Three days inside the sparkly, extremely hard-core world of Canadian cheerleading

This article was published more than 2 years ago.

这篇文章发表于两年多前。

Some information may no longer be current.

某些信息可能不再是最新的。

Three days inside the bouncy, sparkly, girl-powered, extremely hard-core world of competitive cheer

在充满活力、闪闪发光、充满女孩力量、极其硬核的竞技欢呼世界中度过三天

I t was the third and final day of the Canadian Cheer National Championships in Niagara Falls, and the Golden Girls were feeling fierce.

这是在尼亚加拉大瀑布举行的加拿大啦啦队全国锦标赛的第三天，也是最后一天，金女郎们感觉很激烈。

The GGs, as they called themselves, had done their warm-ups and gone through their rituals.

他们自称的 GG 已经完成了热身并完成了仪式。

They’d screamed together in the foyer of the Niagara Falls Convention Centre, shouting out the doubt and negativity, anything that could hold them back.

他们在尼亚加拉瀑布会议中心的门厅里一起尖叫，大声喊出怀疑和消极情绪，以及任何可能阻止他们的东西。

They’d run their routine, working their pyramids and tumbling and baskets and dance over and over – and in their minds so many more times than that – until its relentless rhythm was as natural as breathing.

他们会进行例行公事，进行金字塔、翻滚和篮子动作，一遍又一遍地跳舞——在他们的脑海里，次数比这多得多——直到其无情的节奏像呼吸一样自然。

They’d stretched into splits, lifted their legs into standing scales, flipped and tumbled down the practice mats.

他们把身体伸展开来，把腿举起来，在练习垫上翻滚。

They’d stood swaying together in a circle, two dozen teenagers and women with their arms wrapped around each other, singing Lady Gaga at the top of their lungs.

他们站在一起，摇摇晃晃地围成一圈，两打青少年和妇女互相搂着彼此，用尽全力唱着《Lady Gaga》。

“Take it in, but remember this is what you trained for,” their coach, Jess Montoya had told them, her raspy voice straining over the raucous noise of a backstage hallway.

“接受它，但记住这就是你们训练的目的，”他们的教练杰西·蒙托亚告诉他们，她沙哑的声音在后台走廊的喧闹声中显得紧张。

She was a former cheerleader who went to university for child and youth psychology, but kept coming back to cheer.

她曾是一名啦啦队队长，在大学学习儿童和青少年心理学，但不断回来为大家加油。

“Chill out, take it moment by moment.

“冷静一点，慢慢来。

Enjoy it.”

享受它吧。”

Outside, the sun was shining, other groups of girls glimmering in constellations on the grass.

外面阳光明媚，草地上一群群女孩闪闪发光。

The CheerForce WolfPack Golden Girls and the Cheer Sport Great White Sharks are two of the most prominent and closely watched teams in the rapidly developing world of Canadian cheer.

CheerForce WolfPack Golden Girls 和 Cheer Sport Great White Sharks 是快速发展的加拿大啦啦队中最著名和最受关注的两支队伍。

Going into Nationals in April, the Great White Sharks were five-time world champions and the subject of Canadian reality show Cheer Squad , a team known for precise and beautiful routines, for stunts that pushed the limits of what seemed possible.

今年四月进入全国赛的大白鲨队是五次世界冠军，也是加拿大真人秀《啦啦队》的主题，这支队伍以精确而美丽的动作和突破看似可能极限的特技而闻名。

But the Golden Girls had been circling, coming second to the Great Whites at Worlds in Florida last year, nipping behind them in Dallas in February, placing second at the Face-Off event on Friday night.

但黄金女孩队一直在盘旋，去年在佛罗里达州的世界赛上仅次于大白队，在二月份的达拉斯比赛中紧随其后，在周五晚上的对决比赛中获得第二名。

The idea of a rivalry between the teams was a bit overhyped – the effect of social media, and maybe the American influence, where “cheerlebrities” and cheer fan accounts could be dramatic and mean.

两支球队之间竞争的想法有点被夸大了——社交媒体的影响，也许还有美国的影响，“啦啦队”和啦啦球迷账户可能是戏剧性的和刻薄的。

But while the Great White Sharks and the Golden Girls respected each other, there was no doubt both teams were there to win.

