Thousands of athletes take to the mat in Kitchener for Cheer Evolution’s Ontario Championships

For cheer enthusiasts and athletes alike, Cheer Evolution’s Ontario Championships is one of the main events marked on their calendars.

The high-energy, high-stakes event brought thousands of athletes together at The Aud in Kitchener on Saturday to go head-to-head for a chance to win a bid to the Cheerleading World Championships.

“This has grown to be one of Canadian Cheer's most prestigious events,” said Jordyn Lalonde, director of public relations at Canadian Cheer. “This year we have over 265 teams, 4,600 athletes and they are all competing.”

Teams from all over Canada arrived in Kitchener Friday for the event which will run through to Feb. 11.

“So we have teams from Newfoundland, over 15 teams from out there, three teams from Vancouver and of course Quebec has joined us, as well as 15 teams from Edmonton, Alberta,” Lalonde said.

“It’s so amazing that we have cheerleaders of all ages all the way from under six [and] the tiny and minis, all the way up to the world division…we have athletes 25 to 30, all the way up.”

Lalonde says “cheerleading is a mixture of everything these athletes love.”

“It’s an amazing sport. There’s dancing, there’s stunting which you see everything from one person throwing up an individual flyer or you see stunt groups underneath that flyer.”

Athletes have two minutes and 30 seconds to put on their best performance on the mat.

“Judges [are] judging every different element of the routine so we have judges judging on dance, judging on stunt, tumbling.” Lalonde explained. “We have legality judges making sure they are following the rules for that division.”

Lalonde says at these kinds of events, it’s all about the energy and teamwork from the athletes.

“It is seeing those moments and not even so much a team hitting their stunt but it’s about the celebration when they are on the mat. That sense of team work, camaraderie amongst everyone, it’s really an energy that you can’t compare.”

All performances can be watched for free on CanadianCheer.TV.