University of Minnesota dance team wins 1st and 2nd place at international cheerleading championship
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The University of Minnesota Dance Team won gold and silver medals at the 2025 International Cheer Union World Cheerleading Championships in Orlando, Fla., on Friday.
USA Cheer picked the Gophers to represent the United States national team in both cheer pom and jazz. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas competed in the hip hop division.
The U.S. won first place in pom and hip hop and came in second place in jazz to Japan.
The competition marked the third time that Minnesota represented the U.S. national team, with the Gophers previously competing in 2010 and 2014.
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It’s a year of victories for the U of M dance team. In January, they won the national title for pom for the third straight year and also took second in jazz, putting them at 23 national championships.
Last Saturday, the team shared their ICU championships routines for a crowd of over 5,000 fans at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.
Longtime head coach Amanda Gaines said the team worked with a producer to create an original song for their pom category that speaks to the team’s legacy and what it means to be part of it.
In the jazz category, they performed to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”
Their uniforms for the ICU world championships involved 40,000 rhinestones carefully applied by a volunteer group of parents.
The International Cheer Union is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the world governing body for cheer.