尽管大白鲨队和金童队互相尊重，但毫无疑问，两支球队都是为了胜利。

Going into their second and final routine for Nationals on Sunday, the Golden Girls were in first place.

周日进入国民队的第二场也是最后一场比赛，黄金女孩队获得了第一名。

It was the end of the season, the last chance at Nationals for some of them.

那是赛季末，对于他们中的一些人来说，这是最后一次参加国民队的机会。

“It’s pretty intense,” said Janine Furtado, rolling her 15-year-old daughter’s ponytail into fat ringlets with a curling iron plugged into a hallway wall.

“这真是太激烈了，”Janine Furtado 说道，她用插在走廊墙上的卷发棒将她 15 岁女儿的马尾辫卷成肥大的卷发。

Like many of those at Nationals, Janine and her husband didn’t know anything about cheer until their daughter, Summer, got into it.

和国民赛上的许多人一样，珍妮和她的丈夫对欢呼一无所知，直到他们的女儿萨默开始参与其中。

Before that, they thought cheer was all pep rallies and rah-rah-sis-boom-bah, old-fashioned sideline cheerleading, where girls led chants and waved pompoms alongside a football game.

在此之前，他们认为欢呼就是鼓舞士气的集会和“rah-rah-sis-boom-bah”，一种老式的边线啦啦队，女孩们在足球比赛的同时带领口号并挥舞绒球。

Now, they knew it was nothing like that.

现在，他们知道事情并非如此。

This cheer wasn’t about pumping up the crowd for a men’s sport.

这种欢呼并不是为了鼓动人群观看男子运动。

Cheer was the sport.

欢呼就是这项运动。

These teams cheered only for themselves and for other cheer teams.

这些队伍只为自己和其他啦啦队加油。

Four years in, cheer was how they spent their weekends, their family vacations, a significant amount of their money.

四年后，他们的周末、家庭假期和大笔金钱都在欢乐中度过。

Janine’s husband, Jay Jankowsky, soon found himself with a collection of Cheer Dad shirts and a deep appreciation for both the athleticism and high-stakes nature of cheer competition.

珍妮的丈夫杰伊·扬科斯基 (Jay Jankowsky) 很快发现自己收藏了一系列啦啦爸爸 T 恤，并对啦啦比赛的运动精神和高风险性质深表赞赏。

It would be hard not to get into it, seeing how much dedication and teamwork it took, how hard the girls trained: two practices a week at least, plus private tumbling lessons.

看到这需要多少奉献和团队合作，女孩们训练得多么努力：每周至少两次练习，再加上私人翻滚课程，你很难不投入其中。

So much effort for competitions won or lost in two, 2½-minute routines.

为了在两场 2.5 分钟的比赛中获胜或输掉比赛，付出了如此多的努力。

“Literally every single girl has to work together for a routine to hit, so it’s all about teamwork,” Janine said.

“实际上，每个女孩都必须共同努力才能完成日常工作，所以这一切都取决于团队合作，”珍妮说。

“If anything goes wrong, they hurt pretty hard, too.

“如果出了什么问题，他们也会受到很大的伤害。

They feel like they’re letting their team down.”

他们觉得自己让团队失望了。”

Nearby, one of Summer’s teammates was hunched over, looking pale, sick with a fever as another teammate opened a bottle of Tylenol and calculated the dose.

附近，萨默尔的一名队友弓着背，面色苍白，发烧，而另一名队友则打开一瓶泰诺并计算剂量。

“There’s always one,” Janine said sympathetically.

“总有一个，”珍妮同情地说。

A group of girls danced around, singing Taylor Swift at full volume.

一群女孩一边跳舞一边大声唱着泰勒·斯威夫特的歌。

The Canadian Cheer National Championships is the largest tournament in Canadian cheer.

加拿大啦啦队全国锦标赛是加拿大最大的啦啦队锦标赛。

This year, 8,000 athletes journeyed from around the country to compete at Nationals, with at least double that number of supporters paying to watch.

今年，有 8,000 名运动员从全国各地赶来参加全国锦标赛，付费观看的支持者数量至少是这一数字的两倍。

The youngest competitors were five, the oldest in their 40s.

参赛者中最年轻的只有五岁，最年长的有40多岁。

Some of the 428 teams, including both the Golden Girls and Great White Sharks, would be heading to the world cheer competition in Orlando the following week.

