. Stella earned a degree in Sociology from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with ambitions of getting back on the stage, this time as a performer and actress. Soon she turned her dream into a reality. She appeared in Sea World's World Rhythm on Ice shows alongside U.S. Olympian Betty Okino. She then performed with Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere in Las Vegas and Quebec and toured North America with Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai. She was an acrobat, aerialist and even a clown.

Stella now lives in Australia where she is a writer, yoga and kids’ aerobatics instructor, activist, and mother. She always dreamed of writing and staring in her own solo show. She studied sketch and comedy improv at Toronto’s Second City Conservatory and is ready to shine again. As a comedian she is exploring, with laughter, motherhood and marriage as a Black Canadian woman in Newcastle, Australia. However, she will never forget the city she once called home- and we will never forget her.

In 2019, Stella Umeh was honoured as an inductee into Mississauga's Legend's Row. Her acceptance speech made all the way from her home in Australia was poignant with memories and well-wishes for those in Mississauga who had helped her achieve so much in her early years. “It takes a village, and I lived in one of the greatest villages, in my opinion, on the planet. It was such an honour to represent the city of Mississauga,” Stella exclaimed.

What else Stella Umeh has in store for the future, we do not know, but what we do know is that Stella will continue to inspire Mississaugans, particularly young Black women and girls, for years to come. Whether representing Canada or simply making us laugh, Mississauga is honoured to have been her first home.