Watching the world championships

Three athletes from our gym, Ultimate Canadian Cheer, are members of the Canadian national cheer teams (two on the all-girl team, one on the coed). They were competing this weekend at the International Cheer Union's second annual world championships, and both teams placed first in the "Elite" (Level 5) division. I was able to watch all the performances (with a slight tape delay), interviews with the athletes, opening and awards ceremonies; they are still all available at varsity.com, and at cheerunion.org. May daughter (who is almost 10) and I were inspired by the power and athleticism, and it was wonderful for her (and, I imagine, young cheerleaders around the world) to see just how far she could progress in this sport. Like young figure skaters watching the Olympics and young hockey players the Stanley cup, this was a chance for the world to see the best.

Almost.

There is also an International Open Coed Level 5 team representing our gym competing in the International All-Star Federation's world championships, the Ultimate Canadian Cheer Jags. This competition took place this weekend as well, at the same location (Orlando, Florida) and with many of the same athletes competing (all three of our national team athletes are on the Jags, and that's pretty typical). Yet this is a competition I cannot see online, not without paying a $30 fee for the privilege. Eventually, of course, amateur videos will leak through to youtube, but it seems odd nonetheless.

You see, at least in Canada, the national team athletes are sent the routines by video and have to practice on their own for weeks before they finally are physically in the same place at the same time, for perhaps a total of three weeks in advance of competing. The All-Star Teams, by contrast, are practicing together for months, tweaking and honing every details of their routines. Their performance level tends actually to be higher than the national teams for exactly this reason; the same, incredibly gifted athletes, but teams that have had more time to prepare together, and cheerleading is nothing if not a team endeavour.

I appreciate that putting on these events is an enormously expensive undertaking. Each of the athletes on the Jags had to raise $2,500 on their own to travel and compete in the IASF World Championships. Yet it strikes me as short-sighted not to offer the same video coverage to the IASF Worlds as to the ICU Worlds. Aspiring athletes don't see the best of the best compete, and that is disappointing.

If the IASF website easier to navigate to follow the results (and the logic behind the results including, for example, why a 12th-ranked team advances to the finals when a 5th-ranked team does not), this would be somewhat less critical. But it's not.

I suspect that were the cost of seeing the videos brought down, to say, $5, they would sell many more viewerships. I suspect, more, that if they entered into an agreement with Varsity TV, that their fan base would grow even further.