Para Sport Cheer Research Project

What is the project?

We are testing the potential of setting up a team of fully paralympic eligible cheerleaders to showcase what that would look like on the world stage. The first step is to gather enough people, and do a trial training day. We will then gather feedback from participants and do an internal review of the potential and how or if there’s anything different needed to give the best possibility of success. At this stage if the review and feedback is positive we will then be building a team for the 2026 ICU World Championships.

The ultimate vision is to get cheerleading recognised as a Paralympic sport, and in future in the paralympic games themselves to increase awareness and funding opportunities. The first stage of this is to showcase the possibilities and encourage other countries to get involved.

Our first session took place on March 29th at the ROAR gym in Rugby, England. It was attended by 10 participants, all of whom had a disability that was likely eligible under the Paralympic systems.

Here's what our participants had to say about the day.