One More Time: ANABELLE’S Final Cheerleading World Championships Experience

When I sat down last year and wrote a little blog about my experience on Team Australia it was fun; a nice little reflective journey about my experience. I did not have any reason to believe I would be, once more, sitting down to write a little blog about my experience at the Cheerleading World Championships, in 2026.

To preface, there are a number of different competitions held consecutively in Florida, Orlando at EPSN each year at the end of April. These consist of the ICU (International Cheer Union) Worlds (this was the Team Australia component), IASF (International All-Star Federation) Worlds, and The Summit. IASF is the worldwide governing body for the sport of All Star Cheerleading – this is cheerleading as one might also participate in other local sports such as swimming. You start with local comps as part of the competitive program at your home club, and then work your way up through the state and national titles, to eventually qualify for the World Championships. The Summit is a junior version of the World Championships for younger athletes and lower levels of difficulty.

Most All-Star Cheerleaders don’t make it to the Worlds level, like most kids in the local leisure centres’ swim squad don’t make it to the World Championships. Unlike other sports, Cheerleading doesn’t have the Olympics, so these World Championships is as good as it gets for us. This means months of training (years if I’m being honest), of hard work, skill building, fundraising, saving, planning and hoping, that one day you’ll be able to say you walked out onto those iconic floors at ESPN and became a Worlds Athlete. I have to say, either I’m luckier, or perhaps just more stubborn than most, as 2026 marked my 5th attempt at landing on that podium with my team. I compete with a local gym in Preston, Called Southern Cross Cheerleading, or SCC. I’ve been an athlete with them since 2015, on their all-girl team known as Lady Reign. We compete in the level 6 division, which is the second highest available at competition. Lady Reign also travelled and competed at Worlds in 2025 – one of the reasons I had the opportunity to also compete with Team Australia last year; and whilst we had a reasonably successful performance, something about that trip felt, unfinished.

So, whilst enjoying a particularly delightful beverage in a re-creation of Mexico at a little theme park called EPCOT, a little voice said: “…. So, 2026?”

And a surprising number of people answered, “yeah, ok!”

So here I am again, after back-to-back worlds campaigns, sitting in my room in the aftermath, a little mystified that it even happened at all.

When I wrote last time that my life stopped for 6 months to accommodate training for Worlds, I wasn’t exaggerating. These trips cost anywhere north of about $10k per athlete; training fees, flights, accommodation, competition entry fees, floor hire, transport, coaching, choreography, gym membership, recovery costs, it all piles up. So, everything else takes a back seat. We train a minimum of 6 hours a week as a team, plus individual strength and conditioning work, plus extra sessions as a group, cardio training, all around working full time and maintaining everything else that life requires to continue. It’s a lot of mental work on top of the physical and emotional labour. But it’s always worth it.

This year really was my victory lap. I’m really getting up there in age for a competitive cheerleader. This sport was designed for teenagers, with only the very best persisting into college aged athletes. My joints let me know that fact every time I landed too heavy and had to stand back up, fell and ate mat hard, had another person land on me, or had to get out of bed the next morning to do it over again. Knowing that this was most likely my last worlds trip all I could do was be present during all of it.

So that’s what I did, I lived in every single second, every late night 11pm training finish. Every “sorry I can’t, I have cheer”, every “maybe next time”, every time I bled, cried or thought it wasn’t possible for a single human to sweat that much and still keep going. And like last year, it was so worth it. I’ve never had a group of people with such a strong connection surround me like that before. Nineteen other amazing women, from all different backgrounds, ages, and life histories, there living the same dream and pushing each other to keep going. Cheerleading is the single most team involved sport I have every had the privilege to experience. We call each other sisters, and maybe it is a trauma bond, but I honestly can say my life is forever changed by having these incredible athletes as teammates, and life long friends.

A lot of people don’t take cheerleading seriously, but if you’ve ever wanted to know what the pinnacle of teamwork is, check out a couple videos of cheer teams on YouTube. I challenge you to find another sport that is so heavily weighted on the cooperation of so many people, and that requires so much physicality to perform and make these skills look like nothing.

This little blog post feels less like a window into the experience of an athlete at the peak of their competition season, and more like a teenage girls’ diary entry… but that’s essentially what this is. A little glimpse into the real life of a Worlds level athlete. Most elite athletes don’t have the luxury of training during day light hours, most work full time careers to fund their training and travel. Working as a physio alongside training does give me a unique insight into our training loads, recovery and peak performance drivers, and I hope to bring that experience and knowledge into my future.