The ICU portion of the Cheerleading and Dance World Championship is where nations from all over the world send a team to represent their country in competition against other countries. There are several divisions: Ok lets get you all confused- There is the Jr Division ages 12 to 16, they compete in Pom and Hip Hop for Dance and Levels 4 and 5 for Cheer (If you dont know the levels, you are going to have to look it up). The other days are Jazz, Pom and Hip Hop Dance. For cheer there are Special Abilities, Adaptive abilities Special Olympic Divisions, and the Elite and Premier Divisions. The cheer divisions are divided by All Girl and Coed. Teams may send a team in each of the eligible divisions and may send a separate All Girl and Co-ed Team. Teams like team USA have a team in each category and teams such as the Team Georgia and many others only participate in one.

Ok, now to the Magic of the event. Can you imagine a world with no conflict and every one loves, supports and encourages each other. A world where people realize governments have conflicts, not necessarily people.

The magic of this event is there are over 25 Nations, standing side by side. Many are unable to communicate verbally due to the differences in language, many nations have had historical conflicts and there are hundreds of things that make us different. But what is important is what makes us the same, the love of Cheer and Dance.

During this event, I met athletes from Georgia, China, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Canada, Wales, England, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Russia, Korea, Serbia. Thailand and many other nations. The best part is everyone was extremely welcoming and nice. No one cared about the countries politics, socio-economics, race, religion or status. The best thing I heard was from a young lady from Mexico, She said, “I wish everyone could win. I want to represent my county and I want everyone representing their’s to do great and have a great experience, I don’t care about anything else.”

Before the Opening Ceremony, which is very similar to the Olympics. All of the athletes and coaching staff gathers in the back staging area for a little more than an hour. At first every one kind of hangs out with their own program until curiosity sets in and people begin to meet each other, exchange gifts such as flags, bows, t-shirts etc. Many are unable to communicate with each other, but the smiles on their faces absolutely transcends language.

Since language was an issue team united in the things that made them the same. Teams begin teaching other programs cultural dances, and which eventually led to twerk offs :). Apparently everyone in the room knew Zombie Nation or could catch on since “oh” is the only word in the song. The entire room began to sing the song, clap, jump up and down and hug strangers from thousands of miles apart. Everyone is having the time of their lives.

The display of the skills sets and ability to learn is amazing. What is more amazing is the support, from an Primer athlete throwing an impressive number of punch front round off fulls, to a girl twerking in traditional dress, to a Special abilities athlete throwing forward rolls, the claps and jumps of enthusiasm is breath taking.

Thee athletes are so happy to be at this event and around other athletes that share the same passion, bleed the same blood, expel the same sweat and have the coach tell the same lie to them (ok one more time).

No one cared who their competitor was, or wished anyone ill will. This is the cheer that I remember. It was pure, it was led by passion and love.

As everyone went out for the opening ceremony they screamed and applauded for over an hour for every single nation and the ceremony ended and thousands of people descended on the arena grass and made new life long friends.

It is a unique experience reserved for those ICU athletes, and will be etched in my memory for life.