428 支队伍中的部分队伍，包括黄金女孩队和大白鲨队，将于下周前往奥兰多参加世界拉拉队比赛。

“It’s a bit of a subculture.

“这有点亚文化。

You come here and you’re just like, ‘What is even happening?’ It’s this whole other world,” said Ali Moffatt, a former cheerleader who coaches the Great White Sharks and is co-owner of Cheer Sport Sharks, Canada’s largest cheer gym.

“你来到这里，就会想，‘到底发生了什么？’这完全是另一个世界。”前啦啦队长、大白鲨队教练、加拿大最大啦啦队 Cheer Sport Sharks 的合伙人阿里·莫法特 (Ali Moffatt) 说道。

“We always say that to new families when they’re joining the gym.

“当新家庭加入健身房时，我们总是对他们这么说。

The first year, you’re going to be like, ‘What have I started?’ And all of a sudden, you’re just addicted to it.”

第一年，你会问，‘我开始做什么了？’突然之间，你就沉迷其中了。”

In all-star cheer, teams of up to 32 people compete by performing short, highly technical acrobatic routines in unison at the highest energy, with scores based on execution, difficulty, creativity and showmanship.

在全明星啦啦队中，由最多 32 人组成的团队以最高的能量齐心协力表演简短、高技术的杂技动作，根据执行力、难度、创造力和表演技巧进行评分。

Many come from gymnastics and dance, drawn by cheer’s unique amalgamation of athletics, entertainment and teamwork.

许多人来自体操和舞蹈，被啦啦队独特的竞技、娱乐和团队合作融合所吸引。

There are places for all kinds of bodies in cheer – small flyers, lithe tumblers, powerful bases – and with seven different skill levels and no upper age limit, virtually anyone can find a place.

这里有适合各种体型的地方——小型传单、柔软的滚筒、强大的底座——有七种不同的技能水平，没有年龄上限，几乎任何人都可以找到一个地方。

Though there are co-ed teams, cheer in Canada is overwhelmingly female, with girls and women making up an estimated 98 per cent of competitors.

尽管有男女混合队，但加拿大的拉拉队绝大多数是女性，据估计，女孩和女性占参赛者的 98%。

There is nothing quite like cheer, which combines the hyper-feminine aesthetic of a pageant with the posturing and swagger of boxing, the performative flair of pro wrestling, the tribal fandom of football and the raucous atmosphere of a rock concert.

没有什么比啦啦队更好的了，它结合了选美比赛的超女性美感、拳击的姿态和招摇、职业摔跤的表演天赋、足球的部落狂热和摇滚音乐会的喧闹气氛。

“If you go into a cheer practice, kids are sweating, sometimes crying, bleeding.

“如果你进行啦啦操练习，孩子们会出汗，有时会哭泣，甚至流血。

This is intense,” said Jess Montoya, the Golden Girls coach.

这太激烈了，”金童队教练杰西·蒙托亚说道。

“It’s a hardcore sport.”

“这是一项硬核运动。”

Lest the false eyelashes and giant hair bows obscure its intensity, team names – Wicked, Wrath, Chaos, Mayhem, Reckless, Savage, Vengeance, Defiance, Furious, Cheer Beast, Black Widows – illustrate cheer’s bedazzled mix of “You go, girl” and “Come at me, bro.”

为了避免假睫毛和巨大的蝴蝶结掩盖了它的强度，团队名称——Wicked、Wrath、Chaos、Mayhem、Reckless、Savage、Vengeance、Defiance、Furious、Cheer Beast、Black Widows——说明了欢呼声中“你走吧，女孩”和“来吧，兄弟”的令人眼花缭乱的组合。

Cheer has exploded in Canada since Ali Moffatt opened her first Cheer Sport gym in Ontario 20 years ago, and continues to grow.

自 Ali Moffatt 20 年前在安大略省开设第一家 Cheer Sport 健身房以来，Cheer 运动在加拿大掀起了一股热潮，并且还在持续增长。

Where gyms once had to seek out kids, there are now 700 sharks of various ages training at her nine Cheer Sport locations around the country, and competing gyms opening all the time.

健身房曾经不得不寻找孩子，现在有 700 名不同年龄段的鲨鱼在她遍布全国的 9 个 Cheer Sport 地点进行训练，并且竞争性的健身房一直在营业。

“I think people underestimate the athleticism that’s required to do it until they fully see it.

