As I boarded a plane for Orlando, Florida on Thursday, April 24, my trip wasn’t to take advantage of the sites and experiences that have made the city a global tourist attraction. The purpose of my visit was tied to my lifelong passion for cheerleading.
I celebrated the milestone of my tenth year of competing at the Cheerleading Worlds, which was held April 25- April 28 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex this year.
Though I am no stranger to Worlds, the awe and wonder of the experience feels like it’s the very first time. 2025 was a bit different for me because it was my first year with a new gym. This year, I suited up with Platinum Athletics, a nationally renowned gym in Maryland Heights.
Platinum required us to room with our teammates. Originally, I was a little bit nervous about it because of the extended amount of time together. But this was a really nice change. The bond that’s created when rooming with your teammates makes everyone remain on the same page and come together as teammates for the competition.
Friday morning, our team got up early and had a 30-minute practice on the hotel grass. Stunting in the grass allowed us to get accustomed to the sun and heat in Florida while getting used to warming up in the grass instead of a spring floor. My team was very enthusiastic about starting the weekend with a good mindset.
Many people on our team had never been to the world championships before but they were determined to work as hard as they could until the moment they took to the stage. This was my tenth time appearing at Worlds, but this team’s drive and hard work was different from what I had experienced in prior years. I was used to having one practice in Florida to prepare for the competition, but with this team, we had multiple practices every day leading up to the performance.
I woke up with my roommate David ripping back the curtains and enthusiastically yelling “WAKE UP! IT’S COMP DAY!” David was my closest friend on the team and he was also in my stunt group for the competition – meaning that we lift people together. After our roommates were awakened, we put on our routine music to get in the mindset to compete.
On the bus ride over we continued playing our routine music as I sat in the back of the bus. Looking up to the front, I saw my team’s arms waving in the air as if they were doing the routine. The music played on repeat all the way to the venue – and my team practiced all the way. We pulled into the parking lot and saw the big red globe. Everyone knew it was time!
After grabbing our bags, we went to the soccer field of the venue to get some extra stunt reps in. The sun was especially hot, but we stayed focused. We used chalk to keep the grip on the flyers shoes since the sun was making everyone sweat. It was then time to head to the practice room. This practice room is filled with the best cheerleading athletes in the world – which is especially daunting. But the team maintained their tunnel vision of our goal – focusing on ourselves instead of the competition. Our other mission was completing our routine with no mistakes or “hitting zero” (zero deductions).
We were the next team to take the stage as David peeked out to the crowd. “Guys it’s super chill out there, no reason to be nervous,” David said. “The crowd isn’t even that big.” David intentionally lied to keep our team calm, because as we took the stage the crowd erupted with cheers. As our music started, a calm gathered over the team and you could tell we were focused. There were little moments on the stage that stuck out to me. I threw my flyer up in the air and when she came down, she stuck her tongue out to David – and we all laughed as we were performing. Towards the end of the routine, everyone on stage was screaming as we looked to the crowd and our coaches held up a big Zero with their arms meaning we “hit zero” or had zero mistakes. After our music ended my team immediately started crying with joy and ran backstage to celebrate. Our coaches ran back to greet us and congratulate us. After we watched a video of our perfect routine my team chanted all the way down the hallways until we got outside.
When we woke up on Sunday for early morning practice, Our bodies were very tired and sore. We practiced in the tent on the spring floor for two hours. We made our routine harder to gain more points. Then had a practice from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. that night. That practice didn’t end very well. One of our athletes had a broken hand, one had a pulled hamstring. Another had multiple jammed fingers. One couldn’t get off the ground during the end of practice because they hurt their back. The team seemed pretty scared but were hopeful that a good night’s rest would help us recover.
We took the stage on Monday. Everything went better than the first day until one of our stunts fell out of the air. The rest of the routine was perfect, but the team was disappointed in our performance. We gathered after our performance and tried to encourage each other and acknowledge that we’ve worked really hard and we were proud of each other. At the awards ceremony we learned we came in 5th place in the world. We agreed that everyone will try to be on the team for the next year to achieve our goal of getting top 3 in the world.