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Cheerleading World Championships
Give me a G! Give me an I! Give me an R! Give me an L! Give me an S! What have you got? The Cheerleading World Championships!
Yes, it’s time for pretty girls, pompoms, jazz hands and pleated skirts from around the globe to tumble into Hong Kong for the world champs this fortnight. The sport has long been associated with varsity teams in the West, but local cheer coach Crystal Chan hopes the competition will rally up some support in our neck of the woods as the first such event being hosted in Hong Kong. “Youngsters shouldn’t just play with their iPhones and computers every day. Cheerleading helps students learn how to co-operate and communicate with others,” Chan says.
As the Hong Kong team is comprised of 44 talented teens from 16 to 17 years of age, Chan is careful to steer clear of cheerleading’s racy stigma. “Cheerleading is not just dances by sexy girls,” Chan says. Skinny or fat, Chan encourages keen folks of every shape and size to try a pair of pompoms on for size.
Our local purveyors of spirit and cheer will be against some pretty fierce competition this year. “Other teams have been practicing for five years but we just started the sport here,” says Chan, who has earmarked Indonesia and Germany as the strongest squads to beat.
But Chan thinks her team has just the ticket – a challenging two-level formation with a ‘flyer’ tossed up in the air to complete the stunt. Now, all we need to give them is a W-I-N. Xinyan Yu and Andrea Yu
HK Coliseum. Saturday 26-Sunday 27. daretocheer.com
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