This week will see Orlando, Florida host the International Cheer Union’s World Cheer Championships. Athletes from around the globe will converge on the city, including a strong Canadian contingent.

Part of the Canadian contingent will be the Desire Pom Team from Regina’s Boss Athletics. One of the members of that team is Weyburn’s Chloe Gill. For the 20-year-old, this will be the culmination of years of hard work.

“It’s something that I never thought that I would be able to make happen, coming from small-town Weyburn,” Gill told Discover Weyburn just hours before boarding the plane for Orlando. “I never thought this kind of opportunity would hit me, and now that it has, it’s been amazing.”

Gill isn’t a stranger to the spotlight when it comes to cheerleading. While in Weyburn, she was part of the cheer teams at Weyburn Comprehensive School, as well as Airbourne Cheer Athletics. With the WCS Eagles, she won the Coaches’ Award and was named MVP of the WCS team two years in a row. With ACA, she was named the most dedicated and received the Club Award of Excellence. Since joining Boss Athletics in Regina, she has also received the Spirit of Boss Award.

Being part of Team Canada is just the latest in her career.

When it comes to cheerleading, Gill has been studying the sport, and what would be her future competition on the global stage, for a while now.

“I’ve been following Team Mexico, Team Japan, Team USA for years now and so the idea that I’m actually going to be able to go and watch them in person is probably the biggest thing I am looking forward to,” she said when asked what parts of the event she was looking forward to that didn’t involve her performing on stage.

The performance of her team ahead of this competition shows they could very well be near the top of the podium, if not on top of it, by the time the competition wraps up on Friday. So far this season, Boss has placed third at the Canadian Nationals, was named Grand Champions at the Warman Cheer Classic, and was Grand Champions at Provincials this year.

The selection of Boss Athletics as Team Canada came before many of these competitions and was a surprise to the athletes when they found out. Attending Worlds was already one of the goals this year for the team, but to do so while wearing the Maple Leaf and representing the whole country wasn’t what they were expecting.

“It’s like oh, oh boy, this is no longer just a world’s team, this is a national world’s team,” Gill said of finding out they would be Team Canada for the event. “It was just a big shock – a pleasant shock to the system.”

The World Cheer Championships in Orlando run from Wednesday thru Friday this week. The pom competition takes place Thursday afternoon, with Team Canada, and Gill, taking the stage around 1:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time.