Great distinction for the national Cheerleading, in which Gali’s daughter participates

They follow the music with precision and absolute synchronization. Their flexible bodies perform exercises that take your breath away. They wear impressive costumes and unfold, in a unique way, their skills in sports dance. They are the Greek athletes of Cheerleading, which is a new Olympic sport and have managed in a very short time, with their distinctions at world and European level, to place our country in the top positions of the world.

The athletes of the national team from Thessaloniki and Athens, participated online in the World Cheerling Championship organized by the ICU World Federation, last month and managed to win the 5th, three 7th places and the 9th, 10th and 11th place in the world. .

With many hours of training and love for the sport, they conquered top positions in the world

“Cheer jazz is a sport that combines dance, gymnastics and team spirit,” she said. Elina Tsioupra, athlete of the Jazz team (5th place) and explains that “after many hours of training we managed to reach the goals and win the 5th place in the World Championship. “This united our team even more, setting even higher goals for the 2022 World Cup. I would unreservedly recommend every child, boy and girl, to take up this sport, because there are really many benefits to be gained”.

THE Stella Gali, athlete of the Jazz team (5th place), obviously excited by the distinction achieved by her team, says to APE-MPE: «Cheerleading was part of American basketball, until it developed into an autonomous sport and in fact Olympic! We are very happy that she came to Greece and made her stand out by winning such great distinctions».

“We are very happy for the positions we won. We first started working with Cheerleading in 2019, in the Freestyle Pom Double category and we are athletes of the Greek Star, in Thessaloniki. We are champions of Greece 2019 and 2020, we have won the 3rd place in the European League 2019 among 59 couples, and the 4th place in the Pan-European Championship 2019 “, says the athlete Ioanna Symeonidou and her fellow athlete Maria- Rafaela Karamytiliou, explains that: “Our training was four hours, five times a week and we were preparing to represent Greece in the 2020 World Championship. Unfortunately, the pandemic resulted in the cancellation. “Despite the difficulties and limitations we faced due to the continuous lockdowns, but also a serious injury, we finally managed to finish this year in 7th place among 20 countries”.

The athletes Constantina Florou and Anna Papakosta, of the acrobatic cheerleading team, which won the 7th place, emphasize that cheerleading is a team sport and cooperation is necessary. In order for athletes to work with our coaches and fellow athletes, they must first be trusted. This presupposes that they know each other well, since this is how relationships are built, bonded as people and as a team and perform better.

“A cheerleading athlete needs to have both physical characteristics such as flexibility, muscular strength and endurance as well as spiritual traits such as dedication, discipline, passion and confidence in the sport he does. “Confidence in this case is developed mainly through interaction with other athletes, but also through continuous effort and training.” Anna Papakosta.

The first lifetime – after the pandemic – Pan-European Championship will be held in Athens

“Cheerleading is practiced by more than 10 million athletes worldwide. Greece, according to the World Cheerleading Federation, is the fastest growing country in the sport. This fact, combined with the fact that it was the only Cheerleading Federation in the world that managed to organize the 2020 Championship in the middle of a pandemic online, led the European and World Federation to entrust us with the organization of the first, after the pandemic, Pan-European Championship to be held in Athens on July 1-3, 2022. At the same time, the World Federation, in collaboration with FISU (University Sports) recognizing all this effort, assigned us the organization of the World University Cup, which will be held in Heraklion, Crete. November 4-6, 2022 “, the president of the Greek Cheerling Federation, Michalis Fountedakis, underlines in APE-MPE.

He also mentioned that it would be impossible to carry out all this ambitious project, if the Deputy Minister of Sports, Lefteris Avgenakis, was not personally involved, as these are two huge events, which will benefit sports and tourism in our country. as thousands of athletes are going to visit Greece in both events.

Thessaloniki is the protagonist in cheerleading

Thessaloniki gave its own special presence at the World Cheerling Championship. Specifically, four of the total of eight national teams, which represented our country in this event, were from Thessaloniki.

“In the World Championship, Thessaloniki participated with 2 national teams, which competed in the Performance Cheer Jazz and Cheerleading All Girls Elite categories, winning the 5th and 7th place respectively”, says, speaking to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, the special secretary of the Greek federation general secretary of the Greek star sports club, Costas Athanasiadis and explains that, “in the doubles categories, Greece participated with two national teams, which competed in the Double Freestyle Pom and Double Cheer Hip Hop categories, achieving excellent performances and winning the 7th and 11th position respectively. For the first time in the history of the world championship, Greece is represented by so many participations in so many categories of sports “.

As he points out, all our teams, managed to win the impressions in the event and in fact in several categories, passed scoring teams from countries that have a long tradition in the sport.

Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