“我认为人们低估了做到这一点所需的运动能力，直到他们完全看到它。

I don’t think anyone would see what a team like Great Whites is doing and say it wasn’t a sport,” she said.

我认为没有人会在看到像大白队这样的球队所做的事情后说这不是一项运动，”她说。

“Any time someone says that to me, I’m just like, ‘You’ve got to see what my girls do.’ And the minute they do, they’re like, ‘Oh, okay, this is insane.’ They get it.

“每当有人对我这么说时，我都会说，‘你必须看看我的女儿们做了什么。’一旦她们这样做，她们就会说，‘哦，好吧，这太疯狂了。’他们明白了。

You just have to watch it.”

你只需要看着它。”

Nineteen-year-old Maddy Hickey stood still near the window of an Airbnb, waiting while her mother re-watched an instructional video on YouTube, preparing to tape Maddy’s shoulder before competition.

19 岁的玛迪·希基 (Maddy Hickey) 静静地站在 Airbnb 的窗户附近，等待着她的母亲重新观看 YouTube 上的教学视频，准备在比赛前给玛迪的肩膀贴胶带。

“All the doctors I’ve seen are like, ‘Rest.

“我见过的所有医生都说，‘休息吧。

Rest.’ I’m like, ‘Sorry, no, I have Nationals and then Worlds, I literally can’t,’ ” Maddy said.

休息吧。’我想，‘抱歉，不，我有全国赛，然后是世界赛，我真的不能，’”麦迪说。

Her mother, Tanya, winced.

她的母亲塔尼娅皱起了眉头。

Being a cheer parent is not for the faint of heart.

成为一名快乐的父母并不适合胆小的人。

Cheer is no small commitment.

欢呼是不小的承诺。

There are the practices (mandatory) and the costs (significant): $500 for the team uniform, replaced every two years, $150 for cheer shoes that may not last a season, and up to $8,000 a year in gym and competition fees and travel, more at the higher levels.

有练习（强制性）和费用（重大）：500美元的队服，每两年更换一次，150美元的啦啦鞋，可能无法持续一个赛季，每年高达8,000美元的健身费、比赛费和旅费，更高级别的费用更高。

In nine years of cheer, Maddy knew well how physically punishing it could be.

在九年的欢呼中，麦迪深知这对身体的伤害有多大。

She’d had her nose broken, been kicked in the jaw, torn her rotator cuff twice, gotten a concussion, had her finger crushed, and was now going into Nationals with a separated shoulder.

她的鼻子被打断，下巴被踢，肩袖两次撕裂，脑震荡，手指被压伤，现在正带着肩膀受伤参加国民赛。

One of her friends had blown out her knee so badly she’d never fully recovered, never mind been able to cheer again.

她的一个朋友的膝盖严重受伤，她从未完全康复，更不用说能够再次欢呼了。

Maddy was on PCT Legendary, a co-ed team in Level 7, the most advanced level in cheer.

Maddy 是 PCT Legendary 的一员，这是一支男女混合队，级别为 7 级，是啦啦队的最高级别。

In the routine later that day, a girl would stand on top of Maddy’s shoulders, and another girl would be lifted on top of that.

在当天晚些时候的例行公事中，一个女孩会站在麦迪的肩膀上，另一个女孩会被举在上面。

It didn’t seem like the best thing to do with a separated shoulder, but when Maddy’s coach asked if they should bring in an alternate, Maddy cried and told her: “I will literally cut my arm off and go there with one arm.”

对于分离的肩膀来说，这似乎不是最好的办法，但当麦迪的教练问他们是否应该找一个替补时，麦迪哭着告诉她：“我真的会砍掉我的手臂，然后用一只手臂去那里。”

“It brings me so much happiness,” she said.

“它给我带来了很多快乐，”她说。

“I love, love, love it.

“我爱，爱，爱它。

It brings me so much joy.”

它给我带来了很多快乐。”

Pushing through injury and pain is a mark of pride for many athletes, a display of tenacity and grit.

对于许多运动员来说，克服伤病和痛苦是一种自豪的标志，也是坚韧和勇气的表现。

But it’s perhaps less expected in cheer, where swinging ponytails and big smiles can belie the seriousness and extremity of the pursuit.

