While popular movies and television shows such as Bring It On and Glee have brought worldwide attention to the sport, cheerleading is certainly not all glitz and glamour.
These athletes don’t run around in short skirts with pom poms, instead they perform complex routines combining gymnastics, stunts, dance and backflips into a high-intensity routine.
Josephine Clark is the president of the RMIT Redbacks and is one of 15,000 Australians involved in competitive cheerleading.
“As a professional cheerleader you have to be seriously brave. We really put ourselves on the line every training session and competition, I have seen people get kicked in the face,” Clark said.
Matthew Bayard
Australia has two main cheerleading bodies, The Australian All Star Cheerleading Federation (AASCF) and AusCheer. The RMIT Redbacks Elite and University squads compete under the AASCF banner.
There are currently 16 events each year in Australia and there is a push to make cheerleading included as a demonstration sport at the Olympics.
Program Director of the AASCF, Rosemary Sims, has been involved in cheerleading for more than 30 years.
Over the past years she has seen a strong influx of interest and believes with the right education cheerleading is gradually gaining the recognition it deserves.
“I am very confident within 10 years cheerleading will be recognized worldwide as a sport,” Sims said.
“You used to be able to name the countries involved in cheerleading on one hand, now there are hundreds of countries,” she said.
At the recent AASCF Winterfest competition in Geelong, there were more than 4,000 athletes from 250 teams competing.
Amanda Scopel is a talented athlete who has trained with the RMIT Redbacks University Squad for three years. The squad is made up of 90 per cent full time students.
“The most challenging part of cheerleading was participation and teamwork. You have to work together if you want to achieve the best results,” Scopel said.
“You need to have a diverse range of skills, from gymnastics to stunts, as well as commitment and drive.”
Picture: Matthew Bayard.
