World Champs

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After the two weeks that this team endured, it’s never felt better to say those two words! Once arriving in Orlando, it felt like everything was against us. It all started during our practice on Thursday at the hpField House. We were having a pretty good day until the rules judges broke the news to us that our IME (a full up pull through hands full around stretch) was illegal. In college, it’s legal to perform these skills without a spot, so we just assumed that it would be legal at the ICU. We decided on the IME the very first day of training, so we were pretty bummed when we had to take out the hands full around and change it to a hands cupie. Luckily, this team can handle anything! We made the change easily and decided that we would have the BEST hands cupies in the world. Then, the judges approached us again during practice telling us that all of our pyramids needed extra spots as well! Once again, the changes were made pretty easily and we moved on. When it was time to go full out in the practice area, we didn’t have the run through we were hoping for, but we still left the Fieldhouse with our heads held high knowing that Friday was the day that really counts.
On Friday, we woke up pretty early to head to the Field House to watch our amazing dance teams perform. Each routine was incredible, but I was also shocked at how much the other countries had improved in just one year. The gap is slowly closing between the USA and every other country, which is a great thing for cheerleading and dance, but it also means that we have to keep improving as well. After dance performed, we headed to the grass area to make sure everyone remembered all of the changes to our routine. Practice went well and we left feeling prepared to shock the world later that night!

Around 4, we loaded up the buses and headed toward the Field House to support our all girl team. These girls are truly the best of the best, and they definitely proved that during their performance! Their pyramids and flawless rewinds to the top blew the other countries out of the water! I was so proud of this group of girls that came together in such a short amount of time and put together a winning routine, but it was our turn now.

In the warm up area things started off just like normal. We warmed up our stunts, followed by pyramids and tumbling, but then the rules judges were coming up to us AGAIN! Even though they cleared the full up without a spot the day before, they had changed their minds by Friday night. We were all a little upset that they didn’t catch this the day before and that we had to take out such a skill that was so basic for us. We all stayed calm and positive and changed the IME to a straight up lib with no problem.

Before I knew it, we were back stage about to take the mat. I got a little emotional when I looked around the circle at this group of individuals. Some of them I didn’t even know two weeks earlier. Some of them I competed against in January. Some of them were secretly my heroes that I watched perform when I was growing up. I never dreamed that I would be on the mat working side by side with the best cheerleaders in the world, and I am still a little emotional when I think about it now.

During our performance, our music cut out half way through. I honestly just wanted to laugh at all we had been through because it didn’t seem real! How could something else be happening to us? We finished out the routine with the help of the crowd counting for us. It was amazing because we could feel the love and respect from everyone in the Fieldhouse as they cheered us on and helped us make it through this routine. After our performance, our coaches broke the news to us that we would be performing our routine AGAIN! Instead of thinking “we HAVE to go again,” we said, “we GET to go again!” We waited an hour backstage without another warm up and finally took the floor to give the world an encore of the greatest routine they have ever seen! We put on a great show and I was so proud to be a part of a team that can truly handle ANYTHING!

There are no words to describe winning the gold medal again and standing on the platform with this team. We constantly came face to face with adversity and persevered. I am so proud and honored to say that I was a part of the 2012 USA World Champion team and I will never forget this experience! Until next year, GO USA!!

- Ryan Martin
 
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