A local cheerleading team representing the Flyers All-Starz Cheerleading gym recently made history be winning a silver medal in he U18 Level 5 division at the world cheerleading championships in Orlando, Florida.
Appropriately named "Inspire", the team of 16 athletes aged 13 to 18 became the first
Ottawa-area cheerleading team to finish as high as second place at the world championships.
The prestigious competition was held from April 22-24 in Orlando with over 700 teams competing from over 20 countries.
The Inspire team’s original goal was to simply make it to the final round of the competition, but to their amazement, they ended up standing in first place after the semi-finals.
Although they couldn’t hold on to their first place position, they did perform well enough in the final round to earn the silver medal. The team’s coaches, Victoria Parlee and Makiya Plant, were thrilled by their athletes’ history-making performance.
“We have been working with these young athletes for years to make them better and stronger, and their effort has finally been rewarded,” said Plant. “We have a fairly new program in the city and now we are on the map as one of the best teams in the world.”
Cheerleading is a demanding and exciting sport that requires athletes to demonstrate strength, agility, and creativity in their performances. The Cheerleading Worlds is the most prestigious cheerleading competition in the world, bringing together the best teams from around the globe to compete against each other.
The small Ottawa cheer gym also had a second team called Fearless compete at the world championships,which placed sixth in the International Open Co-ed Non-Tumbling division after starting the final round in 13th place.
Flyers All-Starz Cheerleading is based out of Montréal. Their Ottawa gym is located in the Canotek Business Park. Their website can be found at www.flyerscheerleading.net.
Three of the Montréal-area teams were fortunate to win gold at the world championships given the organization a total if three gold, one silver and one bronze medal.
The Ottawa gym is holding open try-outs this Saturday, May 13.
