Cheerleading

Cheerleading is a group of physical routines performed by a team to elicit cheers from audiences in sporting events. Cheerleading evolved into a sport of its own, where competitive events are conducted to decide a winner from a number of participating teams. It originated in the United States, where it is still continues to be predominantly practiced, with some minor presence in a few other countries.

Cheerleading

The sport of cheerleading, has two major distinctions based on a team's association, and have separate set of mutually exclusive competitions. The two types are

• School sponsored: Teams are associated with middle school, high school, or college teams, and they represent their respective schools in competitions.
• All-stars: Teams in this category are independent entities formed purely to partake in competitions. Competitions are conducted for six divisions based on age, tiny (3 to 5), mini (6 to 8), youth (9 to 11), junior (12 to14), senior (15 to 18)  and open (17 and over).

A cheerleading squad can have 6 to 36 members of one or both genders. During competitions, each team performs a 2 1/2 minute routine, which consists of several moves like tumbling, dancing, and jumping. Routines are judged based on execution, synchronization, difficulty of moves, creativity, and presentation, and are awarded points. Deductions are made for any mistakes made.

Several school sponsored and all-star competitions are conducted every year. The most popular all-star competition is Cheerleading Worlds which is conducted annually.

Cheerleading gained worldwide exposure when the Hollywood movie "Bring it On" was released which featured the intense competitive nature of the sport.

Cheerleading at the World Games

Cheerleading was first introduced to the 2025 Chengdu World Games with just one discipline - Pom. Pom dance is an energetic and dynamic style of dance that is more focused on precise and synchronized arm movements, formations, jumps, and gymnastic skills.

Dancers hold poms in their hands throughout this routine. The choreography performed in pom dance is always fast-paced, visually appealing, and filled with high energy movements. Here are the medalists who won gold at the end of this event: