Cheerleading in Australia

Prior to 2000, cheerleading was primarily known as the dance-and-pom style displayed by professional cheer squads for NRL rugby. This was introduced to Australia in 1985 by Rosemary Sims in Victoria Australia for the National Basketball League, moving into other sports in subsequent years.[19] The US movie Bring It On (released December 2000[20] in Australia) popularised acrobatic-style cheerleading, and has been credited with sparking subsequent development as a competitive sport.[21]

During the 2000s and 2010s, the style of cheerleading seen as pre-game and half-time sideline entertainment at professional hurens matches continued to attract criticism for objectifying women, and some clubs discontinued their cheer teams. For example, the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2013 announced they would cease their relationship with the studio contracted to provide their cheer team, the Belles.[22] The next day, when journalists sought comment from other football clubs, the chief executive of the Canberra Raiders stated that they were "reviewing the club's game-day entertainment". He denied the move was based around any female exploitation, rather citing cost as a factor.[23] As of 2019, most clubs have dropped cheerleaders.[24]

In 1995, established dance teacher, Rosemary Sims, established Australia's first ever Cheerleading Levels program and syllabus for students at her Dancer's Edge dance studio.[25] Rosemary Sims also worked with Kerry Perry to organise and operate the Dance Victoria Select Troupe Championship, with over 2000 competitors, which included the first competitive cheerleading within Australia.[19]

Rosemary Sims went on to undertake extensive coach education from U.S. based cheerleading industry leaders on the technique and choreography of all star cheer and dance from 1997, introducing AACCA safety accreditation into the Australian cheerleading industry.[26] This education led to the cheerleading syllabus being revised once again in 1999 to incorporate safety elements from the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors.[25]

Competitive all-star cheerleading developed in Australia during the 2000s and 2010s, growing rapidly as a sport, seeing a growth from only 3 teams recognised by the Australian Cheerleading Association in 2000 to more than 200 by only 2004.[27]

Zoe Ross founded the Australian Cheerleading Association in 2000, with three recognised cheer teams.[27] This organisation of the sport led to Gymnastics Australia hosting a National Cheerleading Camp on the Gold Coast during January 2001.[28]

During 2001, Rosemary Sims within her role running Cheerleading Victoria overhauled her cheerleading syllabus once more,[29] working with gymnastics coach and adjudicator Debbie Inkster to develop the gymnastics elements of the program. Debbie Inkster had previously been part of the team at Knox City Council's Gymnastics Centre that enabled it to become the first Australian gymnastics centre to meet International Quality Assurance certifications in 1996,[30] as well as being responsible for the overall development, coordination and management of the gymnastics Women's Development program during 2000.[31] Debbie would continue on being the head gymnastics coach of the Cheerleading Victoria program into the 2000s.[32][33]

The first cheerleading nationals was organised by Gymnastics Australia in 2002 as part of their Aussie GymFest program in Brisbane,[27] with over 400 athletes competing. Cheerleading was also officially recognised by Gymnastics Australia as a gymsport under the General Gymnastics stream, with the establishment of a working committee led by Nerine Cooper, a national program and accredited coaching courses.[34] The first national level 1 coaching course was run in conjunction with the Aussie GymFest program, with over 50 participants becoming accredited by Gymnastics Australia.[34]

The 2003 Gymnastics Australia national cheerleading championships attracted over 500 athletes to compete. It also incorporated an international competition, with teams from both the US and Australia competing with interest shown from Japan and New Zealand for future participation. As a result of this international interest, Gymnastics Australia announced that they would be partnering with an international sports specialist group in 2004 in order to host an international challenge competition.[35]

A number of state gymnastics bodies also held cheerleading championships throughout the year, with others incorporating them into their existing state championships.[36][37][38]

Gymnastics Australia also developed a standardised level 1 to 3 program for cheerleading programs under Gymnastics Australia to utilise during 2003, releasing this for sale just prior to Christmas.[35] However this was not the first standardised program available in Australia, as Rosemary Sims formulated and implemented the first ever student cheerleading levels program in 1998 as part of her ownership and management of her cheer gym, Outlaws Edge, and management of Cheerleading Victoria.[26]

By 2004, cheerleading had outgrown being a part of the "general gymsport" stream in the gymnastics structure, with Gymnastics Queensland recognising cheerleading as its own unique gymsport for the first time.[39]

Gymnastics Australia partnered with international sport specialists to help stage their first cheer specific international competition in July 2004, the DownUnder Spirit Championship, which attracted close to 400 athletes from Australia, New Zealand and the USA across dance, pom and cheer.[39][40]

In August, the Perth Angels team attended an international cheerleading event in Hong Kong to showcase Australian cheerleading. As a result of this showcase, Gymnastics Australia secured Nacisey as a sponsorship for cheerleading uniforms on a three year contract.[39]

Gymnastics Australia also hosted national cheerleading championships as part of the 2004 Australian Gymsport Spectacular in September 2004, attracting 698 entries for cheerleading.[39][41]

Outside of Gymnastics Australia, Cheerleading Victoria became the leading competitor in offering cheerleading competitions during this time, hosting Victoria's largest cheerleading competition as part of the Dance Victoria Select Troupe Championship, held in September.[42] They also offered cheerleading school holiday workshops during the September 2004 school holidays based in Victoria[43] and ran their own squad teams using Rosemary Sims' cheerleading levels program. Rosemary Sims and her husband, Stephen James, the founders of Cheerleading Victoria, became members of the USASF/IASF at this time, with Rosemary become accredited to coach to level 6.[19]

With competitions run under Gymnastics Australia being clustered around capital city centres, 2005 saw Tamara Manning begin staging the FNQ Cheer and Dance Championships to provide regional access to cheerleading in Far North Queensland. This first event was run as a half day event, with 50 athletes registered to compete.[44]

In 2005, Australia's first cheerleading team competed internationally under Gymnastics Australia sponsorship. This team was made of a mix of athletes from Acrobatic Fanatics, Fit2Cheer, KLD and Western Cheerleading & Dance Co, travelling to Myrtle Beach in the United States to compete at the Cheer Ltd International Cheer and Dance Championships in early 2005. A second Australian team also travelled internationally in late 2005, with the Perth Angels Stunt Team competing in the SeaCon Square National Cheerleading Championships in Thailand.[45]

DIR Down Under continued to partner with Gymnastics Australia into 2005 to host the Down Under Spirit Championships on the Gold Coast, which attracted 17 teams from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the USA, made of 293 athletes. Gymnastics Australia's other major national cheerleading championship saw steady attendance, with 654 athletes entering. The national championships was followed up by a two day national training camp with international coaches, which saw 65 participants.[45]

State gymnastics bodies noted dramatic growth in the participation in their cheerleading programs, with workshops and competitions being carried out around the country by the state gymnastics governing bodies.[46][47]

Cheerleading Victoria continued to evolve, becoming a part of a larger national body during this year alongside continuing to host Victorian events as well as run their own teams out of Dancer's Edge. Cheerleading Victoria began hosting the first All Cheerleading Showdown in July 2005,[48] as well as the Select Troupe Championship, held in September 2005.[49] Their first All Cheerleading Showdown hosted 53 performances over 18 divisions, with 1500 spectators coming to support the athletes.[50] During this year, the group provided the resident cheerleaders for the NBL Melbourne Tigers, SEABL Dandenong Rangers, SEABL Knox Raiders, WNBL Bulleen Boomers, WNBL Dandenong Rangers, WNBL Finals and Netball Australia Melbourne Phoenix, exposing the wider sporting community to all star style stunts and tumbling alongside sideline pom cheerleading. They also featured in a television commercials for Honda and Breaka milk and performed at a number of widely covered public events including The Grand Prix, Toyota GP Cocktail Party, Ronald McDonald House ICSP week event, Melbourne Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival media launch party, Logies and Melbourne Fashion Week.[51]

The Australian Spirit Association (ASA) was formed as a non-profit organisation dedicated to help educate and develop cheerleading and allstar dance within Australia, being invited by the International Spirit Association (ISA) to be the Australian representative.[52] This organisation would go on to become the Australian All Star Cheerleading Federation (AASCF) in 2006, founded by Rosemary Sims and Stephen James. This is why AASCF documentation states founding dates for AASCF in both April 2005[53] and April 2006.[54] ASN would host a number of events during the year. Their first event included Spirit Australia American All Star Cheer and Dance Ambassodr clinics during June and July, held in Sydney, Darwin, Brisbane and Melbourne along with a New Zealand event. These clinics included open for all clinics, squad only clinics to work on specific squad needs, hip hop dance clinics, and coaches clinics.[52]

Gymnastics Australia announced a new policy in early 2006, giving teams until the end of the year to move towards full length top uniforms. While there was pushback stating that it was unfair and against their wishes from the Australian cheer community, Gymnastics Australia program manager Nerine Cooper defended this decision due to concerns around body image.[55]

Gymnastics Australia continued to grow cheerleading in Australia as well as placing Australian teams on the international stage as they hosted with Do it Right DownUnder to host the USA Cheerleading Tour. This tour allowed the Perth Angels and Acrobatic Fanatics, who were joined by two New Zealand based teams, to travel to the United States to compete.[56]

The Down Under Spirit Championships saw growth this year, with 28 teams comprising 337 athletes competing in this event, with the Gymnastics Australia National Championships also growing with 45 teams made of 766 athletes competing. The national championships were followed by workshops once again, seeing signficant growth to 178 participants. A total of 110 of these participants stayed on for a further two days in order to work with Lyn Parker to learn a mass routine, which was then performed at the FIG Oceania Gala. The USASF International Committee Director, Karl Olsen, attended the Gymnastics Australia National Championships, stating he was pleased with the standard of cheerleading and cheerleading events within Australia.[56]

The number of cheerleading athletes and programs registered under Gymnastics Australia continued to see growth during 2006, with the individual gymnastics state bodies continuing to hosting cheerleading competitions within their states.[57][58] Cheerleading Victoria also saw 400 registered athletes witihn their levels program, with 9 teams in total.[59]

While Gymnastics Australia did send Jane Allen and Nerine Cooper in July 2006 to meet with the United States All Star Federation (USASF) to discuss the direction of cheerleading in Australia and a future partnership,[56] AASCF was the organisation that went on to become the first Australian member of the American-based USASF/IASF cheerleading governing body in 2006.[60][54] Despite Gymnastics Australia not being a member of USASF at the time, they did carry a motion to begin following the USASF rules in Australian cheerleading from 2007 onwards.[56]

In November 2006, Gymnastics Australia became a formal associated member of the International Cheerleading Federation.[56]

Rosemary Sims travelled to the third annual Cheerleading Worlds held in Orlando, Florida, during 2006, hosting meetings with a number of United States based coaches and teams. This led to Rosemary being appointed to the newly formed USASF World Advisory Board, which would later evolve into IASF. She was also appointed to be the Australian correspondent for two leading US based cheerleading magazines, allowing for Australian cheerleading culture to be featured at an international level.[61]

During 2006, the Australian Spirit Association evolved into the Australian All Star Cheerleading Federation (AASCF), remaining affiliated with the International Spirit Association, as it hosted the first event under the AASCF name.[62] This marked the first AASCF All Star Cheer and Dance Championships within Australia, [53][63] with a total of 600 athletes competing.[19]

Australian teams began to travel internationally to perform, with Cheerleading Victoria taking over 70 athletes across 4 Outlaws teams to compete at the inaugural USASF New Zealand All Star Internationals in October 2006, held in Auckland. The teams took home a total of 9 of the major division's trophies. Of these 9 trophies, they included 1st place champion trophies in the divisions of shooting star, division 1, division 2, all star tumble challenge, all star open coed and all star senior pom.[64]

The late 2000s saw a growth in international participation from the Australian cheerleading industry, with both Gymnastics Australia and AASCF sending teams to compete in America at the 2007 Cheerleading Worlds. Gymnastics Australia sent the Perth Angels Stunt team as their 2007 Worlds representatives,[65] after sending them to the Canadian American National Championships in America the previous year in 2006.[56] AASCF's representative team was the Australian Outlaws from Cheerleading Victoria (Outlaws Edge), a gym owned by AASCF's founders, Rosemary Sims and Stephen James.[66][65][67] The Australian Outlaws team received a number of corporate sponsorships, including assistance from the Victorian Minster of Sport, Hon James Merlino.[67] The combined average final score of the two teams placed Australia 6th out of 22 countries that were competing in the Nations Cup competition between countries.[65] These results also attracted international press coverage, with the Australian Outlaws being the featured international team in an upcoming issue of Newsweek magazine as a result of their performance.[67]

AASCF also expanded their offerings into 2007, beginning the year by offering a 10 day Summer school intensive cheer and dance camp from 18 - 27 January 2007. This camp offered accommodation for interstate athletes, offering places for athletes from the age of 7 years old who were then grouped based on their experience/skill level.[68] AASCF also expanded their competition offerings into Queensland and New South Wales, hosting a number of clinics in multiple states, as well as hosting a stunting and tumbling workshops after the Victorian Cheer and Dance Showdown competition.[69][70][71][72] These events attracted media coverage, with the inaugural Queensland All Star Cheer and Dance Championship being covered in local media articles.[73]

Another service that AASCF offered during 2007 was clinics around Australia to credential coaches and judges under the IASF system, as well as offering athlete credentialing as part of the AASCF cheerleading levels program.[69]

As cheer specific gyms began to grow, existing dance studios also began to adopt the Cheerleading Victoria/AASCF Cheerleading Students Syllabus to utilise in their own programs, such as Fitness and Dance Studios (FAD Studios).[74]

The Gymnastics Australia co-run Down Under Spirit Championships began including Sports Aerobics within its competition divisions for the first time. Gymnastics Australia also saw a drop in their participation numbers within their national championships, with 648 athletes competing across 37 teams. Gymnastics Australia recognised at their 2007 October planning conference that the time was right to re-position cheerleading within their operations, agreeing to prioritise the adoption of a national model more relevant to the culture and operations of cheerleading as opposed to gymnastics.[75]

Despite this decline in numbers at the national. championships, individual state gymnastics governing bodies continued to report that cheerleading was a growing gymsport as they ran their own competitions.[76] Gymnastics NSW grew to 396 registered athletes across all of their gyms, with the GymNSW cheerleading program being coordinated by Danielle Jimenez (Née Ings) (who would later go on to found CheerCon and expand the company into competitions).[77] However, growth continued at a rapid pace outside of Gymnastics Australia governance also, with Cheerleading Victoria promoting that they had 400 members aged between 3 years old and 28 years old during 2007 at their gym alone.[67]

Gymnastic Australia's repositioning of cheerleading within their operations led to the National Cheerleading Committee, consisting of Lynn Parker, Briony Keenan, Nerine Cooper, Rachael Vittorias, Kylie Pocklington and Kerryn Brimmer, meeting in February 2008 to develop a future direction plan.[75]

Part of this future direction plan was the formation. of the Australian Cheer Union (ACU) in July 2008 as a sub-organisation of Gymnastics Australia, with the purpose of serving as an official governing body that standardised rules, advanced coach and judge education and safety and coordinated a national calendar for cheerleading.[75] ACU would continue to be run as a branch of Gymnastics Australia, with Nerine Cooper appointed as the full time ACU program director to drive its direction, however it was open to all Australian event providers for membership and inclusion.[78] With the Australian Cheer Union, Gymnastics Australia officially became affiliated with the International Cheerleading Federation (ICF), International All Star Federation (IASF) and International Cheerleading Union (ICU).[75]

As part of the formation of the Australian Cheer Union under Gymnastics Australia, Gymnastics Australia also announced a new national brand for cheerleading in Australia called "AUSCheer". The brand was formally launched at the Australian Cheerleading Championships in October 2008, announcing that all workshops and competitions from Gymnastics Australia/ACU would be occurring under this brand.[79]

During 2008, the Australian Cheer and Dance Alliance was formed by AASCF, DUSC and WCC in order to form a national, unified body for cheer and dance in Australia. Its objective was to help grow and develop interest and participation in the sport of allstar cheer and dance, and promote safety education consistent with internationally recognised safety, education and ethical practices.[80] Membership in ACDA was open to all cheer and dance related industry companies. Full company memberships were open to companies. that provided competitions and/or camps, affiliate memberships were available to companies who serviced the industry but did not provide competitions or camps, gyms/studio membership were open to programs who provided cheer and dance, and international membership was open to companies who were based outside Australia and hosted competitions and/or camps outside Australia only.[81] Memberships ranged in cost dependent on the membership tier, with costs ranging between $50.00 for a school eveent producer or gym/studio with a 1 - 36 people, all the way to $1000 for a tier 1 event producer who hosted multiple events/nationals/camps.[82]

Due to the AUSCheer brand's launch, 2008 marked the final year that Gymnastics Australia would be involved in the running of the DownUnder Spirit Championships.[79] DUSC was held in 2008 during July, on the Gold Coast, with competition activities occurring over the weekend alongside training held on the Friday and optional athlete and coach workshops, including NCSSE accreditation, occurring on the Monday.[83] Gymnastics Australia reported a total of 806 athletes competing across 48 teams.[79]

Individual state gymnastics bodies continued to report growing numbers participating in cheerleading as a gymsport, with an example being Gymnastics NSW growing to over 500 registered competitive cheerleading athletes (an increase of 26%).[84] However, the historical trend of this growth not being reflected at the Gymnastics Australia hosted national championships continued, with the Gymnastics Australia cheerleading national championships seeing a steady 647 entries in 2008 (compared to 648 the previous year).[79]

Within Queensland, Gymnastics Queensland formed a partnership to help found a new event producer in 2008, World Cup Cheerleading (WCC, later rebranded to World Cup Cheer and Dance), which was directed by Lyn Parker (who had been a member of the Gymnastics Australia cheerleading committee boards in the past).[85][86] As part of this partnership, Gymnastics Queensland provided the working capital for WCC to launch in 2008,[87] with WCC agreeing to act as the Gymnastics Queensland official provider of cheerleading competitions, a partnership that lasted until 2014.[88][89] This made Gymnastics Queensland the exception within Australia, as all other state gymnastics bodies had signed on to take part in the AUSCheer event series from 2009 onwards.[90]

In this first year, WCC only hosted competitions around Queensland, being notable for offering cheerleading competitions within regional locations in Queensland that would be otherwise unable to access competitions without significant travel including Townsville, Rockhampton and Toowoomba.[91] Following all competition rounds, WCC hosted workshops for athletes and their coaches, with the fee for this being included in their competition entry fee. A number of athlete and coach skill clinics and coach accreditation clinics were also held by WCC during 2008, with these events being hosted in the same regional locations that may not otherwise have access as their competition events.[92][93]

As the Australian cheerleading industry grew in the 2000s, international recognition occurred not just for athletes who were invited to international competitions, but also for coaches and event producers. As a result, Rosemary Sims was the first non-American coach to ever receive the IASF International Cheerleading Coach of the year award in 2008.[53][75]

AASCF continued to grow and expand as an alternative event provider to Gymnastics Australia, with AASCF announcing their intent to host their first Western Australian state championship as part of a 7 event calendar running from July to November, that included a national championship in Brisbane in November.[94]

CheerCon was founded in 2008 by Danielle Jimenez (Née Ings) and Alex Jimenez,[95] beginning as a company to offer alternatives to the Australian cheerleading community for both cheerleading uniforms and accessories.

Battle at the Beaches began being hosted by owner, Nicole Holmes, as an indoor event during 2008.[96]

The sport also began to receive media coverage that highlighted its status as a sport, with a featured story on Behind the News[97] as well as stories on the main ABC news.[98]

AUSCheer was officially fully launched in 2009 as a program by Gymnastics Australia. Their core offering was the Nations Cup event series, a competition series that was modelled after the USASF Infinity Cup series, being a points based system that allowed teams to. compete against each other all season long without being in person at the same competition. The team at the end of the season that had the most points was crowned Nations Cup Champions, with there being five rounds of competition made up of 23 events.[99][100] The final round of the series was the national championships, which offered teams the opportunity to win a bid to attend the IASF Cheerleading Worlds.[101] The 2009 AUSCheer Nationals saw a large rise in entries over the 2008 Gymnastics Australia branded nationals, drawing in 875 athletes in total.[102]

AUSCheer also offered national camps and workshops throughout 2009, offering camps run by UCA instructors in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.[103] An additional offering was an international tour to the USA, allowing teams to compete at the COA Ultimate National Championships in Florida and the Aloha International Spirit Championships in Hawaii.[75]

While the launch of AUSCheer meant that Gymnastics Australia ceased its involvement with Down Under Spirit Championships. However, the event continued in 2009, continuing to attract teams from New Zealand to compete at the June event.

The Gymnastics Australia cheerleading management committee used 2009 to focus on the launch and delivery of the AUSCheer program, as well as the establishment of operational guidelines for cheerleading within mainstream gymnastics.[75] It was during this time that concerns began to be raised by gymnastics state bodies as they recognised the level of participation in cheerleading outside of their governance. The Gymnastics NSW South Coast Regional Committee noted in their annual report that local bodies competing outisde of the AUSCheer banner in their region posed barriers in their capacity to track participation and host competitions,[104] with Gymnastics Queensland noting that over 5000 non-gymnastics members took part in World Cup Cheerleading events they had helped promote during 2009.[87]

Despite only being in their second year as an event producer, WCC expanded not only outside of Queensland, but outside of Australia, hosting competitions in New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and New Zealand.[105] Their Brisbane regional competition event attracted close to 700 athletes, with their Rockhampton regional competition in Central Queensland attracting over 200 athletes.[106]

Level 4.2 was introduced to Australian cheerleading via AUSCheer's incorporation of this level during 2009. This level follows level 4 rules for stunts, but level 2 rules for tumbling, being offered in the senior and open age divisions to recognise the number of athletes skilled in stunting but limited in personal tumbling ability that were leaving the sport as a result.[107]

Mainstream media began to report on cheerleading as a growing sport, running features around the national competitions being held from The Age. The Age ran a story focused around KLD X-Treme Allstars team who was competing for a Worlds bid at AUSCheer's nationals,[108] a story around the AUSCheer Nationals more broadly,[102] and a two page spread for the AASCF National Championships which described it as a "niche pursuit" with a total of "about 6000 participants" nationwide.[109][110] AASCF's Nationals event attracted over 1200 of those participants, with 105 team taking part in their event.[111] This media coverage highlighted the widening gap between participation in Gymnastics Australia sanctioned events as the Australian Sport Commission recognised governing body at the time, and the growth of the sport outside of this governance system.

Cheer specific media also began to emerge in Australia during this time, with the Australian Cheerleading Magazine launching in June 2009 at the DownUnder Spirit Championships by Letty Fox and Rianna Macdougall.[112][113] All athletes attending DUSC received a free copy of the magazine to celebrate its launch.[113]

The 2010s continued to see the growth of cheerleading in Australia, however it also saw a decline for Gymnastics Australia in their involvement in Australian cheerleading, leading to their eventual step down as governing body by the end of the 2010s and the formation of two new governing bodies.

In 2010, Gymnastics Australia continued to host a range of cheerleading competitions around Australia under the AUSCheer brand, with the Nations Cup series having 27 events in 2010.[114] The Australian Grand Cheerleading Championship was held in Melbourne this year, with a 25% increase in competitors across the cheer, dance, stunt and tumble categories.[114]

However, behind the scenes, Gymnastics Australia was launching a review of cheerleading analysing their governance, delivery and growth challenges with a view to develop a revised model to cater for the continued growth and development of cheerleading in Australia, projecting this project to be completed by late 2011.[114]

Gymnastics Australia also saw their first cheerleading program manager, Nerine Cooper, step down from her role in October 2010 in order to pursue other endeavours in the cheerleading space.[114] These pursuits included her cheerleading competition company, Aussie Gold, and uniform and apparel provider, TLC Spiritwear, which directly competed with the offerings that Gymnastics Australia had at the time under AUS Cheer and their supply partnership with Nacisey.[114][115][116]

AASCF also saw expansion and growth in 2010, with the event producer beginning to offer a brand new competition round to start the season in June/July for the first time, called Winterfest. This event was held in Newcastle, Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as AASCF expanding into Far North Queensland for the first time by hosting Winterfest in Townsville.[117]

The novice division was introduced for the first time at AASCF events during 2010.[118]

AASCF offered a number of international event bids at their 2010 competitions, including partially paid bids to the February 2011 Duel in the Desert held in Palm Springs, California, the 2011 IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds held in Orlando, Florida, and the 2011 All Levels International Grand Championship, which was held as a virtual event.[117]

World Cup Cheer became financially independent of Gymnastics Queensland on March 1, 2010.[87] Their Asia Pacific Grand Finals event, held as their nationals event, saw 1500 athletes competing across 70 divisions. At this event, WCC hosted U.S. based team Top Gun All Stars as special guests, who completed showcase performances as well as hosting skill workshops.[119]

DownUnder Spirit Championships continued into 2010, being hosted in June of the year. The event followed the general and level safety guidelines of the IASF/USASF structure for the event, no longer including sports aerobics within its program.[120] This event attracted international participation, with athletes taking part in specialised teams from around the globe to take part.[121]

As part of this event, DUSC offered a number of bids for the 2011 rounds of internationally based competitions. These included Spirit Celebration Nationals (March 2011, Texas), PAC West (January 2011, Honolulu, Hawaii), Americheer and Americdance International Championships (March 2011, Florida) and Cheer Ltd Best of the Beach Nationals at CANAM (March 2011, Myrtle Beach).[122] DUSC also expanded to begin offering specialist instructor camps and clinics to gyms, with the camps being designed around the needs of each gym as determined in a five step pre-camp analysis.[123]

Individual gym programs with teams competing at these events continued to expand. Fitness and Dance (FAD) for example had grown to over 900 athletes placed in 50 cheerleading teams that took 106 classes weekly across 20 of their studio locations.[124]

Cheerleading as a sport continued to see a sharp increase in interest across Australia. FAD's Logan West studios, hosting classes at Park Ridge, Crestmead and Algester, reported a 650% increase in the number of students taking cheerleading classes since they started offering the classes two years prior.[125]

Australian teams also continued to travel overseas for various competitions, which attracted media recognition within Australia. FAD Xplosion won first in pom and second in cheer and hip hop at the Spirit National Elite International Championships in Texas[126][127] The Currumbin Gymnastics and Cheer Cheetahs were selected to attend both the Duel in the Desert and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders National Competitions held in the United States in the following year, with media outlets covering their training journey and supporting fundraising.[128][129]

Moving into 2011, Gymnastics Australia had a year of uncertainty, with Nerine Cooper's replacement, Kelly Marshall, stepping down by June 2011 as cheerleading program manager.[130] With the ongoing review, Gymnastics Australia delivered a scaled back operational plan for their AUS Cheer brand, directing their resources into the cheerleading review to develop plans for 2012.[130]

This operational plan from AUSCheer scaled their nations cup series back to three rounds of competition made up of 23 events including a national championships in September that offered bids to the 2012 Cheer and Dance Worlds.[131] This event attracted approximately 1200 athletes.[130] Alongside the scaled back competition series, AUSCheer hosted JAM Camps for all states, allowing gyms to book a camp for cheer and dance teams, stunt camps or choreography.[132] They sponsored Southern All Stars Cheer and Dance as part of the AUSCheer annual international tour to attend the 2011 Aloha International Spirit Championships in Hawaii.[133]

During 2011, World Cup Cheer and Dance staged a total of 15 championship events this competition season, held across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.[134] Gymnastics Queensland continued to recognise WCCD as their delivery arm of cheerleading as a gymsport within Queensland rather than AUSCheer, with the 6 Queensland events attracting over 5000 athletes to participate.[135] WCCD expanded by hosting their first overnight camp in February 2010, with this being designed for teams to participate as a skill building and team building experience.[119] WCCD also attracted international recognition at their Asia Pacific Grand Finals event, held in September 2011, with Top Gun All Stars invited as special guests to the event for a showcase routine as well as hosting a workshop the day after the competition.[136]

To reflect the growing interest of the sport, WCCD also partnered with American company, CheerChannel, in order to host a reality show for Australia's Best Cheerleader, Cheer Team, Dancer, Dance Team and Coaches during the 2011 season.[137]

Moving into 2011, DUSC was held during June at the Gold Coast Showgrounds, with a themed event to celebrate their 10th anniversary named "Street Jam". This event offered a number of international competition bids, with teams taking part from Australia, USA and New Zealand.[138][139] They also launched their first annual "Christmas Classic" Championships in Sydney in November 2011, donating over 300 children's gifts to the Children's Hospital at Westmead as part of their fundraising during the event.[140]

AASCF's influence in the industry continued to grow, with national mainstream TV media covering the 2011 AASCF Nationals as they continued to expand into the uniform and supply industry alongside their event, choreography and music services.[141] Their Winterfest event series saw over 4000 athletes competing at the events during 2011.[142]

AASCF also hosted the first ever Uni Games Cheer and Dance Championship, helping to introduce cheerleading as a university sport.[19]

However 2011 also saw the diversification of the Australian cheer event industry as a number of new competition providers began offering options, highlighting the growth within the industry.

Spirit Industries Australia launched in New South Wales, staging the NSW Spirit Spectacular in June 2011.[143]

CheerCon also expanded into competition events, hosting the CheerCon Classic in Dural,[144] as well as hosting a number of school holiday tumbling and dance workshops.[145][146]

Cheer Unlimited Australia was founded in Perth, by sisters Briony Keenan and Jakky x. Both were established figures within the cheerleading industry in Australia, with Briony being a former member of the Gymnastics Australia National Cheerleading Committee [90] as well as the founder of WA's first cheer program at Fit2Cheer and Jakky having coached gymnastics since age 13, coaching cheer and dance at Fit2Cheer for 10 years.[147] The sisters began hosting events in Perth, launching their first competition season with Rock n Cheer Championships as well as Stars N Stripes Championships. They also offered workshops with international athletes and coaches as part of their competitions.[148] Their Stars N Stripes event attracted 200 athletes to take part in this first year.[147]

The final new event producer that launched in 2011 was Aussie Gold Cheer and Dance, which was owned by Nerine Cooper after she stepped down from her role with Gymnastics Australia.[114][149] The first Aussie Gold International Cheer and Dance Championships were held on the Gold Coast over 8 - 11 July 2011, with the event including an athletes welcome function on the Friday night, competition and celebration party on Saturday, an optional workshop with USA experts on Sunday and an optional performance opportunity at the Dreamworld theme park on Monday.[150]

The year began with allstar cheerleading in Australia receiving mainstream media coverage, as The Project aired a story that followed the journey of Outlaws Allstars Fugitives and disabled athlete, compete for a bid to IASF Cheerleading Worlds.[151] Media coverage also worked on dispelling the public image of girls waving poms around, focusing on cheer as an athletic sport where the athletes have to be incredibly fit with high levels of strength.[152] Teams travelling to compete internationally were also features, such as the Cowboys Spirit Cheer Squad and Cheersport Power House who won their divisions at the American Grand Cheer and Dance Championships in Las Vegas during this year.[153]

The number of clubs offering cheerleading continued to grow within Australia, with individual existing clubs seeing rapid growth. Queensland Cheer Elite was launched as an all-ages club in January 2011 from the highly successful university based Q Cheer, but had grown to two locations with over 150 athletes and doubled in size from 4 cheer teams to 8 cheer teams and 5 dance teams during 2012.[154][155]

Many of the new competition providers from 2011 expanded their offerings during 2012 in both the competition and cheer-related event spaces, overall growing the sport and industry within Australia, with further expansion of the industry.

Aussie Gold expanded their offering by hosting a coaches conference and spirit expo to start off the year in January 2012.[156]

Cheer Unlimited Australia also expanded their offerings, hosting camps in partnership with All Things Cheer during the beginning of the year, before expanding their competition offerings to include Rock N Cheer Championship in June and Spring State Titles in September.[148][157] They also began to market their Stars N Stripes event as a National Championships.[158] The 2012 Stars n Stripes event saw a total of 700 athletes participating across 115 routines with 1200 spectators.[159]

Spirit Industries Australia formally split the scholastic divisions from their NSW Spirit Spectacular, offering an All Schools Nationals as an additional event.[143]

CheerCon expanded their events as well, hosting a Gold Coast round of their Classics competition as well as their existing Dural round, as well as introducing a Nationals event held in Sydney during November.[160] Their Classic competition rounds were included as part of the AUSCheer 2012 calendar by Gymnastics Australia,[161] reflecting how AUSCheer had scaled back operations[130] as well as CheerCon's affiliation as a Gymnastics NSW registered club.[162] CheerCon also published a number of conditioning workouts and skill specific videos throughout the year for athletes on their youtube channel[163] and offered floor hire for other competitions and gyms for events/showcases.[164]

Australian Cheer Elite was founded as a project of Derrick and Kassandra Turner, who are the owners of East Coast Allstars, during 2012. It was during October 2012 they announced their first Summer camp to be held in early 2012.[165]

Meanwhile, the established Australian competitions continued to host a number of events and offered a range of growing services to meet the Australian cheerleading community.

World Cup Cheer hosted 11 rounds of competition around Australia, with competitions held in Rockhampton, Brisbane, Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne.[166]

DUSC rebranded to be known as DownUnder Spirit Events (DUSE), reflecting in their wider participation in the industry outside of just their DUSC event.[167] This also accompanied an expansion of their event offerings. DUSE continued to host their DUSC event on the Gold Coast during June 2012,[168] but further expanded their new Christmas Classic event from the year before. Their 2012 Christmas Classic became a multi-city competition, with rounds offered in Rockhampton, Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide throughout November 2012.[140] DUSE also began dedicating a National Cheer and Dance Championships just to scholastic teams, offering divisions to primary and high school teams. This event was held during early August 2012 on the Gold Coast.[169] As part of their competition series, all events offered partially paid bids to a number of high profile international cheer and dance compeitions held across America, New Zealand and Hawaii, including Jamfest Nationals, CGA Nationals, Ultimate Cheerfest Nationals, Americheer and Dallas Cowboys Championship.[170] DUSE's camp offerings also diversifying, giving the Australian cheer community options for gym/team skill specific camps within their own facility, team skill specific camps at Zoo Athletics, monthly open skill camps over Summer and USASF coach accreditation.[171]

By 2013, Gymnastics Australia was conscious that their organisation, Australian Cheer Union, had lost their place as the peak body for cheerleading in Australia, with a conscious effort being made to re-establish this placement by formal recognition as the governing body by the International Cheer Union (ICU).[172] Moving into 2013, Gymnastics Australia did not update the AUSCheer website to reflect any 2013 competitions.[173]

As Gymnastics Australia struggled however, AASCF continued to see record growth in their events in 2013. The NSW edition of Winterfest Cheer and Dance Championships saw more than 90 cheer and dance teams competing at the event.[174] Meanwhile, the AASCF State Championships saw a 40% increase in entries as well as a 25% increase in entries at their Nationals event.[175] AASCF further expanded their offerings in 2013, introducing a new event along the East coast on weekends in late July to mid August named Cheer and Dance Battle. This was a cheer only 2 day event, with teams competing on both days, and was staged in Sydney, Gold Coast and Melbourne.[176]

The AASCF 2013 Nationals, held in Melbourne, had just on 6000 athletes competing.[177] However this event attracted controversy within the media due to the event being scheduled during the same time period and venue as Club X Sexpo Extreme at the same time as Nationals which was promoted as a "wholesome family event".[178]

Aussie Gold began 2013 by hosting their National Coaches Conference in February, which was sanctioned by Gymnastics QLD. This event offered both IASF and Gymnastics Australia coaching credentialing courses alongside a range of workshops and education with international guests.[179] However, as an competition provider, they continued to only host one competition - the Aussie Gold International Cheer an Dance Championships - on the Gold Coast,[180] which grew to see over 2000 athletes competing in 2013 who competed for partial paid bids to the Aloha International Spirit Competition in Hawaii during 2014.[181][182]

A further sign of the ongoing growth of the cheerleading industry in Australia was the introduction of Australian events by New Zealand-based event producer, Cheerbrandz,[183] and the founding of Western Australian-based event producer, All Things Cheer and Dance (ATC&D).[184]

Cheerbrandz hosted one Australian competition in Brisbane, Australasian Majors, which acted as a nationals style event with participation from international teams from New Zealand.[183]

While ATC&D did not run any events during their founding year, they did begin providing apparel options, adding another new alternative to the Australian market.[185]

While new interest entered the Australian market, other event providers continued to expand their offerings alongside AASCF, reflecting the overall growth of the sport.

Cheer Unlimited Australia hosted a number of skill camps in conjunction with ATC&D during February, both at individual gyms as well as an open game in Perth. They also hosted a coach conference in February 2013.[186] They also expanded outside of Western Australia, introducing competition rounds in Queensland for the first time.[187] Their Stars n Stripes event marked the largest cheer and dance competition held in Western Australia to that point, with over 1400 athletes from schools, universities and allstar clubs being entered.[188]

Spirit Industries Australia rebranded their NSW Spirit Spectacular event to be more generically named the Spirt Industries Australia Cheer and Dance Championships.[189]

Australian Cheer Elite hosted their first Summer skills camps during January 2012, before moving into the competition space during November 2013 with their first ever ACE Championships, held in Newcastle, NSW.[190]Australian cheerleading was represented globally by a number of teams at a number of different events. These included teams travelling to the Aloha International Spirit Championships in Hawaii[191] as well as IASF Cheerleading Worlds.

World Cup Cheer offered a range of workshops and choreography services to clubs on request, with topics covering from specific skill workshops and routine choreography to intro to cheer/intro to dance workshops, held with Oscar Corrales or Kylie Pocklington.[192] They also held a range of coach conferences around Australia during January, before kicking off their event competition calendar in May. Over the year they held events between May and November in Central Queensland, South East Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.[193] The highlight of WCCD's year and ongoing expansion was the offering to a selected group of athletes for the opportunity to compete at The American Grand, during December 2013, which was held in Las Vegas. Athletes were required to try out and attend a number of trainings, held at least once a month, as well as a three day choreography camp. WCCD took both a cheer team and a dance team on this trip.[194][195]

At the 2013 ICU Worlds event, Team Australia earned their best ever placings, with three silver medals and one bronze medals.[175]

Australian cheerleaders also set the Guiness World Record of the highest basket toss in 2013, with four bases tossing their flyer to a height of 5.50m measured from its lowest point.[19]

Cheerleading media coverage in Australia continued to adapt and change as it followed the growing community, with Issue 6 of the Australian Cheerleading Magazine being launched in an online publication format during November 2013.[196]

The overall growth and strength of the cheerleading industry and community in Australia during 2014 can be highlighted in the rapid growth of cheerleading programs around the country. For example, The Royal All Stars Cheerleading Academy reaching 150 students after starting with only 15 students in 2011,[175] and FAD Fitness and Dance operated 54 franchise studio locations with over 5000 students within Queensland alone.[175] The sport's expansion reached the Northern Territory in early 2014, with Fitness and Dance expanding their program to Alice Springs under franchise and studio director, Courtney Battaglia.[197]

Australian cheerleading also continued to shine on the international stage, with AASCF's World Bid Winning teams competing at COA Nationals competition as a warmup and taking a clean sweep of the divisions competed in - Dreamtyme Dreamgirls winning all girl level 6, Outlaws Kelly Girls winning all girl level 5 and Southern Cross Cheer Legacy winning coed level 6. Dreamtyme Dreamgirls also won Best Championship Choreography, with SM Comets also walking away with 3rd place in their division at the competition.[198] The International Cheer and Dance Spirit Awards also highlighted Australia's cheerleading community, with AASCF being nominated for Best International Championship and Best International Cheer and Dance Company of the Year, along with Rosemary Sims-James (AASCF director) being nominated for Best International Cheer Choreographer.[199]

Media interest in Australian cheerleading teams continued to grow, with the Herald Sun spotlighting the transition of an ex-AIS elite gymnastics program athlete into the sport as he travelled to represent Australia as part of the Southern Cross Cheerleading team Legacy at the Cheerleading Worlds.[200]

2014 saw Gymnastics Australia commissioning an independent person to hold a consultation with the Australian cheer community regarding the best structure for the future of cheerleading, with a report outlining recommendations being delivered that highlighted the governance issues and conflicting beliefs and understanding of the role that the Australian Cheer Union and Gymnastics Australia holds and should hold in cheerleading.[201]

AASCF once again started their year by hosting a number of Summer camps along the east coast during January, with camps held in Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, for children aged 7 years and upwards. These camps were held in a day camp format during this year.[202] It also hosted a 2014 National Coaches Conference during January, inviting intermediate/advanced athletes and coaches of all levels, with international guests Jame Speed and Shannon Smith presenting at this event.[175] Meanwhile, AASCF's 2014 calendar was largely grouped along the East Coast of Australia, with Winterfest and Battle both only being held in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, with their National Championships also held in Queensland on the Gold Coast. However their State Championships were held in the Australian. Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Scholastic Nationals began to be held separately from the All Star Nationals during this era, instead being held in New South Wales during October.[177] During the Scholastic Nationals, AASCF offered university teams bids to the World University Championship.[177]

AASCF's annual nationals event was held on the Gold Coast during 2014, hosting 978 teams in total - 458 cheer teams and 520 dance teams.[203] This continued its growth trend of 30 - 35% per year,[177] with a total of more than 35,000 registered athletes participating in AASCF events during the year.[204] As part of their National Championships competition, AASCF offered 12 potential cheer and dance bids to the IASF 2015 World Championships, as well as following the competition days with a coaches conference and athlete clinics with international experts as part of the event.[177]

During this year, AASCF also purchased the Australian Cheerleading Magazine, with editor Rianna continuing to coordinate the magazine with their existing staff. Issue 7 was published as part of AASCF Nationals during November 2014.[205]

Aussie Gold remained only hosting one competition, their Aussie Gold Internationals, which was followed by a workshop with USA experts and performance at Dreamworld in the following two days after the competition. This event offered partial paid bids to the 2015 Aloha International Cheer and Dance Championships at two different levels (10% off the registration fee for the highest scoring team in each division and 50% off the registration fees for the highest scoring team in cheer and dance). Aussie Gold's Internationals event also offered 1 partial paid and 2 at large bids to the 2015 IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds.[206] This competition saw media coverage, being featured on NBN News.[207] They also continued to host their January coaches conference and spirit expo in January 2014.[208]

All Things Cheer and Dance was an established USASF company, with multiple brands across multiple countries that host competitions, with the Australian brand launching their first competition, "Competition of the Starz" in Perth during September 2014.[209] This first event had close to 1000 registered athletes compete.[210] They also offered the service of skill workshops and camps on request for gyms, with Antonio Pino, the ATC&D director.[185]

Australia's first outdoor cheerleading competition was held in November at Manly, with Battle at the Beaches attracting 1000 athletes from 15 clubs to compete for its first outdoor event. Battle at the Beaches had been previously held as an indoor event, however the owner, Nicole Holmes, stated she was inspired by the outdoor competitions of Daytona, Florida to bring that competition style to Australia.[96]

During 2014, CheerCon ran New South Wales based events only in Newcastle and Dural, citing lack of interest and financial viability as the reasons that there were no events held in Queensland or Victoria during this season.[211]

Australian Cheer Elite's interest grew into a two day event, with dance and cheer being split into separate days due to the number of entries. This even was held in November 2014 at Broadmeadow. The group also offered stunt and tumble summer clinics with Team Australia athletes in late 2014, headed into early 2015[212]

Cheer Unlimited Australia continued to grow, staging their Rock N Cheer championships in Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales this year as well as their Spring State Titles and Stars n Stripes Nationals in Perth.[213] The event producer also partnered with charity Variety Western Australia in 2014, taking part in fundraising events for the organisation such as the HBF Run for a Reason, as well as hosting the charity at their competitions throughout the year.[214][215]

World Cup Cheer and Dance held four rounds of competitions around Australia - WCCD Spirit Challenges, State Showdown, Nationals/Internationals and Clash of the Champions - with events held in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania during 2014.[216][217] WCCD hosted their first nationals event as part of this season, with international event bids being offered at both WCCD Nationals and APGI.[218]

The 2014 independent report presented to Gymnastics Australia led them announcing a partnership with the Australian Sport Commission (ASC) to spend 2015 working on a business case in order to make an informed decision on how to develop cheerleading as a product and sport in Australia. This was also used to assess the size and value of the market for the sport in Australia, and consumer driven value proposition.[219]

Gymnastics Australia partnered with the Australian Sports Commission during 2015 in order to compile a business case regarding the future of their involvement in cheerleading in Australia. This included information on how to develop cheerleading as a product and sport, assessing the size and value of the market, and analysing the consumer driven value proposition of the sport.[219]

With ongoing unrest and lack of uniformity across the cheerleading industry in Australia, several event providers announced in April 2015 that they had formed the Australian Independent Event Producers (AIEP), working together to create the Australian Independent Scoring System (AISS). This was a collaboration of Aussie Gold Cheer and Dance Championships, CheerCon, Cheer Unlimited Australia and Spirit Industries Australia, with the scoring system being used at all competitions from these event providers, enabling consistent standards and expectations for teams.[220]

To start off 2015, Cheer Unlimited Australia hosted a pre-season summit throughout March, which was a series of events including coach credentialing, coach conference, open skill camps and custom workshops and choreography.[221] Their Stars N Stripes Nationals saw a record 1640 athletes being registered to compete.[222] CUA also partnered with Headspace during 2015, hosting the organisation at their events with volunteers and a psychologist in order to provide mental health support and resources for athletes and their parents, showing a growth in understanding of the impact of mental health within the sport.[223]

FNQ Cheer and Dance Championships held their competition away from Cairns for the first time, hosting the competition in November at the Ingham Gymnastics Club with over 600 competitors. This event also attracted local media news coverage.[224]

Battle at the Beaches attracted media attention due to the growth of the event, which was held in early November 2015 at Warriewood. Nicole Holmes, the founder of the event, reported that there 1400 athletes competing on the day, with no major injuries sustained as part of the event. This year's event also served as a bid event for the AASCF Pinnacle event that was introduced during this year.[225]

Until this year, AASCF's Nationals event had rotated between the three main Eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria for its location. During 2015, the event was due to be held in Sydney under this rotation, however due to the Sydney Convention Exhibition Centre being under refurbishment until 2016, AASCF opted to run the event in Melbourne. This would begin a standard where AASCF Nationals would not return to Sydney in future years.[226] Over 1100 teams competed in the AASCF Nationals event, with teams from every state/territory in Australia as well as teams from New Zealand participating. AASCF also marked the milestone of over 40,000 athletes competing across their 18 championship event in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth during 2015.[227]

Australian cheer also saw a shift to further emulate the US style of competitions, as AASCF introduced a new bid-only competition after Nationals, Pinnacle. This event was designed to replicate the bid-only end of season event, Summit, which started in the United States in 2013.[228][229] The AASCF Pinnacle event only had 150 bids available for both cheer and dance, with bids offered to the overall grand champion or highest scoring team in each division of cheer and dance at AASCF and participating independent event producer competitions, allowing for a "best of the best" exclusive national championships.[229][230]

Australian Cheer Elite was one of the providers authorised to give bids for Pinnacle, offering 5 bids at their 2015 championship. Their cheer and dance championship date was moved to mid October from their previous early November timing of previous years. This year also saw the expansion of ACE to offer a dance only event in Newcastle during August 2015.[212]

For 2015, Aussie Gold expanded by offering contemporary and lyrical dance divisions, as well as offering dance doubles for the senior age divisions at their Aussie Gold International Championships event. This event acted as a bid event for the 2016 Aloha International Cheer and Dance Championships in Hawaii, 2016 Fantasy Island Cheer and Dance Luau in New Zealand and 2016 IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds.[231] The number of entries in Aussie Gold's International Championships meant that for the first time, the competition expanded to be run over 3 days.[232] Their 2015 coaches conference remained sanctioned by Gymnastics Qld, with the event offering USASF coach credentialing, USASF safety judge/rules course, and information sessions on the USASF Universal Scoring System that would be implemented at several Australian events throughout 2015.[233]

World Cup Cheer and Dance introduced a new competition this year, staging the Australian Oceania Preliminaries and Finals. A competition was run in each state throughout the year, with placing teams earning an invitation to compete at the Oceania Finals which would be held as part of their annual APGI event. This competition joined their Spirit Challenges, State Showdowns, Asia Pacific Grand Internationals, Nationals and Clash of the Champions rounds throughout 2015.[234][235] During 2015, WCCD was the only event provider in Australia who required that their competition judges be certified to sit on their panels, with WCCD's certficiation process being developed in conjunction with the USASF.[235] The Asia Pacific Grand Internationals event offered teams the opportunity to win bids for the IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds for the following year, along with WCCD offering bids to the ICU World University Championships and World School CheerDance Championships.[235]

Australian teams saw success at international competitions, highlighting the standard of Australian cheerleading as a sport on the global stage. Australian Cheer Union (under Gymnastics Australia) organised and sent national representative teams to compete at the ICU Worlds event, with all Australian teams ranking within the top 10 and the all girl elite and pom doubles teams winning bronze.[236]

Despite the ongoing growth, Australian cheerleading faced challenges throughout 2015 due to the public acceptance of the activity as a sport. One of these included Queensland Cheer Elite, who faced complaints in January 2015 from local residents that led to their Sumner training location being issued show cause notices by the Council and denial of approval applications during November 2015.[237]

The unrest in the Australian cheerleading community highlighted in the 2014 Gymnastics Australia report culminated in a petition being started by the community in 2016 asking Gymnastics Australia to step down as governing body.[238] Despite this, Gymnastics Australia reiterated that they were recognised as the peak body for cheerleading by both the Australian Sport Commission and International Cheer Union in their 2016 annual report.[239]

As part of Gymnastics Australia's ongoing role, their Australian Cheer Union selected representative teams for the 2016 ICU Worlds,[240] as well as helping host the Southern University Games Cheer and Dance events for Australian University Sport in Victoria during July.[241] ACU also released the selection policies for the 2017 ICU Worlds Team Australia teams in late November, having distributed a survey to the wider cheer community in early November to help develop policies that would better suit the Australian cheer clubs and teams. The main difference to arise from this was the introduction of allowing non-IASF bid winning teams to be considered as a team Australia team.[242]

AIEP updated their AISS scoring system during this year in response to feedback from the previous year's launch,[243][244] with the group holding information sessions regarding their rules and scoresheet system across 2016.[245] This updated scoring system was based on the scoring system used at Varsity's USASF events within the United States.[244]

The industry saw a shift in 2016 regarding image. In response to the changing USASF uniform rules coming in as of the 2015-16 season in the United States,[246] alongside the continued public outcry surrounding midriff uniforms within the sport, AASCF introduced a new rule that stated the cropped midriff uniforms were no longer allowed for any team that was competing in junior or younger age divisions.[247] This rule was also introduced for World Cup Cheer and Dance events.[248] This rule had been in place for Gymnastics Australia since 2006 to make a distinction between commercial and gymnastic cheerleading, however until this point, cropped uniforms had been allowed at non-Gymnastics Australia competitions.[55]

Continued growth and participation was seen across the sport with the number of gyms growing, and existing gyms moving into larger spaces. North Queensland Warrios Cheerleading was founded in 2011 by Leah Buchanan at the Aitkenvale PCYC with 6 members, moving to a warehouse in Mt Louisa in 2013 due to growth, with the Townsville Bulletin reporting that due to now growing to 70 members by 2016, they would once again be moving to a larger warehouse in Garbutt.[249]

This growth was reflected in the number of event producers expanding their offerings and numbers entered at competitions.

2016 marked the 10th anniversary of AASCF running national cheer and dance events, and their 30th anniversary of the founders running cheer and dance events within Victoria.[250] AASCF Nationals continued to grow, with a total of 10,278 athletes competing at Nationals across 1606 routines,[251][252] alongside a total of 2,230 athletes competing at the AASCF Pinnacle event.[251] This attracted media coverage that highlighted the growth of the sport, with a Daily Telegraph article stating there were close to 1400 teams who competed with athletes ranging from 4 years old to 58 years old.[253] The Gold Coast Bulletin also highlighted the importance of this event to the local economy, recognising that it brought a $24 million boost, with an estimated $780 spent per person.[19][254]

Australian Cheer Elite once again held their Just Dance championship in September, which was followed up by their ACE cheer and dance championships in October, which saw a total of 1300 competitors in a total of 260 routines across the two day event.[212]

Aussie Gold Cheer and Dance once again hosted their national coaches conference, which continued to be sanctioned by Gymnastics Qld to allow technical members of Gymnastics Australia to receive updating points.[255] Their Internationals event expanded to introduce a Baton Twirling division in 2016, with the event continuing to serve as a bid event for the 2017 Aloha International Cheer and Dance Championships in Hawaii and 2017 IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds.[256]

As well as their International Championships event, 2016 saw Aussie Gold expand their competition offerings for the first time. These expanded offerings remained all within Queensland, and included the Outback Challenge held in Rockhampton, State Spectacular held in Logan, and Summer Festival held in Rockhampton.[257]

All Things Cheer and Dance Australia expanded their competition line up, hosting their existing Starz Championship alongside staging the Australian University Sport UniGames cheer and dance events in late September,[258] and introducing Perth's first 2 day cheer championships with the Showdown, held in October 2016.[259]

Battle of the Beaches continued to see growth also in its outdoor event format, being held at Manly, NSW on Sydney's Northern Beaches once again in November 2016, hosting 1500 athletes across 150 teams from 30 programs. After this year's event, the organiser, Nicole Holmes, stated that she had attracted interest from teams from South Australia and Queensland to take part in the following year's event.[260][261][262]

CheerCon once again expanded into other states, hosting their CheerCon Classic competition in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne in an August to November competition year.[263] CheerCon also hosted a number of stunt and tumbling workshop style events in Victoria, NSW, South Australia, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.[164]

Cheer Unlimited Australia hosted their Rock N Cheer event in Queensland and Western Australia, with their Spring State Titles and Stars N Stripes events being held in Western Australia during 2016.[264] Stars N Stripes Grand Championship grew to see 1550 athletes compete in 354 cheer and dance items from 32 clubs and schools.[265]

FNQ Cheer and Dance Championships rebranded in 2016 to Infinite Spirit All Stars, to better reflect their expansion into other regional markets, with the goal of ensuring Tasmania had better access to cheerleading competitions.[44]

Spirit Industries Australia continued to only host one event, the SIA Cheer and Dance Championships, in New South Wales during July.[266] However, during 2016 they announced a rebrand of their regular July competition into 2017, to become Winter Warmup,[267] and surveyed interest for a second competition for expansion into the following competition season.[268]

World Cup Cheer and Dance replaced their offering of the novice division at their events with the prep division, which was aligned with the USASF standards. They also removed level restrictions from cheer solos and duos, with all levels competing against one another using the technique in order to determine the winner over the highest skill. Likewise, their dance solos and duos divisions were also no longer by genre, with all genres competing against one another.[248] The event producer hosted a total of 18 championship events across Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia, including Australia's first ever all star hip hop exclusive competition.[269] These competitions stood apart from other competitions during this time period due to their pricing structure encouraging athletes to compete in multiple routines. For APGI and Nationals, the on time entry fee entry fee was $75 for one routine or an unlimited number of routines for $105 per athlete, with all other WCCD events being $45 for one routine or unlimited routines for $69 for on time entries. However in order to secure this capped pricing structure, a team was required to attend at least 2 WCCD events in their state during the 2016 competition season.[270] They also continued to support the wider community through providing USASF credentialing clinics as well as education seminars around their scoresheets, dance techniques, dance styles, athlete development, flyer training andn tumbling training and spotting.[271]

Australia saw its first team achieve a cheer globe at the IASF Worlds, with Southern Cross Cheer - Legacy winning 2nd place in the International Open Large Coed Level 6 division.[19]

As well as the ongoing participation of Australian teams at the IASF Worlds events, international participation continued to grow for other events, highlighting Australian cheer globally. One of these teams was FAD Cheer and Dance, who sent a team in April 2016 to compete at the All Star Games in Las Vegas.[272] AASCF also offered bids for international competitions at their events, including paid bids for the 2017 Spirit Sports Duel in the Desert and 2017 Varsity Honolulu International Championship at Winterfest,[273]

Within a global context, the International Cheer Union achieved provisional recognition from the International Olympic Commission, sparking backlash within Australia based on misconceptions around the sport. As a result, the Australian cheer community began taking part in media interviews to highlight the reasons why this recognition by the IOC was valid and how cheerleading is a sport.[274][275]

Cheerleading events in Australia continued to expand and evolve in 2017, with the changing landscape of the Aussie cheerleading industry seeing rebrands and changed competition offerings as the sport continued to grow.

World Cup Cheer and Dance announced via their social media that Lyn Parker had sold the business to Coralie Bradshaw, who would be rebranding the competition series to be known as Dance and Cheer Events.[276]

Aussie Gold grew to 7 championship events during 2017, expanding outside of Queensland for the first time to stage their State Spectacular event in Western Australia and South Australia during October. They discontinued their Outback Challenge from 2016, instead introducing the Tropical Challenge held in Mackay. The Aussie Gold International Championships continued at the Gold Coast, with the QLD State Spectacular continuing in Brisbane and the Summer Festival continuing in Rockhampton.[277] A new addition to the cheer community in Australia was Aussie Gold offering cheer solos and duos at their Aussie Gold Tropical Challenge, State Spectacular and Summer Festival competition rounds.[277] The Aussie Gold International Championships no longer offered an optional performance day at Dreamworld on the Tuesday after the competition, however continued to include a workshop day on the Monday after the competition, with instructors from the US and New Zealand. These workshops were designed to be team specific in 1.5 hour slots that had to be pre-booked by teams. This event also continued to be a bids event to the IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds, offering 1 partial paid and 2 at large bids for the 2018 event, as well as offering partial paid bids to the 2018 Aloha International Cheer and Dance Championships in Hawaii.[277] Aussie Gold also continued their annual coaches conference, expanding this to introduce an athlete advancement program in 2017. This allowed athletes to participate in flyer, base, partner stunt and group stunt sessions to advance their skills. The conference remained Gymnastics Australia eligible for technical members to receive updating points.[278]

Cheer Unlimited Australia continued hosting their Rock N Cheer, Spring State Titles and States N Stripes Championship competition series rounds throughout 2017, with events being held in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia,[279][280][281] along with their pre-season education and credentialing sessions.[282] Their Stars N Stripes Grand Championships was their biggest event of the year in Perth, with 1750 athletes entered for the 2017 competition.[283]

Cheerbrandz expanded their Australian offerings, now offering their Olympia rounds in Brisbane and Melbourne, alongside the introduction of a Nationals event in Sydney. These were in addition to their existing Majors event in Brisbane.[284]

CheerCon saw a rebranding, with their competition rounds now being called "The Experience". Events were held in New South Wales (3 rounds), Victoria, South Australia, ACT and Queensland for a total of 7 rounds of The Experience being hosted in 2017.[285]

Spirit Industries Australia introduced a new competition round, now hosting the Winter Warmup in July, and Spring Showoffs, held in September. Both of these events continued to be held in New South Wales.[286][267][287]

AASCF's Nationals event saw continued growth, with a total of 10,600 athletes competing in 1460 teams, with 1100 coaches in attendance.[288] Across the year, AASCF's events attracted over 52,000 athletes, 15% of whom were male, registered across their 21 championship events with over 3000 registered coaches.[11][289] Their Queensland and New South Wales Spring Carnival championships saw a 25% growth, with that round seeing a 50% growth in Victoria.[290] The Scholastic Nationals, held in October, attracted 4000 cheerleaders competing for primary school, high school and university teams.

However in juxtaposition to the growth seen elsewhere in the community, Gymnastics Australia reported only 59 registered coaches and 1238 athletes registered across 105 clubs, showing their position in the Australian cheerleading industry as a whole.[291] Despite this, Australian Cheer Union under Gymnastics Australia continued to be the recognised governing body by both the International Cheer Union and Australian Sport Commission.[291] With this decline in mind, Gymnastics Australia spent 2017 commissioning Suiko Consulting to review cheerleading in Australia, forming a working group to discuss their report findings.[291]

Australian Cheer Sport Alliance (ACSA) can be traced back to being officially formed in 2017, with AASCF's ABN history showing the business name being registered underneath AASCF on 4 July 2017,[292] and their Facebook page launching on November 15, 2017.[293] It was during this time that the International Cheer Union has expressed that ACSA had expressed its interest to apply to ICU for the role of national governing body of cheerleading in Australia.[294] At this point, ACSA's board was formed, made of Stephen James (chairperson, AASCF), George Tatai (deputy chairperson, ex-Gymnastics Australia), Nerine Cooper (Secretary, ex-Gymnastics Australia, Aussie Gold, TLC Spirit Wear), Rosemary James (AASCF), Thomasine Warmington (Senior cheer judge, management consultant) and Jordan Wilson-Otto (cheer coach). Founding members include the event producers All Things Cheer, Australian Cheer Elite, Aussie Gold, AASCF, Cheer Unlimited Australia, Spirit Industries, Cheercon and Infinite Spirit All Stars.[295]

International cheerleading participation from Australian teams included Australian teams competing at events such as IASF Cheerleading Worlds and ICU Cheerleading Worlds in Orlando, Cheer and Dance Global Games in Hawaii,[296] and World University Championships in Orlando.[297]

A partnership was formed between the Chinese Cheerleading Association (the governing body for the sport in China) with AASCF at the IASF Cheerleading Worlds in 2017, which saw CCA send over 100 athletes to the AASCF NSW States event and AASCF send three of their 2016 National teams to compete in the China Cheerleading Open and Rizhao International Elite Cheerleading Games in China during 2017.[298]

AASCF's championship events continued to offer the opportunity for Australian athletes to compete at an international level with bids to international competitions awarded at a number of their championship events throughout the year.[299] At each of their 2017 Winterfest events, AASCF awarded 1 paid and 2 unpaid bids to the 2018 NDA All Star Dance Nationals in Dallas, Texas, as well as 4 paid cheer bids to the 2018 Spirit Sports Duel in the Desert and 2018 Varsity Honolulu International Championships.[300] AASCF's National event marked global cheer history as the world's first qualifying event to offer a fully paid dance bid as well as being Australia's first event to offer a fully paid cheer bid to the 2018 Cheerleading and Dance Worlds in Florida.[301] AASCF offered a total of 2 fully paid bids, 6 partially paid bids and 16 at large bids for Worlds across their cheer and dance divisions, as well as offering 8 at large bids to the 2018 Summit event for the first time in Australia.[301][302]

In Feburary 2017, a new cheer exclusive media launched in Australia in the form of the Cheer Kids app and its accompanying Cheer Kids Magazine.[303]

2018 saw a major shift in the landscape of Australian cheer, with the year beginning with Gymnastics Australia releasing a statement announcing they would be ceasing to be the national governing body of cheerleading in Australia by the end of the year.[304] Throughout 2018, Gymnastics Australia wrapped up operations, with a review of all policies and procedures to prepare an operations manual and handover procedure to the International Cheer Union for the incoming national federation.[305]

To fill this gap, ACSA re-confirmed their intention to apply to ICU to be recognised as the governing body for cheerleading in Australia.[306] This included application for their own ABN independent of AASCF.[307] ICU received the documents for member application on April 17, 2018, and tabled these at their Annual General Meeting at 24 April 2018.[294] However, following a review of these documents including the constitution and national structure of ACSA, ICU declined their applications on 17 May 2018 due to the constitution and structure being non-complaint with required criteria by ICU.[294]

To ensure compliance with international sport authorities within the timeframe of Gymnastics Australia's handover and continue to allow international participation by Australian cheerleaders, ICU announced the establishment of a complaint national cheer federation under approval from Sports Australia on 8 December 2018.[294] This organisation carried forward the name "Australian Cheer Union" from Gymnastics Australia, having a federated model with state members as its voting membership as was the standard of Australian Olympic recognised NSOs.[294] In response to this, ACSA released a statement on December 11, 2018 stating their disagreement with the federated model due to the model requiring duplication of limited resources due to the size of Australia's cheer industry and supporting a unitary model as suggested by the Australian Sport Commission.[308] ACSA also confirmed in this statement their intention to move from peak body to NSO and being in talks with Sport Australia to do so.[308] A further statement reiterating ACSA's disagreement with the federated model was released on December 21, 2018, stating that the Australian cheer community should decide what their governing body looked like without interference from the International Cheer Union.[309] This statement also outlined ACSA's plan moving forward with the absence of an official Sport Australia recognised NSO for the sport, with ACSA filling the gap establishing rules, safety guidelines, competition standards and training and accreditation for coaches and judges.[309] However heading into 2019, Sport Australia did not recognised either ACSA nor ACU as NSOs, however both continued to develop as governing organisations and peak bodies.

Competition offerings within Australia continued to evolve in 2018, with event producers introducing new competition rounds as well as new non-competition based cheer events to meet the growing demand and participation within the sport.

Cheercast began as a new platform in 2018, streaming more than 25 different competitions and events throughout both Australia and the world for a membership price of $47 for the season.[310] Competitions that they streamed during 2018 included Australian Cheer Elite,[311] CheerCon,[312] Cheer Unlimited Australia[313] and Spirit Industries Australia,[314] as well as producing features such as following teams on their road to worlds, such as Melbourne Cheer Academy,[315] Oxygen All Stars[316] and Inspire Athletics.[317]

AASCF expanded their Battles championships event round, beginning to offer their Dance Battles in Sydney during 2018.[318]

AASCF also announced a three year partnership deal with UniSport Australia during June 2018, which would see AASCF deliver the cheer and dance competitions at the UniSport Nationals for the following three years. This deal would also see UniSport Australia work with AASCF around coach accrediation of university coaches, long term development plans for university cheer and support for Australian teams attending the FISU World University Cheerleading Championships.[319][320]

AASCF founder, Rosemary Sims-James, was awarded the International Cheer Union Recognition award during 2018, celebrating her 10 consecutive years of judging at the ICU World Championships and services in assisting ICU judging and education.[19]

Aussie Gold expanded their offerings once again, seeing an expansion in to the Victorian market as well as bringing their Summer Festival to Brisbane as well as Rockhampton. Their 2018 offerings included their coaches conference and athlete advancement program on the Gold Coast; Tropical Challenge in Mackay; State Spectacular in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide; International Championships on the Gold Coast; and Summer Festival in Rockhampton and Brisbane.[321]

CheerCon started the year by hosting a coaches conference, before hosting a total of 7 rounds that saw expansion for the event producer across NSW, Qld, ACT, Victoria and South Australia. However, originally there had been eight planned rounds, with a round originally planned for October in Shellharbour, being moved to Illawarra, before being ultimately cancelled. Their final round was Battle at the Beaches, with CheerCon taking over the event during this time period.[322][323] CheerCon's events throughout 2018 were livestreamed on the CheerCast platform throughout this year.[312]

Cheerbrandz began hosting a new competition round known as Eutopia throughout the year, with rounds in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. However, Cheerbrandz did reduce their offerings for their Olympia round in Australia, now restricting this to Melbourne and restructuring the event to replicate their Brisbane Majors event in being a 2 day competition event for teams.[324]

Infinite Spirit All Stars saw its Far North Queensland championships grow to 400 competitors with 1500 spectators, with teams competing from Rockhampton, Mackay, Cairns and Townsville.[325]

Cheer Unlimited Australia saw their biggest event yet with their 2018 Stars N Stripes Grand Championships hosting 1900 athletes competing in 242 routines from 25 clubs and schools.[326] Cheercast livestreamed Cheer Unlimited Australia's competitions throughout the year.[313]

Spirit Industries Australia's Winter Warmup continued to grow as a two day event held in July, with their Spring Show Offs being hosted in September 2018.[327] Spirit Industries Australia participated in Cheercast during 2018, livestreaming their events.[314]

The sport also continued to obtain media traction and coverage throughout the year about its growth and expansion,[328] as well as its inclusion of disabled athletes.[329]

International participation also continued to place Australian cheer athletes on the global stage, with opportunities to participate at this elite level expanding. Cheer Unlimited Australia awarded bids to the 2019 Cheerleading and Dance Worlds for the first time at a Western Australian event during their 2019 Stars N Stripes Grand Championships.[330] CheerCon's Dural event also awarded bids to the 2019 Cheerleading and Dance Worlds.[323] Aussie Gold's International Championships awarded bids to the 2019 Cheerleading and Dance Worlds as well as the 2019 Aloha Spirit Championships.[321]

The ACSA cheer and dance event sanctioning standards were released in April 2019, outlining the general event standards including divisions, levels and categories, insurance, safety and accreditation, warm up area standards, and event performance area standards.[331] These standards were adopted by a range of event producers for the year, including All Things Cheer, Aussie Gold, AASCF, Australian Cheer Elite, Cheer Unlimited Australia, Cheercon, Infinite Spirit All Stars and Spirit Industries, providing consistency between competitions.[332][333] An official policy was released by ACSA addressing the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse athletes in Australian cherleading, following the guidelines of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission Guideline for Trans and Gender Diverse Inclusion in Sport, ensuring that all transgender, non-binary and intersex athletes were able to participate in ACSA sanctioned events without judgement or discrimination.[334] ACSA officially offered education and credentialing courses for coaches and judges throughout 2019, credentialing over 100 assistant coaches by May 2019.[335] ACSA also held a series of NSO and constitution development webinars, confirming its intention to continue in its role of emulating the USASF in being the peak body for the industry's all star commercial interest while also initiating the process of evolving to a more NSO unitary model if circumstances changed and the opportunity rose to step into this role.[336] To finish off the year, on December 20, 2019, ACSA released their constitution, outlining their objectives, application of income, membership categories and rights, meetings and proceedings at meetings, votes, ICU compliance and cooperation, discipline of members and by-laws, rights of patrons, directors powers and duties, committees, service of notice, indemnity and record inspection policies.[337]

Australian Cheer Union (ACU) was officially established as its own independent not-for-profit organisation during 2019, with an interim board and interim state members appointed in May to drive the establish of a National Federation. Their first annual meeting was held on 19 December 2019, with a formal election of four directors to replace their interim board and represent Australian cheer.[338] One of their first policies released by ACU in November 2019 was a member protection policy, with the goal of protecting athletes and ensuring that everyone participating in the sport knew their responsibilities and expectations of behaviour.[339]

AASCF continued to host their championship series around the country, hosting Winterfest (NSW, Qld, Vic, SA), Cheer Battle (NSW, Qld, Vic, SA), Dance Battle (NSW), States (WA, QLD, NSW, Vic, SA), Spring Carnival (NSW, Qld, Vic), Nationals (Vic) and Australasian Pinnacle (Vic). AASCF also hosted the Unisport Cheer and Dance Nationals on the Gold Coast in November.[340] Their State Championships attracted 17,000 athletes over the five events, with the AASCF Nationals event growing to over 11,964 athletes across 1800 teams.[341][342][19] The novice division in particular saw large growth during 2019, with AASCF experiencing a near 20% growth in entries within the division.[343][118]

During the course of 2019's AASCF Nationals, a documentary was filmed highlighting the sport which would be aired during early 2020.[344]

Aussie Gold's offerings expanded, hosting Tropical Challenge in Mackay, State Spectacular events in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide, an International Championships event on the Gold Coast, and a Summer Festival championships in Townsville and Brisbane.[345] Their Melbourne State Spectacular event doubled in entries from the previous year.[346]

A new event producer, The Golden Mile Championship, announced their formation during 2019, planning their first event for 2020 to be held in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.[347]

Cheer Unlimited Australia' declined their offerings, only hosting Stars N Stripes Grand Championships during 2019, however this event hosted a total of 1500 athletes competing across 185 cheer and dance routines.[348]

Dance and Cheer Events expanded to include events that were dance specific as well as including events that offered divisions for both cheer and dance, for a total of 11 events held in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. They also introduced a new qualifying team only event called Challenge of the Champions, which would be held as part of their APGI event. This event was made up of teams who were the highest scoring teams at prior DCE events.[349]

The continued growth of the sport saw programs that had historically been based in community locations rather than specialised facilities like most making the move into custom-built facilities, such as FAD Ipswich, as the demand for more professional and elite avenues in the sport grew.[350]

The growing professionalism of cheerleading within Australia was reflected in Australian teams making bigger and bigger strides onto the international stage. Bids were offered for a number of international competitions at events around Australia including Spirit Sports Duel in the Desert bids at AASCF Winterfest;[340] NDA All Star Dance Nationals bids at AASCF Winterfest;[340] Varsity Summit bids at AASCF Nationals;[351][340] and IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds bids at AASCF Nationals,[352][340] Aussie Gold Internationals,[345] Cheer Unlimited Australia's Stars N Stripes[353] and DCE's APGI events.

International recognition also was given to AASCF founder, Rosemary Sims-James, as she was given the IASF Pioneer and Lifetime Achievement Award for leading and developing the sports of cheer and dance within Australia.[19]

Australia's first paracheer competitor took the floor in 2019, with Emily Quattrocchi taking the floor with Southern Cross Cheer.[354]

Going into 2020, Australia had the third largest all-star cheerleading market in the world, coming behind the United States and Canada.[355]

The beginning of 2020 saw the release of the Netflix docuseries, Cheer, in January.[356] This docuseries followed the nationally ranked Navarro College Bulldogs cheer team as they prepared to compete in the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) Collegiate National Cheerleading Championship, held in Daytona Beach, Florida.[357][356] The series shone a new light onto competitive cheerleading, with Australian media releasing articles highlighting the cheerleading industry in Australia including teams that were sent to go to the Cheerleading Worlds in 2020 and how Australians could become involved in the sport.[358][359] These articles helped highlight the difference between the NRL sideline cheerleaders and competitive cheerleading, reshaping the public's perception of cheerleading in the country and highlighting the athleticism behind allstar cheer.[358][355][360] These media pieces also highlighted Australian competitions, with ABC interviewing Rosemary Sims of AASCF in order to show how the AASCF competitions have grown to more than 60,000 registered athletes across the country.[359] This interview aimed to show how Australian cheerleading was safer than American cheerleading, stating that the sport operated under different and strict safety guidelines with only educated and credentialed coaches in professional gyms, however it is interesting to note that Australian cheer is modelled after the same USASF rules used within American cheer.[359]

During February 2020, a documentary that was filmed over the course of the 2019 AASCF Nationals event also aired on Melbourne's Channel 31, spotlighting the behind the scenes of the Nationals event as well as talking about the sport.[344]

Media coverage continued throughout 2020, highlighting different demographics within the sport such as university teams,[361] disabled athletes and the adult division,[362] which enabled the sport to grow quickly with gyms growing from less than 30 members to almost 200 in less than seven years.[363]

CheerStars was introduced in 2020 as a new division by CheerCon, Aussie Gold, Spirit Industries Australia and Cheer Unlimited Australia to provide an alternative option for novice and all-star, providing a stepping stone into allstar cheer and dance for IASF levels 1 to 3.[364]

AASCF also introduced a new division for their 2020 Nationals, introducing Premier Dance to separate the elite teams competing for Summit and IASF Worlds bids from the all star teams who were not doing so. It was originally planned that teams would use their scores from AASCF's 2020 States and Spring Carnival championship events to qualify for the Premier dance division at the 2020 Nationals event.[118]

With this media spotlight and new introductory program, 2020 was set to see further growth for the cheerleading industry before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, with Australia pursuing a zero-COVID suppression strategy until late 2021, with strict lockdowns and contact tracing across the country.[365][366] Due to cheerleading being a largely contact sport, it was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. As a result, ASCA released a range of COVID-19 recommendations about how the industry should navigate this, including best practice for trainings,[367][368] business continuity advice,[369][370] hygiene guidelines,[371] and gym closure order details and procedures.[372] These guidelines and advice received updates over the course of the COVID-19 pandemics, adjusting for the changing situation. With many competition events cancelling in person events and transitioning to being virtual events due to the COVID-19 health restrictions, ACSA also released an update to the existing 2019 event sanctioning standards[331] with adaptions provided for virtual competition standards to continue the standard of safety and provide a framework for virtual event delivery.[373]

As the country began to reopen from the COVID-19 lockdowns, ACSA then released a framework for the resumption of all star cheer and dance within Australia in line with the Sport Australia "Framework for Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment". This framework also received multiple updates throughout the pandemic to allow for adjustment in line with state and local government restrictions and the changing situation and recommendations.[374]

The impact of COVID-19 significantly impacted the landscape of which competitive cheer took place in Australia, as event providers adapted throughout the year with their offerings.

AASCF had slated their calendar to be their usual lineup of Winterfest, Battle, States, Spring Carnival, Nationals and Pinnacle throughout 2020.[375] The only significant change to their 2019 event lineup was the move of Dance Battle from Sydney to Melbourne, due to feedback from the community after a venue date conflict with NDA.[118] However, as COVID-19 began to impact the world, AASCF were forced to shift their plans a number of time within 2020. The first shift was made in March, with AASCF moving their 2020 Winterfest series, scheduled for June, into the time slots that were held by Battle, in August and cancelling the 2020 Battle series.[376][118] A second change was made with Winterfest also being cancelled in May, with the season then slated to begin with the States championship series in September. At this time, Spring Carnival was also added to the calendar for South Australia in order to give SA teams an additional competition before Nationals.[377] In June 2020, AASCF officially cancelled the Australasian Pinnacle for the year due to not having enough championships in the lead up to gather a competitive number of teams.[378] AASCF cancelled their Western Australian State championships by August 2020.[379] The only 2020 AASCF States or Spring Carnival to go ahead in person was the South Australian events, with New South Wales and Queensland hosting their events in a virtual format and Victoria's events cancelled entirely due to level 4 lockdown restrictions.[380] It was confirmed in September 2020 that AASCF would be moving forward with a live virtual format for Nationals during 2020, with each teams performing live at an appointed time which would be livestreamed and judged in real time, replicating the live real time performance and judging format of a nationals event.[380]

Aussie Gold started their year with their usual Coaches Conference, which was held mid January. Their original event calendar for 2020 included events in Rockhampton, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Townsville across 8 championship events. Across these events, bids were able to be won to their own State Championships and Internationals event as well as AASCF's Australasian Pinnacle event, the 2020 Spirit Royale held in the Bahamas and the 2021 IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds.[381] However as the pandemic developed, during March 2020, Aussie Gold cancelled their Rockhampton Showcase event that had been scheduled for late June.[382] They also began hosting IASF coach credentialing courses online via Zoom throughout 2020.[383] Aussie Gold announced in August 2020 that they would be staging a virtual competition during November, that was open to entry from any team around the world.[384] This event attracted participation from teams from Japan, Thailand, Korea, USA and New Zealand as well as Australia.[385] Aussie Gold confirmed cancellation of their Queensland championships in September 2020, with their Victorian championships already cancelled, however went ahead with staging the South Australian and Western Australian championships in in-person event formats.[386]

Prior to COVID-19's impacts, CheerCon had announced the introduction of a new event with plans to host the Australian leg of the Nfinity Champions League in December 2020.[387] This was planned alongside events for Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, including the Battle at the Beaches event in New South Wales and an international showoffs for Worlds and Summit teams before they travelled. However, once the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions began, CheerCon cancelled all in person events, announcing a shift to a virtual event format in May 2020.[388] This took the final form of three virtual events, which saw support from over 80 programs, with 13 gyms entering in all three events. CheerCon also was one of only two Australian event providers who awarded bids to the next Cheer and Dance Worlds.[389]

Dance and Cheer Events had originally announced that they would be awarding bids at all of their events, including paid entry bids for other DCE events, qualification for Challenge of the Champions, JAMZ Nationals in the United States and IASF Cheer and Dance Worlds. Events were set to held predominantly across the East Coast in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, with a State Showdown also held in Hobart during November.[390] Due to the impact of COVID-19, DCE reduced to a 3 event calendar, holding one event in Tasmania, one in Queensland and one in New South Wales, with a four tier safety plan to be able to offer events with a range of safety options.[391]

Spirit Industries Australia had originally planned to host two cheer and dance events during 2020 - Winter Warm Up in July, and Spring Show Offs in November - with 2020 marking their 10 year anniversary season.[392]

2020 also exposed concerns around the safeguarding within Australian cheerleading, with sexual abuse allegations arising. During April 2020, a female Australian cheerleading coach faced court with allegations of having sexually exploiting one of the athletes she coached,[393] with charges of the alleged sexual abuse of three athletes being pressed in July 2020.[394] By September 2020, the prosecutors in the case announced their intention to proceed with allegations that involved 14 athletes in incidents that took place between August 2015 and December 2017.[395] However, the trial for these charges were delayed due to a COVID-19 related backlog of court cases.[396]

Before this event, ACSA did not have a member protection policy, with this causing a member protection policy to be created in response in July 2020 for a November 2020 release. The ACSA policy aimed to create a blueprint for the way coaches, gym owners and others working with athletes participated in the sport and outlined their responsibilities in protecting athletes, particularly minors.[397] However, prior to ACSA's formation in 2017, AASCF had a child safe policy[398] and template for a child safe code of conduct for clubs to utilise.[399] Following the release of the Athlete A documentary regarding the sexual abuse of young female gymnasts in the United States, the Australian Human Rights Commission undertook an independent review of gymnastics in Australia, leading to Sport Integrity Australia rolling out a National Integrity Framework for all Australian sports in 2021.[400] This framework included child safeguarding policies, child safeguarding policy template for sporting organisations and child safe practices do's and don'ts with the goal of protecting minors from abuse in sport.[401][402][403][404] Adherence to the national integrity policies within this framework is a requirement of the process of a sporting organisation being approved for National Sporting Organisation status by Sport Australia.[405] While ACU did have a pre-existing member protection policy, neither ACSA nor ACU have updated their first releases of these policies to align with the standard required of NSOs as of June 2023.[406]

During 2020, Australian Cheer Union continued their establishment and formation, releasing their strategic plan for 2020 - 2023 in May 2020. This strategic plan outlined a mission to lead, promote, grow and champion cheerleading in Australia, with a focus on healthy and inclusive competition that supports the growth and development of participants with best practice governance and administration. This strategic plan details that within this strategic plan period, ACU had the key strategic imperatives to achieve recognition as an NSO, develop and activate state board and operational policies, confirm and market membership benefits, activate membership recruitment, recruit a CEO to lead and manage day to day admin operations and support financial sustainability and growth by establishing partnerships with commercial entities.[7]

The ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemics meant that a number of changes were made to cheerleading within Australia, impacting the competitive environment within Australia.

Due to the impacts of COVID-19, ACSA's age grid (and all competitions who aligned with the age grid), allowed an age exception to the age grid that allowed athletes to be one year younger or one year older than the age grid. The exceptions to this were the lowest age of the tiny novice division, university and scholastic divisions, and IASF divisions that allowed qualifications for Summit and Cheerleading and Dance Worlds events.[407]

Aussie Gold announced a number of events around Australia, including showoffs, state championships, showcases and internationals, originally hosting 7 in person championship events alongside two virtual events for 2021.[408] Their Aussie Gold Internationals event continued to be a bid event for IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds, awarding bids for the 2022 event.[408] However due to the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions, Aussie Gold cancelled a number of dates throughout 2021, removing their QLD State Championships, Townsville showcase and Gold Coast showcase from their calendar.[409] Their 2021 Victorian State Championship doubled in size from their previous 2019 event in the state.[346] Their Worldwide Virtual Edition event returned for 2021, which attracted teams participating from Japan, New Zealand, Scotland and the United States.[410]

AASCF began the year by hosting their annual coaches conference, however in light of the ongoing pandemic, they held this event virtually. They also introduced a Victorian specific event, "Spirit of AASCF", as an intiatve to help clubs get back into action during 2021.[411] The first release AASCF event calendar for 2021 saw Winterfest held in NSW, QLD, Vic and SA; Cheer Battle held in QLD, Vic and NSW; Dance Battle held in Vic; States held in WA, QLD, NSW, Vic and SA; Spring Carnival held in NSW, Qld, Vic and SA; and their Nationals and Pinnacle events held in Victoria. It also saw the introduction of a virtual Battle event for stunt groups and dance doubles, alongside a states event for stunt groups and dance doubles which was used to qualify these routines for nationals.[411] While the events that did go ahead successfully saw strong turnout, such as Queensland's Winterfest competition seeing 2050 athletes across 330 teams enter,[412] the pandemic did have a negative impact on competitions throughout the year. During the Queensland Battle event, held during July 2021, Queensland authorities announced a snap lockdown for 11 local government areas including the City of the Gold Coast, where the event was being held. This led to AASCF having to end the event at the end of the first Saturday session at 11am, in order to allow participants to travel back to their home and time to pack down the venue.[413] Another impact of COVID-19, was AASCF changing their National championships to be held in a virtual format, which was then livestreamed. This virtual nationals event saw over 6700 athletes entered across 1100 teams from 148 clubs.[414]

Cheerbrandz began offering an alternative approach to cheerleading national championships in Australia in 2021 that reflected the impact that COVID-19 was having on the industry with border closures in mind by introducing Super Nationals. This event held in person event hubs in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, allowing teams to compete in person as well as offering virtual entries, with all routines who competed at in person event locations being ranked against each other to determine the division champions to ensure that it still held the spirit of a nationals competition.[415][416][417][418][419]

After their first event was cancelled due to the impact of COVID-19, Golden Mile Championship held their inaugural championship in Kalgoorie in 2021.[420]

CheerCon started the year by hosting a tour for Brianna Ritchie of Base Rehab to visit a number of regions around Australia during February through to April, offering workshops as well as services to gyms with the goal of educating coaches, athletes and gym owners. This tour underscores the increasing professionalism and expansion of cheer as a sport in Australia, taking advantage of sports based services such as sport physiotherapy and implementing specialised conditioning, strengthening and injury prevention programs.[421] CheerCon had initially planned a full calendar of in person event dates that reflected the strength of Australia's cheerleading industry despite the COVID-19 impacts, which was accompanied by an Icebreaker Virtual Event and the introduction of a virtual Christmas Internationals event held in mid-December.[422] However, as a result of the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, CheerCon made adjustments to their competition calendar in order to provide as many programs as possible with a competition experience during the year. These changes included changing their Nfinity Champions League event and Worlds Experience events to be hybrid events, and shifting dates for multiple competitions, however also led to Battle at the Beaches and NSW State Championships being cancelled for 2021.[423] CheerCon's Victorian State Championships were held outdoors, marking Victoria's first outdoor cheer and dance event, in order to accommodate pandemic related restrictions surrounding events.[424] Their South Australian event also saw a 25% increase in entries from their last event in the state in 2019, marking CheerCon's first ever 3 day event to accommodate the demand.[425]

Dance and Cheer Events had to cancel and change some previously planned events due to the ongoing challenges posed by COVID-19, including their NSW State Showdown and combining APGI with their QLD DCE Challenge. DCE also offered virtual entries to interstate teams for APGI in recognition that border restrictions did not allow teams to travel to compete for the IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds bids offered in person.

In August 2021, ACSA saw a shift as their first chairperson, Stephen James, stepped down from his role as chairperson and the board due to unforeseen personal circumstances. Edward Miles was voted in by the board as the new chairperson until the 2022 AGM, stepping up from his role of deputy chairperson, with Jordan Wiilson-Otto being voted in as new vice-chairperson.[426]

Following on from the previous year, Australian media continued to promote how inclusive the sport was for different demographics, such as adults and parents within the adult division.[427]

Australia elite teams participated in the IASF 2021 Virtual Cheerleading and Dance Worlds event, with 10 Australian teams being crowned world champions and 16 teams in total placing.[428][429] Australian event producers continued to facilitate elite Australian teams to take part in international events in the future by offering bids at their events. CheerCon's Worlds Experience awarded 3 partially paid and 9 at large bids for teams to compete at the 2022 Cheerleading Worlds.[430]

The Australian cheerleading community continued to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry, with event producers shifting their offerings to reflect the shifts due to these impacts.

Due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, ACSA's age grid (and all competitions who aligned with the age grid), continued to allow an age exception, allowing athletes to be one year younger or one year older than the age grid. The exceptions to this were the lowest age of the tiny novice division, university and scholastic divisions, and IASF divisions that allowed qualifications for Summit and Cheerleading and Dance Worlds events.[431]

AASCF's annual coach conference was held virtually this year during February, as well as a virtual Spirit of AASCF season starter for Victorian clubs. They also introduced Dance Battle to all the existing Cheer Battle events, now including dance in Queensland and Victoria.[432] Alongside these, they hosted their Winterfest and Spring Carnival events in four states (NSW, Qld, Vic and SA), as well as their states events in five states (WA, QLD, NSW, Vic and SA). They continued to host virtual events for stunt groups and dance doubles that coincided with battle and states, as well as hosting their annual national championships in person once again on the Gold Coast, followed by their Australasian Pinnacle event.[432] AASCF's 2022 National Championships went ahead on the Gold Coast, seeing 1800 athletes coming across 1900 teams from 185 clubs. This event offered 32 cheer bids and 40 dance bids to the 2023 IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds event in Orlando, Florida.[433] 2022 would mark the last year that the Australasian Pinnacle would be staged by AASCF.

AASCF also updated their Child Safe Policy during February 2022, with this applying to all visitors, clients, customers, athletes and contractors participating in or viewing any service, program or event hosted by AASCF.[434]

Cheerbrandz held events throughout Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, hosting their Eutopia competition and Super Nationals hubs in all three locations as well as the Australaisian Majors in Brisbane.[435]

CheerCon expanded their offerings to Queensland once again for the first time since 2017, however their competition returned to Far North Queensland as they hosted a hybrid format Icebreaker event in Townsville, rather than in South East Queensland like previous events.[436] CheerCon also expanded into Tasmania by staging a State Championship event in the state, alongside their existing State Championships in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.[436] While the Battle at the Beaches event was once again postponed, however CheerCon did offer a new event called Battle at the Bridge. This was held at Luna Park in Sydney during October, filling the spot of Battle at the Beaches on the calendar.[436] They finished off the year with a virtual national championships event which saw 150 entries.[437]

The CheerCon 2022 New South Wales State Championships/Worlds Experience event marked the biggest cheerleading and dance event ever held in the state, with over 2600 athletes competing across 450 teams during the event.[438]

Infinite Spirit All Stars held events in Hobart and Cairns, but also held an event in Brisbane during July. The Tasmanian States, held in Hobart during November, acted as a qualifying event for stunt and dance doubles for AASCF Nationals. Alongside these, ISAS also offered in house judging and workshops across Australia as well as online coaching workshops covering a wide array of topics on request.[439]

September 2022 saw the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance announcing their official application for NSO recognition by Sport Australia due to the lack of NSO for all star cheer and dance in Australia since Gymnastics Australia stepping down in 2018.[440] As part of this process, ACSA updated a range of policy documents and procedures. This included their code of conduct for members and affiliated organisations, which applies to all persons acting for or on behalf of ACSA, athletes, coaches, managers and support staff of ACSA, all persons participating in ACSA sanctioned events, officials, commissaries and support personnel for ACSA events and ACSA appointed delegated and employees of ACSA.[441] This also included their board charter (defining the roles, responsibilities and authorities of the ACSA board to set the direction, management and guidance of ACSA)[442] and updating their constitution.[443]

It also saw CheerCon announcing their plans to introduce a new end of year nationals addition to their 2023 event series via a facebook statement. This event, "Best of the Best Nationals", would be held at ICC Sydney Darling Harbour in the first weekend of December, offering an end-of-year nationals alternative to AASCF's Nationals event.[444][445]

Further major changes were made to the competition offerings in Australia in October 2022 as AASCF announced their 2023 event dates. This announcement revealed that they would no longer be hosting their bid-only Pinnacle event, instead replacing this with "The Road to IASF Worlds". The 2023 event is scheduled to be held the day after AASCF's Nationals event, the same as Pinnacle, however would only be for teams competing for a bid to the 2024 Cheerleading Worlds event in Orlando, Florida.[446][447]

Adelaide gym All Abilities Cheer and Dance received media spotlight throughout 2022 as they travelled to the AASCF Nationals as a disability-only program that promoted participation of disabled athletes within the sport.[448]

In January 2023, ACSA released a statement confirming that their September 2022 NSO application had been denied. This statement also revealed that ACU had also submitted an application to be recognised as NSO, with varying eligibility requirements met by each organisation, expressing ACSA's intent to work together with ACU to create a resolution to bring the two organisations together.[449]

For the 2023 season, ACSA began enforcing changes to their cheer image policy that states that uniform tops may not include an exposed midriff with a crop top, regardless of the age of the athlete, with all uniform tops being required to be secured by straps or material over at least one shoulder or around the neck. Prior to this change, senior and open teams held an exception that allowed them to have an exposed midriff. ACSA stated that this change was a strong step towards their values of creating an environment where everyone felt welcome, safe and respected.[450][451] This change had been announced to be coming into effect during this season during previous releases of the ACSA image policy.[452] Despite no longer being a member of ACSA during 2023, AASCF also adopted these changes into their image policy.[453]

During February 2023, the delayed trial of the female coach charged with a number of charges relating to sexual abuse of athletes began, at which time the coach pleaded not guilty. These charges included three counts of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child, one aggravated count of indecent assault and three basic counts of indecent assault, with four of the alleged victims being just 12 years old, spanning across more than 21 alleged incidents of abuse. This trial continued in the absence of a jury until September 29, 2023, at which time the coach was acquitted of all charges as Judge Joana Fuller concluded "In those circumstances I could not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the touching occurred in circumstances of indecency", as during the trial that it was shown it was commonplace for athletes and coaches at that gym to discuss sexual topics and touch each other, including on the breasts,[454] in breach of the safeguarding policies that both AASCF and Gymnastics Australia had publicly published during the relevant time period.[398][399]

Australian cheerleading competitions and events continued to reflect the ongoing growth of the sport within Australia.

All Things Cheer and Dance Australia celebrated their 10 year anniversary of their Starz Championship in Perth during 2023, with their 2023 event calendar also including Friday Night Lights and The Showdown events in South Australia and Western Australia.[455][456] They also hosted a dance specific convention and coaches education during September as well as a conference for cheer, staging both in Adelaide and Perth.[456] The November Western Australian showdown was announced as an IASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds bid event, offering both partial paid and at large bids.[456]

AASCF continued to host their Winterfest (NSW, Qld, Vic, SA), Battle (QLD, Vic, NSW), States (WA, QLD, NSW, Vic, SA), Spring Carnival (NSW, Qld, Vic) and Nationals (Vic) championship events around Australia during 2023. During 2023, AASCF discontinued hosting their Pinnacle event, instead replacing this in the calendar with a new event The Road to IASF Worlds. This would be a day 2 of competition for teams who were competing for a bid to the Cheerleading and Dance Worlds, with bids awarded at the end of this competition. At the conclusion of the Nationals weekend, AASCF have scheduled a coaches conference. To accompany these events, AASCF also hosted two virtual events for stunt groups and dance doubles, with the second of these events being used as a qualifier for stunt groups and dance doubles to compete at the AASCF National championships event in person.[457] The 2023 AASCF National Championships saw a 180+ clubs enter 1700+ teams, made of 11000+ athletes, which included 17 teams from China and 2 teams from New Zealand.[458]

Aussie Gold Cheer and Dance's 2023 calendar ran from August through November, including state championships in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, and an International Championships in South Australia. At their state championships, Aussie Gold awarded bids to their Internationals event, with their Internationals event offering teams the chance to win bids to both the 2024 Cheerleading and Dance Worlds and 2024 Cheer and Dance Summit, both held in Orlando, Florida.[459]

CheerCon hosted a number of events including their Icebreaker championship (Vic, WA, SA), Worlds Experience (NSW), State Championships (NSW, Vic, SA, WA) and Nfinity Champions League (NSW). They also began hosting a new event, introducing the Best of the Best Nationals to held held the weekend after AASCF Nationals in early December, at the ICC Sydney Darling Harbour venue.[460]

Cheerbrandz started the year by hosting a virtual event during April that was open to all ICU, IASF Worlds and Global Games teams. During 2023, Cheerbrandz removed all Melbourne, Victoria events from their in person event schedule, hosting their Eutopia and Super Nationals events only in Sydney and Brisbane and their Majors event in Brisbane. However, they offered virtual and in person entries at all events, which enabled teams from other states to enter without travelling.[461]

Dance Cheer Events hosted events across QLD and NSW, including State Championships in both states, an international event in Queensland and a Nationals event in NSW.[462] While their Queensland APGI intenrational event was initially announced to be an IASF Worlds Bid event once again, DCE moved this opportunity to their NSW Nationals event in May 2023.[463] This meant that DCE Nationals now offers 1 partial paid and 3 at large bids for cheer teams and 2 partial paid and 6 at large bids for dance teams. DCE Nationals also offers bids to Summit as well as JAMZ Nationals Las Vegas competition.[464]

Infinite Spirit All Stars held a number of events across Queensland and Tasmania, hosting the FNQ Cheer and Dance Championships in Mackay, Sunshine Spectacular in Brisbane, Tasmania States in Hobart, FNQ Spooktacular in Cairns and Southern Spectacular in Hobart.[465] Infinite Spirit All Stars competitions were set apart from other Australian competitions during 2023, as they did not split their divisions by all-girl and coed within the age groups, counting traditional coed skills towards the elite stunt scoring regardless of the gender of the athletes performing the skill.[465] Prior to 2023, they had only split teams into co-ed and all girl divisions if deemed necessary on an event-by-event basis, with level 3 and above co-ed teams still being required to fulfil any co-ed stunt requirements even if the division was not split.[466] Infinite Spirit All Stars was also set apart as they did not adopt the same image policy changes that had banned midriff cheerleading uniforms that had been adopted by ACSA sanctioned events and AASCF for the 2023 season onwards.[465]

During June 2023, the first of the 2024 event producer dates began to be released which saw a shift in the current Australian event calendar. This began with AASCF releasing their first draft of their 2024 venues and dates, which saw a shift of their 2024 Nationals dates to the first weekend in December 2024 (Thursday 5th to Monday 9th).[467] This marked a major shift for AASCF, who had held their Nationals event in the last weekend of November every year since 2013, including the planned dates for the cancelled 2020 and 2021 events.[468][469][470][471][472][473][474][475][476]

In August 2023, CheerCon's owner, Danielle Jimenez, confirmed CheerCon's 2024-2025 event dates via a comment on the Aussie Cheer Advice community forum group.[477][478] This revealed that CheerCon had shifted the dates for their 2024 Nationals event a week earlier than their 2023 dates, to November 29 - December 1st 2024. While this would usually align with the dates that would usually be used by AASCF for their Nationals event historically, in 2024 both events shifting their date ensured that there was no conflict. However, Cheercon's 2025 dates did shift their Nationals event back to the first weekend in December on that announced planned schedule.[477]

In October 2023, Aussie Gold announced their event dates for 2024 via social media statement on Facebook. This announcement included changes to Aussie Gold's offerings that introduced another alternative nationals event in November 2024, held in Adelaide and offering bids to Cheerleading and Dance Worlds. During 2023, this timing and location was used for their Internationals event,[479] however Aussie Gold also confirmed in this announcement that this event would be moved to the Gold Coast, with a time change to August 2024 and now offering bids to Summit. Aussie Gold also confirmed that they had already confirmed 100 athletes from Japanese teams signed up for this event at the time of announcement. A NSW State Championships event was also announced, adding further diversity within the Australian cheerleading competition event offerings.[480]

Australian cheer teams travelling internationally obtained media coverage throughout the year, such as Skybound Elite Allstars' trip to Hawaii,[481] as well as Sirens' Anthem competing at the 2023 Cheerleading Worlds event.[482]

The first iteration of Australian Cheer Union (ACU) was formed in 2008 as a subsidiary of Gymnastics Australia, designed to manage cheerleading as a sport.[90] During this period, ACU was recognised as the official governing body of Australian cheerleading by the International Cheerleading Federation (ICF), International All Star Federation (IASF), International Cheerleading Union (ICU) and the Australian Sports Commission (ASC).[483][90]

In December 2018, ICU announced the establishment of a national cheer federation under approval from Sports Australia, forming the current iteration of ACU.[294] This current version of ACU continues to be recognised by ICU as the official body for cheerleading in Australia.[484] ACU is currently working towards the goal of advancing cheerleading and performance cheerleading in Australia with a focus on healthy competition and participation as well as overall industry growth, working very closely with ICU to obtain recognition of cheerleading by the International Olympic Committee. As part of their current strategic plan, ACU aims to achieve recognition as a National Sporting Organisation with Sports Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee.[7]

After submitting an application to Sports Australia in 2022, ACU were denied recognition as a National Sport Organisation on the grounds that two competing organisations had applied for NSO recognition with varying eligibility requirements met by each organisation.[9]

ACU offers a membership program, offering three membership options for different demographics:[485]

• Participant membership: This membership option is offered for athletes and participants within the sport. Participant members receive access to ACU High-Performance Programs, eligibility to compete at ACU and ICU sanctioned events, as well as access to education, accreditation, coaching and judging workshops, along with discounted industry-related products. Additionally, participant members can access sponsorship and scholarship opportunities, receive regular updates and newsletters, participate in workshops and programs hosted by ACU, engage in athlete commissions for voicing concerns, access athlete-specific training and education, benefit from a Members Protection Policy, and have opportunities for High-Performance representation and activities.[486]
• Technical membership: This membership option is offered to coaches and judges. Technical members receive access to ACU High-Performance Programs as coaching or judging officials, eligibility to attend and officiate at ACU and ICU sanctioned events, and access to education and accreditation, including international pathways. They also gain access to discounted industry-related products, scholarship opportunities, regular updates and newsletters, support for membership and education-related inquiries, and resources like IASF and ICU/ACU Rules. Additionally, coaches and judges can use ACU logos in accordance with guidelines, promote themselves through ACU platforms, benefit from locally stored credential information, and record coaching and judging hours for credentialing convenience.[487]
• Club/Studio membership: This membership option is offered to clubs and studios who offer cheerleading and performance cheer/allstar dance programs. Club membership benefits include access to the ACU Information Hub on the ACU website, which provides templates for gym management, training and webinar information, industry policies and guidelines. Club members also receive regular updates and newsletters, permission to use ACU logos, gym promotion through ACU platforms, direct communication with ACU representatives, visa assistance for international coaches, acknowledgment with a window sticker and certificate, support for membership and education inquiries, access to IASF and ICU/ACU Rules, the ability to host ACU-sanctioned seminars/workshops/events, access to ACU High-Performance Programs, eligibility to compete at ACU and ICU events, and discounted industry-related products.[488]

The Australian Cheer Sport Alliance (ACSA) was formed in 2017 by a number of event producers in order to formalise the role that coaches, gym owners and event producers had been delivering as key stakeholders to the sport.[489] Founding board members included members from Gymnastics Australia, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, Australian All Star Cheer Federation, and Aussie Gold.[490]

ACSA provides a wide range of resources and policies to promote, develop and support all star cheer and dance in Australia,[491] including standardised age grids, skill lists and rules to be implemented by its sanctioned event producers.[492]

ACSA offers a membership program for both event producers and allstar cheer and dance programs, with members having a voice to help shape ACSA's standardised rules, safety guidelines and competition standards to establish best practice guidelines for integrity of allstar cheer and dance as a sport.[493] Event producer membership allows for event producers to become sanctioned events, with the event producer being required to follow a range of safeguarding standards and the ACSA cheer and dance event sanctioning standards.[494] Club members are bound to the club membership standards including child safeguarding requirements, insurance coverage and staff qualifications to ensure a safe more regulated environment within allstar cheerleading and dance within Australia,[495] with parents and athletes able to access a list of ACSA endorsed member gyms via their website.[496]

In September 2022, ACSA applied for national sporting organisation recognition by Sport Australia,[497] however, this application was denied by Sport Australia on the basis that both ACSA and ACU had submitted applications as competing organisations, with both having varying eligibility requirements met. At the time of denial, ACSA released a press statement updating the cheer community of this denial, and stating that it looks forward to working with ACU to bring the two organisations together.[9]

As of September 2023, ACSA's 2023 sanctioned event schedule includes events from:[498]

• CheerCon
• Aussie Gold
• All Things Cheer and Dance

As of September 2023, listed ACSA Endorsed member gyms include:[499]

• Adrenalin Cheer and Dance
• Atomic Allstars
• Ausfunk
• Blitz FCD Studios
• Brave Athletics
• Brisbane All Stars Cheerleading
• Bullets Allstars & Mathis Dance Studios
• Cheer Aesthetics / CA Flyers
• Cheer Energy
• Cheer FX
• Cheer Geelong / Geelong Elite
• Elite All-Stars Cheer and Dance
• Empire Elite Allstars
• EOD Allstars
• Evolution All Stars Cheer and Dance
• Evolve Allstars
• Excited Dance and Cheer
• FAD Cheer and Dance (all locations)
• Flex GC
• Force Elite Academy
• Fraser Coast Cheer and Dance
• Great Lakes Cheerleading
• Gymstars Cheerleading and Gymstars Dance Dynasty
• High Voltage All Stars
• Highett Youth Club / HYC Cheer
• Ignite Ballarat
• Infinity Circus and Acro
• Insanity All Stars Cheer and Dance
• KC Allstars Cheerleading
• Legacy Allstars
• Legends Cheerleading
• Melbourne Cheer Academy
• Northern Cheer Elite
• NRG Studios Allstars
• Plié Cheer & Dance
• Royalty All Stars
• Skybound Elite Allstars Cheerleading
• SM Cheer & Dance
• South Coast Elite
• Sydney Springs Cheerleading
• Visual Energy Studios

Gymnastics Australia (GA) began acting as the governing body of Australian cheerleading in 2002, including the sport under their "General Gymnastics" stream and establishing a working committee led by Nerine Cooper, as well as holding the first national championship.[34]

In July 2008, GA formed the Australian Cheer Union (ACU) to serve as the official governing body to standardise cheer rules, advance coach and judge education and safety, and coordinate a national calendar for cheerleading.[90] ACU would remain under Gymnastics Australia management until 2018, being recognised as the official governing body by the International Cheerleading Federation (ICF), International All Star Federation (IASF), International Cheerleading Union (ICU) and the Australian Sports Commission (ASC).[483][90]

During this time, GA recognised cheerleading as its own unique gym sport, alongside other disciplines such as artistic, rhythmic, trampoline, acrobatics and aerobic gymnastics. This included providing standardised level programs,[35] providing Australian Sports Commission recognised coach and judge accreditation,[500] competitions,[501] camps and workshops,[502] and cheerleading supplies such as footwear, uniforms and poms,[503] delivered under the AUS Cheer brand from 2008.[504]

When placed alongside other disciplines of gymnastics, cheerleading holds the most similarity to the discipline of acrobatic gymnastics, as well as the floor apparatus routines included in both men's and women's artistic gymnastics. Acrobatic gymnastics involves partner and group lifts, balancing and tosses, which can be seen as similar to cheer stunts, whereas the floor apparatus involves balancing and tumbling routines that are similar to the tumbling sections within a cheer routine. However, both men's and women's artistic gymnastics including the floor event and acrobatic gymnastics are governed internationally by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), whereas cheerleading is governed by the ICU.

After a steady decline in participation in GA's cheerleading programs despite growth in programs under other providers,[172][219] many attempts at independent consultants restructuring their governance,[201][219] and a petition asking for GA to resign as governing body,[238] GA finally stepped from their role as the official governing body of cheerleading in Australia in 2018.[505]

The International All Star Federation (IASF) acts as a form of defacto governing body for cheerleading, bringing structure, consistency, safety and growth to the global community of all star cheer and dance. The IASF began as a branch of the U.S. All Star Federation (USASF) before they officially split. While the International Cheer Union is the official recognised governing body of cheerleading internationally, its focus has remained on national teams and olympic games involvement, leaving IASF to fill the gap of focusing on facilitating international divisions, rules and competitions within all star cheerleading. The IASF's mission is to provide a common ground for countries involved in all star cheer and dance, offering rule clarity, a consistent coaching crednetiilling program and opportunities for athlete growth to produce international level athletes to help the global growth of the sport.[506][507]

The International Cheer Union is the official international sports governing body of cheerleading, recognised by SportAccord/Global Association of International Sports Federations,[508][509][510] the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF),[511] the Association for International Sport for All (TAFISA)[512] and the Alliance of Independent Recognised Members of Sport (AIMS).[513][514] The ICU is a partner of both the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire / International University Sports Federation (FISU)[515][516][517] and Special Olympics International,[518][519][520] and is a fully complaint signatory under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.[521][522]

The primary roles of the ICU include organising and promoting Cheer activities worldwide, supporting the development of Cheer programs, facilitating the formation of National Cheer Federations, coordinating international events and competitions, adhering to the rules of organisations like the IOC and WADA, and representing Cheer to the IOC. Additionally, the ICU recognises outstanding contributions to the sport and works to maintain ethical standards in sports education and competition.[523]

Currently the ICU has 119 member nations,[524] recognising the Australian Cheer Union as the official member body within Australia.[525]

The World Allstar Federation (WASF) is a new non-profit global sports federation in the cheer and dance industry launched in early 2022, with a focus on being athlete-centred with values of integrity, accountability and transparency. Its goal is to develop rules and processes that create safe and effective training methods and fair competitions, including athletes, coaches and stakeholders of all cheer disciplines a healthy pathway within the sport that can be implemented on a global level.[526][527] As of July 12, 2022, WASF announced that Les Stella would act as their executive director, with Stella having a 23 year long history in various leadership roles within the cheerleading industry including being the director of the IASF until stepping down from the role in 2021, having helped IASF, USASF and Varsity establish training, rules, ethics and judging programs.[528][529]

WASF offers an alternative worlds championship, hosting their first event in April 2023 in Kissimee, Florida, with a follow up event currently being planned for 2024.[530][531]

The following programs are noted as actively participating in allstar events during 2022 and 2023 per public runsheet information:[532][533][534][535][536][537][538][539][540]

• 2XS Comp Cheer (Dance 2XS)
• Aerial Gymnastics and Cheer
• Active Eight
• Adrenalin Cheer and Dance
• All Abilities Australia
• Alpha Athletics
• Ample Power Allstars
• Athena Cheer Academy
• AUSFunk
• Aussie Cheer and Dance
• Bayside Cheer and Dance (Opening 2024)[541]
• Brave Athletics Cheer
• Brisbane All Star Cheerleading
• Cheer Academy Townsville / The Burdekin Academy
• Cheer FX
• City Studios Townsville / City All Stars
• Dare 2 Dance
• Dance Express
• Danceology
• Dancing Stars Toowoomba
• Diamond Dance Company
• Debbie's Dance Studio / DDS Cheersquad
• Dynasty Cheer Mackay (DCA)
• Empire Elite Allstars
• Everdance Studio
• FAD Bayside
  • Competition teams under Supreme Studios
• FAD Beaudesert, Boonah and Jimboomba
• FAD Brisbane North
  • Competing under Brisbane North FAD Studios
• FAD Cheer and Dance Toowoomba, Gatton and Highfields
• FAD Coorparoo, Mt Gravatt and Wishart
• FAD Gold Coast
  • Competing under FGC Dance Studio and FGC Cheer
• FAD Ipswich
• FAD Logan East
  • Competition teams competing under LOUD Cheer and Dance FAD Studios
• FAD Logan West
  • Cheer competition teams competing under Elevate Athletics FAD Studios
  • Dance competition teams continue to compete under FAD Logan West Dance Studio
• FAD Moreton Bay North (Caboolture and Morayfield)
  • Competition teams competing under MBN Studios
• FAD Westside
  • Competition teams competing under Elevate Athletics FAD Studios
• FAD Wynnum
• Flex GC
• Formation Dance Training
• Fraser Coast Cheer & Dance
  • Also competing under Fusion Allstars
• Gold Coast All Stars
• Hy-fidelity Dance
• Infinity Athletics
• Inside Outside Dance
• Inspire Athletics
• The League Studios
• MADE Allstars
• Mega Cheer
• Millennium All Stars
• Outlaws Allstars
• Oxygen Allstars
• Pinnacle Dance Academy
• Prime Cheer
• Puls8 Studios
• Revolution Cheer and Dance
• Rogue Allstars
• Spirit Elite Allstars
• Studio 21
• Sunshine Coast Athletics/Sunshine Coast Cheerleading
• Tribe Dance Studios
• Toowoomba Tornadoes All Star Cheer
• Townsville Dance and Cheerleading
• Ultimate Dance Centre
• Whitsunday All Stars (Chez's House of Dance)
• X-treme Dance and Cheer
• ZACS Allstars

The following programs are noted as actively participating in allstar events during 2022 and 2023 per public runsheet information:[532][542][543][544]

• Acclaim Dance and Cheer Co
• Adrenalin Cheer Elite
• Airborn Cheerleading
• Attitude Dance and Cheer
• Aussie Gems Cheerleading
• Bradshaw Dance and Cheer
• Central Allstars
• Cheer Energy
• Combat All Stars
• Core Athletics
• Dance Sensations (DS Cheer)
• Dance Dymension
• Dance United Project
• Dream St Dance Co
• East Coast Allstars (ECA)
• Element Cheer and Dance
• EOD Allstars
• Epic Cheer Allstars
• Excite Dance and Cheer
• Expressions School of Dance
• Fanci Footwork Dance and Cheer
• First State Allstars
• Flight Allstars
• Full Force Dance and Cheer
• Great Lakes Cheerleading
• Gymaroo Allstars
• Gymstars Cheerleading
• Highrise Cheerleading
• Hunter Urban Dance Studio
• Hype Elite Dubbo (Ignite Gymnastics Club)
• Icon Gymsports
• iDance Performance Co
• Inferno Cheer and Dance
• Ivy League Allstars
• Kinetic Dance Force
• Legacy Allstars
• Liberty Allstars
• Maxi-Jazz Dance Studio
• MCPD Cheer and Dance
• NRG Studios Allstars
• Oxygen Allstars
• PCYC Glebe-Leichardt
• Plie Cheer and Dance
• Powerhouse Elite Cheer and Dance
• Premier Cheer Elite
• Prestige Academy of Dance
• Prodigy Dance Australia
• Reign Elite
• SBDS Dance & Cheer
• Scorpion Allstars
• Shire Elite Cheerleading
• Shoalhaven Cheer Academy (SCA)
• Steps 2 Stardom
• Stepz (SCDA)
• Sydney All-Stars
• Sydney Cheerleading Springs
• Titan Athletics
• To Shine
• Venom All Stars
• Westside Performing Arts

The following programs are noted as actively participating in allstar events during 2022 and 2023 per public runsheet information:[532][545][546][547]

• Atomic All Star Cheer
• Bayside Elite
• Bullets Allstars
• Cheer Geelong/Geelong Elite
• Cheer N Dance Bendigo / Blitz All Stars
• Dansation School of Dance (DCD)
• Eastern Cheer & Dance Academy
• Elite All Stars Cheer & Dance
• Endurance Elite
• Evolve All Stars
• Highett Youth Club (HYC)
• Ignite Cheerleading Ballarat / Ballarat Gymsports
• Jungle Cats
• Kreations Cheer and Dance
• Mathis Dance Studios (Performance Cheer only)
• Melbourne Cheer Academy
• MLC Gymnastics Clubs
• Outlaws Allstars
• Pacific Elite Dance
• Pressure Cheerleading and Dance
• Pure Allstars
• Pure Allstars
• Royal All Stars
• Signature All Starz
• Southern Cross Cheerleading (SCC)
• Starstruck Dance and Cheerleading Academy (SDCA)
• Storm Elite Allstars
• Upstage Cheer and Dance
• Vibe Studios
• Victorian Ballet School
• Victorian State Cheerleaders (VSC)

The following programs are noted as actively participating in allstar events during 2022 and 2023 per public runsheet information:[532][548][549][550][551]

• All Abilities Cheer and Dance
• Blitz FCD
• Cabarfeidh All Stars
• City All Stars/Mid North All Stars
• Dance Crew SA
• Dance Inc. Adelaide
• Empire Dance Studio
• EPC Allstars
• Force Elite Academy
• Gawler Academy of Dance
• Gaynor's School of Dance (GSD)
• H2J Dance
• Hip Hop Bounce
• Insanity Allstar Cheer and Dance
• Mighty All Stars
• Momentum All Star Cheerleading
• MTM All-Star Cheerleading
• Next Level Allstars
• Northern Cheer Elite
• One50 Dance
• Outlaws Allstars
• Phoenix Cheer and Dance
• Platinum Athletics
• Platinum Dance Co
• Purple Thunder Cheerleading
• Rebel 4orce Cheerleading, Gymnastics and Dance
• Royalty Allstars
• Skybound Elite
• South Coast Elite
• Visual Energy Studios

The following programs are noted as actively participating in allstar events during 2022 and 2023 per public runsheet information:[532][552][553][554][555][556][557]

• CA Flyers
• Cosmic Empire Allstars
• Extreme Cheer Allstars
• Evolution All Stars Australia
• Gold Rush Cheer
• High Voltage All Stars
• ICE Elite All Star Cheer and Dance
  • Performance Cheer teams competing under Tilt Performing Arts
• Kalgoorlie Dance Academy
• Peppermint Dance Company
• Star-Mites Cheer and Dance / SM Cheer and Dance
• Studio X
• TNT All Stars
• Toxic Cheer and Dance
• Waves Cheer and Tumble
• West Coast Fury Cheerleading

The following programs are noted as actively participating in allstar events during 2022 and 2023 per public runsheet information:[558][532] [559]

• Allstar Cheer and Dance Tasmania (ACD)
• Claremont Emeralds Cheer
• Electric Cheer Squad
• KC Allstars Cheerleading
• South East Cheer and Dance
• Spirit Cheer and Dance
• Synergy Cheer and Dance Tasmania / Cheer Sport Tasmania
• Wynyard Wildcatz

The following programs are noted as actively participating in allstar events during 2022 and 2023 per public runsheet information:[532]

• Canberra City Cheerleaders
• Sirens Cheerleaders

In Australia, university cheer teams must follow specific rules and guidelines that are separate to the regular traditional all-star rules, and are outlined by the Australian All Star Cheerleading Alliance.[560]

In order to compete in the university division, the team must be made of 100% current university student athletes that compete at the same institutions, with student athletes providing their current university student ID card numbers on the entry forms and verifying their cards with event officials. Crossovers of athletes between university and all-star teams are allowed, but university athletes cannot compete twice within the same level.[560]

If a team has a mixture of current students, alumni, athletes from other universities and/or outside athletes, there is an option to enter as an open university cheer team. These teams compete in all-star divisions, following the all-star rules and regulations, and as such, cannot crossover into all-star teams.[560]

The ACSA rule outlines are based on the IASF/UWCC rules to determine which skills are allowed in each level, with exceptions for the level 1 and 1/2 NT divisions to allow any IASF level-appropriate tumbling. While tumbling is permitted in the non-tumble categories in this way, it is not scored separately.[560]

The university division offers the opportunity for teams to compete at level 1NT (both all girl and coed teams), all girl level 1/2NT, coed level 1/2NT, all girl level 3/4, coed level 3/4, all girl elite, coed elite, all girl premier and coed premier. The elite level is equivalent to IASF level 5, with the premier level equivalent to IASF level 6.[560]

The scoring depends on the level that the team competes in. Level 1NT teams are judged on the equivalent all-star non-tumble score sheet, with the division not being split into coed and all-girl categories. Level 1/2NT are judged on the all-girl university score sheet, however the division is still split into coed and all-girl for rankings. Levels 3/4, elite and premier teams are judged on either the coed or all girl university score sheet, dependent on the category they are entered in. All teams above level 1 utilise two score sheets, marking the teams on both crowd leading and the cheer routine, with specific separately judged elements.[560]

Routine time limits also depend on the level that the team is competing within. For example, a level 1NT team has a 2-minute time limit, however, 1/2NT and higher teams all have a time limit of 2 minutes 30 seconds. Penalties apply to a team if their routine exceeds this time limit, with deduction systems following the same system as all-star routines.[560]

As part of a university team's routine, they are required to present a cheer crowd leading portion, which is designed to represent the traditional roots of university cheerleading being a side line spirit sport.[560]

In this section, the judges assess the team's skills in encouraging the crowd's involvement, using signs, poms, megaphones and motions, their ability and energy in leading the crowd, incorporation of skills, performance factor and overall cheer impression. These criteria aim to capture how well a team can involve and engage the crowd.[560]

In both the divisions using the University All-Girl scorecard and the University Coed scorecard, the teams are judged on their use of stunts, pyramids, basket tosses, and group tumbling.[560]

However, in the teams using the university all-girl scoresheet, teams are also judged on dance, which they are not in the coed division. In comparison, the coed scoresheet adds the category of coed skills and partner stunts to be judged which is missing from the all-girl scoresheet.[560]

Cheersport is a semi-competitive program program that was established by the event producer, Cheerbrandz.[595] Cheersport offers access to competitive cheerleading without the same level of financial and time commitment, and is distinguished from elite all-star cheerleading by the use of a different skill level system.[595]

Instead of using the USASF/IASF style levels that are used in competitive cheerleading, Cheersport assigns grades that progress athletes up at a slower pace.[595]

The scoresheet is also altered from the regular competitive scoresheet. Some of these differences include:

• Routines are only required to be 1 minute 30 seconds long (as opposed to 2 minutes, 30 seconds)
• Difficulty is removed from the scoresheet
• Group uniformity scoring section is adapted from dance scoresheets in a way that encourages teamwork
• Performance factor plays a large part in the scoresheet
• A different stunt quantity rubric is used in order to encourage coaches to ensure all athletes have equal opportunity to perform and experience the sport. This rubric is called "maximum groups possible" and is based on the total number of athletes on the floor divided by 4 (the number of a full stunt group) in order to calculate the number of possible stunt groups.
• Teams are not scored on musicality, and recycled mixes, single songs and 8-count tracks are encouraged to maintain a low-cost option for the athletes.
• Uniforms are not judged, and teams are encouraged to use low-cost affordable athletic looking uniforms.[595]

Cheersport is not listed as a division option by the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance in 2023 and is exclusively offered at Cheerbrandz events currently.[492]

The CheerStars program was launched in 2020 as a project by the Australian Independent Event Producers group (Aussie Gold Cheer and Dance, CheerCon, Cheer Unlimited Australia, Spirit Industries Australia).[364] Due to Cheer Unlimited Australia and Spirit Industries Australia becoming defunct since the launch of the CheerStars program, CheerStars divisions are currently only offered at CheerCon and Aussie Gold events, however this allows for participation at events in every state in Australia (however no events are held in the two territories).[596]

This program has a similar goal to the Cheersport program from Cheerbrandz, providing an introductory dance and cheer program that is a stepping stone between IASF levels. 1 to 3.[364][596]

As such, it also does not utilise the competitive levels system, also providing an alternative graded progression system:

The scoresheet is also altered from the regular competitive scoresheet. Some of these differences include:

• CheerStars routines have no minimum music time requirement, with a recommended time between 1 minute 30 seconds and 2 minutes 30 seconds.[596]
• Teams are not judged on music mixes, with three pre-mixed free tracks of different lengths and three eight-count tracks of different lengths provided by CheerStars and teams being welcomed to use their own previously used music.[596]
• Teams are not judged on their uniform, and encouraged to use options they have in their club already such as recycled uniforms or low cost options such as club training wear. Uniform company TLC Spiritwear, owned by Nerine Cooper from Aussie Gold, released a range of CheerStars specific uniforms to provide a low cost accessible option for teams that were looking for a more formal uniform for teams.[364][596][597]
• Divisions were previously not split by age, with athletes of any age allowed to be entered to make up a team and suggestion made to structure the team per the traditional age group for similar age groupings.[598] However, as of 2023, divisions began being split by maximum age that is used on the ACSA age grid for each division for tiny through senior divisions, and a minimum age of 14 and over being applied for open teams and 22 and over for adult teams.[596]
• A new scoring system was introduced in 2023, to encourage coaches to focus on the individual execution drivers and educate regarding these. The focus continued to be execution with no difficulty scorecard, and is weighted similarly to an all-star scoresheet. Scores were given for building, tumbling, jumps and overall, rated using how many athletes successfully met each criterion and/or how often the team met the criteria throughout the routine when performing the skill (rarely/none, sometimes/some athletes, often/most athletes, always/all athletes).[596]
• In 2023, placings were introduced for CheerStars teams, with teams placing 1st to 5th being awarded in the same way that the other teams at the event within the all-star competitive categories are awarded (medal/trophies etc.). However teams that place 6th and below will also be acknowledge at the awards ceremonies.[596]
• Deductions are not given for rule violations, with the safety judge providing feedback if skills are performed in an illegal or unsafe manner.[596]

CheerStars divisions are not listed as divisions by the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance.[492]

All-star age groups are based on the competitors' ages at 31 December of the competition year (how many years old they turn at their birthday during the given calendar year).[602] In contrast, USASF has used age at May[603] or August[604] for normal divisions and December 31 for International divisions.[604]

Currently overlap in the age categories enables an athlete to compete in multiple teams who are entered in different age categories. For example, an 11 year old could compete on teams that are entered in the youth, junior and senior age categories.[602]

The age ranges have changed over the years as the sport grows, evolves and changes to concerns regarding safety. The most recent changes announced will see the open division raise their minimum age to align with the IASF age grid standards by 2025, with a minimum age of 15 years old being enforced in 2024 and a minimum age of 16 years old being enforced in 2025.[602][605]

The age category of the team also restricts the level that the team may be entered into for safety reasons, with younger age category teams not being allowed to enter higher levels for safety. There are also "sub-categories" within the junior and senior age divisions that do not allow teams with younger age category eligible athletes to enter the higher levels.[602]

During 2021, adjustments were made to the age eligibility grid to allow athletes one year older or one year younger than the age grid limits to participate in the teams in recognition of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the exception of the tiny novice minimum age not being lowered due to safety.[606] While this remained in place for 2022,[607] the extra year of eligibility was removed with the age grid reverting to its normal limits in 2023.[602]

As of 2023, age categories are offered in both ACSA Australian grouping as well as IASF age categories for teams that are competing within Australia for a bid to an international event.[602] However, it is important to note that while most events generally align with the ACSA Australian age grid, non-sanctioned events are not required to and thus may deviate in their offerings, with AASCF and Cheerbrandz being two such providers.

In 2023, event producers who are members of the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance are expected to follow the ACSA age grid in order to receive ACSA sanctioned event status and create uniformity across the industry.

The 2023 age grid removed the COVID-19 related extensions to age eligibility that had previously offered the opportunity to compete in an age division that an athlete was one year above or below the requirements point.

It also made notes that 2023 marked the last year for senior 4.2, with it being no longer offered in the open division in 2025 either.

For teams within the IASF divisions, levels 5 - 7 athletes may be 1 year younger in official eligibility while competing in the Australian season but must meet the minimum age requirement in the year of international competition. On this note, the ACSA club open division minimum age will be shifting over 2024 to 15+, followed by 16+ in 2025 to align with the IASF standards.

Until 2023, AASCF had previously aligned their age grid along with the ACSA age grid. However, AASCF no longer remains a sanctioned event provider by ACSA during 2023, despite being the largest competition provider and currently offers a grid that is a variation on the ACSA age grid. Variations from the ACSA age grid are in bold and italicised:

To ensure fair competition and safety, the age categories are further divided into difficulty levels that are based on the athletes' skill sets. The Australian level system is modelled after the USASF/IASF level system, dividing age categories across 7 different levels that allow different skills to be performed, as well as level 4.2 and novice also being offered. The levels that are offered vary by age, with younger age categories being prevented from competing in higher difficulty level teams.[602][626]

Within each level, there are detailed lists of the allowed and disallowed skills that are allowed to be used in a team's tumbling, stunts, pyramids and tosses, with teams being required to follow the core IASF rules for each level. This enables teams to compete with similarly skilled athletes to create a fair competition, as well as preventing athletes from attempting moves beyond their ability for safety purposes.[627][628]

Teams competing in level 4.2 are allowed to complete stunting skills that are allowed at level 4, however are restricted to level 2 tumbling. However this level is currently being phased out of Australian cheer by the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance, with level 4.2 no longer being offered in senior divisions as of 2024, and no longer being offered in open divisions as of 2025.[602]

Novice was a new level introduced in 2013 as a modified version of level 1,[614] with the goal of providing a way for newer athletes to ease in and be introduced to the sport while perfecting the basic skills on the competition floor.[629]

As part of the goal for athletes to get used to the sport and perfect the basics, novice teams have a more restricted rule set that disallows the more advanced level 1 skills to ensure safety.[629][630] Examples of skills allowed in level 1 but disallowed in novice include walkovers and walkover variations.[630]

To reflect these modified rules, the novice level also follows a different scoresheet which removes tosses and caps the difficulty score on stunts, stunt quantity, standing tumbling, running tumbling and pyramids.[630]

In order to maintain the spirit of the division as an introduction to the sport, athletes on a novice team are permitted to cross over and also compete in a level 1 team, however they are not permitted to compete in any level 2 team or above. Also with the goal of maintaining the "introduction" spirit of the category, novice teams do not receive deductions for athlete falls or where a rule violation was the result of a performance error.[630]

Over the years, the styles of dance included under allstar dance/performance cheer within Australia have varied, and continue to vary from event provider to event provider. However, in 2023, the following are the listed styles by the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance,[648] AASCF[649] and the Australian Cheer Union:[642]

• Hip Hop: This category emphasises the collective execution of moves, demanding synchronisation, uniformity, and precise spacing among the dancers. A successful routine in this category combines dynamic choreography with a keen sense of musicality, leveraging staging, intricate movements, and athleticism to create a captivating performance. Costuming plays a pivotal role in reflecting the distinctive style of this category, ensuring that the dancers reflect the category style.[642][648][649]
• Jazz: This category offers a fusion of traditional and stylised movements, executed with strength, precision, and a commanding presence. Within performance cheer, jazz encompasses a spectrum of jazz styles, from traditional and commercial jazz to musical theatre and jazz funk, incorporating intricate combinations, formation changes, group dynamics, leaps, and turns. There is an emphasis on technical excellence, including proper execution, extension, control, body placement, and team uniformity, while infusing each movement with style and musical interpretation. Jazz routines are a lively celebration of high-energy choreography, with dynamic transitions that harmonize with the rhythm of the music, creating a motivating and electrifying overall impression. The choreography may range from crisp and aggressive to moments of softness, with the movement complementing the musicality of the performance. To complete the package, costuming should mirror the distinctive style of jazz dance.[642][648][649]
• Pom: This category is characterised by mastery of precise Pom motion technique, with sharpness and cleanliness, while also drawing inspiration from Jazz, Hip Hop, and High Kick styles. A key emphasis lies in the collective execution, with a strong focus on synchronisation, uniformity, and spacing among the dancers. The choreography of a Pom routine is dynamic and visually captivating, showcasing musicality and staging with fluid and imaginative transitions, variations in levels and groups, and intricate movement sequences. Poms play an essential role throughout the routine, and costuming is expected to mirror the distinctive style of this category. Athletes are required to use poms for at least 80% of the routine to deliver clean, sharp, and precise motions while incorporating dance technical elements. Visual impact is crucial, encompassing elements like level changes, group formations, and the creative use of different coloured poms.[642][648][649]
• Lyrical/Contemporary: This category offers a fusion of organic, pedestrian, and traditional modern or ballet styles intertwined with the lyrical and rhythmic nuances of the music. This category places a strong emphasis on collective execution, demanding precise synchronisation, uniformity, and impeccable spacing among the dancers. The choreography of a Lyrical/Contemporary routine is dynamic and combines musicality, staging, intricate movements, and technical prowess. Additionally, the dancers' costumes should mirror the unique style of this category, ensuring a visually cohesive presentation that enhances the overall performance.[642][648][649]
• High Kick: This category is a showcase of inventive kick styles blended with a diverse range of skills and creative staging. The choreography must consistently feature an array of kicks, encompassing high kicks, low kicks, diagonal kicks, fan kicks, jump kicks, and more. The core elements of a successful routine in this category hinge on precision, impeccable timing, meticulous control, technical prowess, and the uniformity of kick height. Each kick should exhibit forceful execution, with one foot remaining grounded while the other lifts dynamically. It is crucial that kicks are seamlessly integrated throughout the entire routine, as their inadequate utilisation can impact the overall impression and score. The ultimate goal is to achieve synchronised, straight-line kicks at the same height, even among dancers of varying sizes, ensuring a visually stunning and technically impressive performance.[642][648][649]

Within Australia, allstar dance/performance cheer is split by difficulty into three major levels within the age divisions:

• Novice: Novice is offered as a beginner option, with the goal being for novice dance teams to perfect the basic dance skills before attempting harder skills. As a result, skills and difficulty are restricted for safety, with a difficulty score cap of 7.5 out of 10 applied for scoring. This is similar to the way that the novice division functions within typical allstar cheerleading. [648][649]
• All Star/Intermediate: The name for this level varies depending on competition providers, but this functions as a standard competition level for teams who have progressed out of novice but are not yet skill ready for advanced/elite/worlds level routines. At ACSA sanctioned competitions, intermediate division teams also have skill limitations placed upon their routines, however these limitations are less restrictive than those placed upon novice teams to allow for the athletes to progress in skill difficulty. [648][649]
• Elite/Advanced: Elite/Advanced categories have no skill difficulty restrictions placed upon them, with the teams following IASF worlds rules and age groups. Elite divisions begin being offered from the youth age group onwards. For teams competing within the AASCF event framework, a team is only eligible to compete in the elite division at AASCF Nationals if they have competed at least once before within the division earlier in the season. [648][649]

A dancer cannot compete within two difficulty divisions within the same style i.e. a dancer cannot compete in both a novice and intermediate jazz team, but could compete in a novice jazz team and intermediate hip hop team. Likewise, a dancer could not compete in both an intermediate and advanced pom team but could compete in an intermediate lyrical team and advanced pom team. [648][649]

Age groupings for performance cheer are based on the competitors' ages at 31 December of the competition year. Currently overlap in the way the age category structure allows an athlete to compete in multiple teams entered in different age categories. For example, an 8 year old could compete in the mini, youth and junior age divisions in different styles. The age ranges have changed over the years as the sport grows and evolves, with further changes set to be enforced in the coming 2 years.

The age category of the team also restricts the style of dance that the team may be entered into for safety reasons. At this stage, only teams of junior age and above are eligible to compete a high kick style dance routine.

As with allstar cheerleading, ACSA and AASCF's age grids diverge, posing conflict as AASCF remains Australia's largest event provider however does not follow the standardised age grid.

The scoring system is broken into four major categories: [648]

• Technical execution - 30%
  • Style execution - 10 points
  • Movement technique execution - 10 points
  • Skill technique execution - 10 points
• Group execution - 30%
  • Synchronisation and timing with music - 10 points
  • Uniformity of movement - 10 points
  • Spacing - 10 points
• Choreography - 30%
  • Musicality - 10 points
  • Routine staging and visual effects - 10 points
  • Complexity of movement - 10 points (capped at a maximum of 7.5 points for novice teams)
• Overall effect - 10%
  • Communication, projection, audience appeal, appropriateness - 10 points

The routines are scored and positioned by the judges on a sliding scale, that translates to scores equating to the following:[649]

• Skill not yet established - 5 - 6 points
• Average - 6 - 7 points
• Good - 7 - 8 points
• Excellent - 8 - 9 points
• Outstanding - 9 - 10 points

To match the CheerStars semi-competitive program, a DanceStars semi competitive program is also run alongside it by the same event producers at CheerCon and Aussie Gold events. The goal of this program is to bridge the gap between recreational and allstar dance, providing an opportunity for gyms, coaches and athletes to participate in competitions without the requirements of a novice or all star routine in terms of difficulty or skills. The focus is placed on execution and skill building over difficulty, allowing athletes to train to be clean and precise and encouraging them to perfect their skills before moving forward. [596]

DanceStars athletes are allowed to crossover into novice teams, but are not allowed to compete at any higher level, and the teams are not eligible for highest scoring team awards. A minimum of 4 athletes is required for a DanceStars team, with a maximum of 38. If there are less than 3 teams entered in a DanceStars division at a competition, the event producer has the right to combine divisions within the same dance style, as long as it does not result in a gym having two teams in the same division i.e. mini/youth jazz. Routines are limited to 2 minutes and 15 seconds, with no minimum time requirement, and the program providing free premixed options for pom routines of 1 minute 30 seconds or 2 minutes in length. [596]

The minimum age requirement is 3 years old, with no minimum age requirement being enforced on any age division at senior or below past that standard, creating the following age grid:

DanceABILITY exists as the performance cheer/all star dance equivalent of the CheerABILITY division. Like CheerABILITY, the division offers two main structures: independent and unified. In the independent structure, 100% of the team is made up of adaptive ability athletes, allowing them to compete and showcase their skill and talent. Within the unified structure, no more than 75% of the team can be made up of non-adaptive ability athletes, and combines both abled and disabled athletes in a way that highlights the disabled athletes while fostering inclusivity and teamwork. Athletes without disabilities are required to wear distinctive and identifiable 3 inch arm bands on both arms.[592]

Additionally, assistants are allowed in both structures to provide support to the disabled athletes. Assistants may provide one on one support or group support, however are not considered athletes on the team and do not contribute to the scorecard. Their role is to act as extra safety spotters or give directions via prompting from off the floor or side of the floor while not impairing the judges' view. Assistants must be registered for the event and dressed in all black.[592]

Within DanceABILITY, athletes can compete within any offered dance genre including jazz, hip hop, pom, lyrical/contemporary and kick.[592]

To be eligible to participate within this division, athletes must meet impairment eligibility criteria based on the Paralympics' impairment classifications, which include:

• Impaired muscle power
• Impaired passive range of movement
• Limb deficiency
• Leg length difference
• Short stature
• Hypertonia
• Ataxia
• Athetosis
• Visual impairment
• Intellectual impairment (including Fragile X Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, Apert Syndrome)
• Hearing impairment[593]

University performance cheer/dance teams are often formed as part of university cheerleading clubs, made by student clubs around Australia. These teams usually compete at all-star cheer and dance events around the country within a specific university division with its own modified rules. To participate in a university team, students must hold current ID cards from the university, ensuring that the team is made entirely of university students from that university. In the event that a team contains any athletes who are not a student at that university (whether that be a non-student, alumni or student from another university), the team are required to compete in the open all-star division. This is to help ensure that the university division maintains the spirit of being representative of each university.[161] In addition to all-star competitions, university dance teams also have the opportunity to compete at UniSport Nationals, an annual event that allows universities to compete head-to-head in a range of university-offered sports.[561][562]

Student athletes are restricted from competing twice in the same university style if their university club offers more than one team in each style, with crossovers between open university dance teams and allstar dance teams not being permitted. University dance routines have a maximum of 2 minutes, with open university dance teams having a maxium of 2 minutes and 15 seconds.[161]

A number of competitions offer the option of competing doubles routines for university clubs, which have a maximum of 1 minute and 30 seconds.[161]

All Things Cheer & Dance Australia (ATC) are based in Western Australia, founded in 2013 and celebrating their 10th anniversary in 2023.[184][652] It is currently own and operated by a group of industry leaders including Antonio Pino (Australian cheerleading industry consultant, judge and coach), Jameel Rayam (Varsity America ATCD U.S. director, Explosion Spiritwear CEO), Jibreel Rayam (IASF director) and Jesica Mckenzie (corporate marketing).[653][654]

ATC are listed as an ACSA sanctioned event provider as of June 2023[655] and were listed as an ACSA founding member.[656]

ATC are primarily focused on the West coast of Australia, holding their 2023 competitions, conventions and conferences across Western Australia and South Australia on a September to November schedule.[657][652]

AUSCheer was launched in 2009 as a program by Gymnastics Australia as their cheerleading focused branch. This initiative included a Nations Cup event series of 23 events around Australia, national camps with international instructors and an international tour to the USA including the COA Ultimate National Championships in Florida and the Aloha International Spirit Championships in Hawaii.[75] The Gymnastics Australia cheerleading management committee used 2009 to focus on the launch and delivery of the AUSCheer program as well as the establishment of operational guidelines for cheerleading within mainstream gymnastics.[75]

In 2010, Gymnastics Australia continued to host a range of cheerleading competitions around Australia under the AUSCheer brand, with the Nations Cup series having 27 events across the year. The Australian Grand Cheerleading Championship was held in Melbourne this year, with a 25% increase in competitors across the cheer, dance, stunt and tumble categories.[114]

However, moving into 2011, Gymnastics Australia announced a scaled back operational plan for the AUSCheer brand, choosing to redirect their resources into the ongoing review of cheerleading for 2012. Despite this, their cheerleading national championship event continued to grow, seeing a total of 1200 athletes participating in 2011.[130]

During 2012, the AUSCheer competitions continued, however on a scaled back level compared to previous years. Competitions would be held largely in August through to mid-September, with one outlying event held in early June in South Australia. During the 2012 competition year, AusCheer also included CheerCon events as part of their competition event calendar, including the CheerCon Classic events in NSW and Queensland as AUSCheer event rounds.[173] 2012 would mark the final year of competitions from AUSCheer, with their website not updated moving forward into 2013 and beyond.[173]

Aussie Gold was founded in 2011 by Nerine Cooper,[658] after she left Gymnastics Australia as their cheerleading program managing director.[659]

Originally starting off as one event held in July 2011 at the Gold Coast Convention Centre,[660] Aussie Gold has since grown to include a number of state championships in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland in an August to November competition schedule year that offer bids to their international championships event,[661][479] as well as their bid-only internationals event that offers further bids to the Cheerleading and Dance Worlds as well as Cheerleading and Dance Summit.[662][479] In their October 2023 social media announcement for their 2024 event dates, Aussie Gold revealed the addition of a New South Wales based competition as well as the introduction of a Nationals end of year event.[480]

Aussie Gold competitions are notable for historically not being based solely in major cities, having offered competition opportunities in the Queensland regional hubs of Mackay and Townsville, as well as offering a competition in Western Australia which many event producers do not.[662]

In 2023, Aussie Gold competitions no longer offered group stunt or assisted partner stunt categories, and only offered partner stunt in senior levels 5-6 and open levels 5-7.[479]

Aussie Gold Cheer & Dance is one of the event producers that offers Cheerstars divisions, allowing teams to participate in a modified version of levels 1 to 3 with the focus being on perfection of skills over difficulty as well as the performance cheer equivalent DanceStars program.[479]

Aussie Gold was one of the four event producers who were part of the Australian Independent Event Producers (AIEP) group,[244] as well as being a founding member of the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance.[656]

The Australian All Star Cheerleading Federation (AASCF) was founded in April 2005[663] by Rosemary Sims and Stephen James.[53] AASCF were the first event producer in Australia to be affiliated with USASF and IASF,[663] offering bids to IASF Worlds as part of their annual national championship.[664] Historically, they have also offered bids to other American-based international competitions at different events throughout the year, such as offering Summit bids as part of their Battle events[665]

AASCF run several competitions across the country in a June to November season format, including Winterfest, Battle, States, Spring Carnival and Nationals.[447]

Previously AASCF was known for offering a competition similar to Summit in the U.S., in which the overall highest-scoring team in each level of cheer and division of dance at earlier competitions throughout the year received a bid to compete as one of the "chosen few" to be the "best of the best" in Australia.[666]

However, the Pinnacle event was phased out in 2023 in favour of "The Road to IASF Worlds". The Road to IASF Worlds event is a "day 2" competition held directly after AASCF's Nationals events and is part of the process of a team competing for a 2024 Cheerleading Worlds bid.[447]

AASCF holds Australia's largest national cheerleading and dance championship annually,[667] which rotates location between the Gold Coast (Queensland) and Melbourne (Victoria) currently.[668][669]

AASCF were a founding member of the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance,[656] however is no longer a listed sanctioned event provider as of mid-2023.[670]

Australian Cheer Elite (ACE) was owned by Derrick and Kassandra Turner (owners of East Coast Allstars) and were founding members of the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance.[656] They remained actively listed as ACSA sanctioned event producers until mid-2023[655][670] however the company do not appear to have run an event since 2019.[671]

Cheer and Dance Fest is a newly launching event, with the first event currently planned for October 2024 by Victoria Williamson of JVE Productions.[672][673]

This event is currently being planned as a full day event on the Gold Coast, with workshops to be held throughout the day for both cheerleading and dance athletes, with an afterparty and mini competitions held in the evening.[673]

Cheer Unlimited Australia (CUA) was founded in 2011 by Briony Keenan, a former member of the Gymnastics Australia National Cheerleading Committee [90] and her sister, Jakky.[147]

At its peak, CUA ran competitions in Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland as part of a championship series.

Unfortunately due to the impact of COVID-19 on the cheer industry, Jakky and Briony published a statement via the Cheer Unlimited Australia Instagram and Facebook accounts in May 2021 that the company would no longer be holding cheer and dance competitions for the foreseeable future.[674]

CUA was one of the four members of the now disbanded Australian Independent Event Producers (AIEP), with CUA founder Bri contributing to the development of the Australian Independent Scoring System (AISS) that the group utilised.[675][244] CUA then went on to become a founding member of the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance.[656]

Cheerbrandz is a New Zealand-based event producer and apparel provider, founded in 2003.[676]

While many of the Cheerbrandz events are based in New Zealand, the company branched into Australia in 2013, beginning by hosting the Australasian Majors in Brisbane.[183]

Since that point they have continued to expand in the Australian market, introducing Olympia and a Nationals event in 2017[284] and Eutopia in 2018.[324] In 2021, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Cheerbrandz introduced a Super Nationals competition with event hubs in local areas to allow teams to compete that were then ranked against each other at all event hubs.[415] This event continues in 2023, despite COVID-19 restrictions no longer restricting travel.[677]

Cheerbrandz hosted an April to November competition season in 2023 with events in Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane that offered both in person and virtual entry to all events.[677]

CheerBrandz is not an ACSA sanctioned event provider and as such does not state that they follow any of the ACSA policies and guidelines. Cheerbrandz events currently follow IASF 2021-2023 rules. Despite the lack of connection to ACSA, their age grid included within their information pack is identical,[678] as is their scoring rubric[679] and their scoring information booklet still contain references to ACSA throughout.[680]

CheerCon was founded in 2008 by the husband and wife team of Alex and Danielle Jimenez, expanding into the competition space in 2011.[681][682] Cheercon currently offers not only a series of cheerleading competitions, but also workshops and camps for both athletes as well as gym owners and coaches, competition uniforms, training gear, team apparel and accessories, travel packages, immigration and visa packages for international coaches and judges and hiring of cheer and dance competition flooring.[682]

CheerCon's current competition calendar includes competitions in New South Wales, far north Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, held across a June to December competition year.[445] In 2023, CheerCon introduced a new event to their event series titled "Best of the Best Nationals", held at ICC Sydney Darling Harbour in the first weekend of December, offering an end-of-year nationals alternative to AASCF's Nationals event.[445]

Past events have included locations such as ACT and Geelong, providing regional access to cheer competitions in earlier years.[683] CheerCon were also included as part of the AUSCheer event schedule in past years when AusCheer were still operating.[173]

CheerCon have been partnered with Nfinity since 2020,[684] to host the Australian leg of the Nfinity Champions League event series. This event is currently held in Newcastle, NSW in late October.[445]

CheerCon has also been the host of the Battle at the Beaches competition, Australia's first outdoor cheer competition held at Manly, NSW, since 2018. Battle at the Beaches was first held in 2016 as an independent event that attracted 1500 athletes,[261] and again as an independent event in 2017,[685] before CheerCon began hosting the event from 2018 onwards.[683] The 2020 event was cancelled due to COVID restrictions, as was the 2021 event, however, the 2023 CheerCon event information pack promises a return for Battle at the Beaches for their 2024 event schedule.[445]

CheerCon is one of the event producers that offers Cheerstars and DanceStars divisions, allowing teams to participate in a modified version of cheer levels 1 to 3 and all dance styles with the focus being on perfection of skills over difficulty.[445]

CheerCon was one of the original four event producers who were part of the Australian Independent Event Producers (AIEP) group.[244] However, this group has not seen any updates on their social media since 2017. CheerCon went on to become a founding member of the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance (ACSA) in 2017,[656] and remain listed as an ACSA sanctioned event provider in 2023.[655]

Dance and Cheer Events (DCE) was founded in 2008 by Lyn Parker, a member of the first Gymnastics Australia working committee for cheerleading in 2002 [686] and chairperson of the cheerleading sport management committee by 2006.[687]

When the event producer was first formed in 2008, DCE went by the name World Cup Cheerleading (WCC) and hosted a range of competitions across Queensland including regional locations such as Townsville, Rockhampton, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast as well as Brisbane based competitions.[688] At the time, WCC held a partnership with Gymnastics Queensland to host all cheerleading competitions, clinics, camps and education programs within the state under the Gymnastics Australia banner, with the Gymnastics Queensland website redirecting those looking for cheerleading information to the organisation.[88][89] This partnership differed from the approach of other states at the time, as Gymnastics Queensland was the only state not participating in the AUS Cheer program launched in 2008 by Gymnastics Australia.[90]

While starting off being Queensland cheerleading based under the Gymnastics Australia partnership, it only took a year for WCC to rebrand to World Cup Cheer and Dance (WCCD) and expand their offerings not only nationwide, but international as they offered a competition in New Zealand.[689]

The WCCD branding remained in place until WCCD was purchased in January 2017 by Coralie Bradshaw, the owner of Bradshaw Dance and Cheer studios, announcing the purchase and rebranding of the company as Dance and Cheer Events via a social media statement.[276]

DCE holds a range of events from July to October each year in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania, offering international event bids to IASF Cheerleading Worlds, Summit and JAMZ Nationals Las Vegas.[690][691]

DCE is not listed as an ACSA sanctioned event as of June 2023,[655] following the IASF rules and utilising their own scoring system during the 2022 competition season.[692][693][694][695]

The Golden Mile Championship was first announced on social media in 2019 with the intent of the first competition being held in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, in 2020 which was cancelled due to COVID-19.[347] They went on to hold their inaugural championship in 2021[420] and a follow up championship in 2022.[696] They are currently listed as an ACSA sanctioned event in June 2023,[655] however have no active social media presence or website outside of this.

Infinite Spirit All Stars Cheer and Dance Championships was founded in 2005 by Tamara Manning as the FNQ Cheer and Dance Championships before a rebrand in 2016, which included an expansion of the event producer's offerings to include more regional areas of Australia.[44]

Infinite Spirit All Stars events are focused on allowing access in regional areas for cheerleading competitions, holding events in Mackay, Brisbane, Hobart and Cairns in 2023.[697]

From 2023 onwards, Infinite Spirit Allstars announced that they would no longer be splitting their cheer divisions by all girl and co-ed within the age groups, with traditional "co-ed" skills (partner stunting and dual based stunts) now counting towards the elite stunt section of the rubric regardless of the gender of the athlete performing them.[465] Prior to 2023, Infinite Spirit All Stars had only split teams into co-ed and all girl divisions if deemed necessary on an event-by-event basis, with level 3 and above co-ed teams still being required to fulfil any co-ed stunt requirements even if the division was not split.[466]

They also announced that they would not be adopting the ACSA image policy ban on midriff cheerleading uniforms that was brought in as of the beginning of the 2023 season.[465]

While Infinite Spirit All Stars were a founding member of ACSA,[656] the EP was no longer listed as a sanctioned event provider as of August 2023.[670]

Spirit Industries Australia (SIA) was founded in 2011, by Emma Slater. While there is evidence that SIA intended on holding its annual Winter Warm Up championships in 2022,[698] the last active event held was their 2021 Winter Warmup. There is no public statements regarding their disbandment/closure available but it is assumed they are currently defunct.

Spirit Industries Australia was one of the four members of the now disbanded Australian Independent Event Producers (AIEP).[244] They were also one of the founding members of the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance.[656]