但在欢呼声中，这种情况可能不太令人期待，摇摆的马尾辫和灿烂的笑容可能掩盖了追求的严肃性和极端性。

In 2006, when American cheerleader Kristi Yamaoka fell 15 feet onto her head, she continued the motions of her routine even while being wheeled away on a stretcher with a concussion and a broken neck.

2006年，美国啦啦队队长克里斯蒂·山冈（Kristi Yamaoka）从15英尺高处摔倒，头部着地，尽管她因脑震荡和颈部骨折而被担架抬走，但她仍继续进行日常动作。

“You’re always proving yourself to other people.

“你总是在向别人证明自己。

It’s a very underestimated sport,” said Maddy.

这是一项被非常低估的运动，”麦迪说。

“People don’t think you’re strong.

“人们不认为你很坚强。

And then when you go out there and you hit it, you’re like, ‘Watch this.’”

然后当你出去击球时，你会说，‘看这个。’”

When people ask Maddy what football team she cheers for – as still sometimes happens – she pulls up a video of one of her team’s routines, and tells them, “I cheer for myself.”

当人们问麦迪她为哪支足球队加油时（有时仍然会发生这种情况），她会调出一段有关她所在球队的例行比赛的视频，并告诉他们，“我为自己加油。”

With 8,000 athletes each performing their routines twice at Nationals – all those bodies flying and flipping and twisting together at high velocity – there was a running ledger of sprained ankles and jammed wrists, a shoulder dislocation, an ugly finger break that needed surgery.

8,000 名运动员在全国比赛中每人进行两次例行训练，所有这些身体都在高速飞行、翻转和扭转，其中包括脚踝扭伤、手腕卡住、肩膀脱臼、需要手术治疗的丑陋手指骨折。

“The highs are high, and the lows are low,” said Bruce Baldock, sitting next to his 13-year-old daughter, Alyssa, amid the hubbub of the convention centre on Saturday.

周六，布鲁斯·鲍尔多克 (Bruce Baldock) 在会议中心的喧闹声中坐在他 13 岁的女儿艾莉莎 (Alyssa) 旁边，说道：“高潮很高，低谷也很低。”

The previous year, the whole right side of her team’s pyramid had collapsed on the final day of Nationals, an instant loss.

去年，她的球队金字塔的整个右侧在国民赛的最后一天倒塌了，立即失利。

She was a flyer, and in practice and competition, he had known the helpless, sickening feeling of seeing his daughter tossed at the wrong angle, knowing no one would be able to catch her.

她是一名飞行员，在训练和比赛中，他知道看到女儿被抛向错误的角度，知道没有人能够接住她，那种无助、令人作呕的感觉。

“It’s hard to keep smiling, but you have to.

“保持微笑很难，但你必须这样做。

You have to tough it out,” Alyssa said brightly.

你必须坚持下去。”艾莉莎明亮地说。

She was in her fifth year of cheer, competing with the Cheer Sport Spinner Sharks.

这是她参加啦啦队比赛的第五个年头，与啦啦运动旋转鲨鱼队比赛。

“Even if you get kicked in the face by a girl, you have to keep smiling.”

“即使被女孩踢脸，也要保持微笑。”

Vomiting – from nerves, from the intense physicality, or from performing through illness – is common enough that there are bins ready off stage, and a procedure to clean the mats when it happens during a routine.

呕吐——由于紧张、剧烈的体力或因疾病而导致的呕吐——很常见，所以舞台下已经准备好了垃圾箱，并且在例行公事中发生呕吐时会进行清洁垫子的程序。

“I’m not just the vomit guy,” stressed Mario Carito, a former football and rugby player who got into cheer at 18, ultimately choosing it over rugby at college.

马里奥·卡里托（Mario Carito）曾是一名橄榄球和橄榄球运动员，他在 18 岁时开始接触啦啦队，并最终在大学时选择了啦啦队，而不是橄榄球。

He works about a dozen cheer competitions a year including Nationals, tending to the mats, running water stations, passing out the coveted Nationals competition blankets, setting up wheelchair ramps for the Cheerabilities athletes.

他每年参加大约十几场啦啦队比赛，其中包括国家队，负责照料垫子、运行水站、分发令人垂涎的国家队比赛毯子、为啦啦队运动员设置轮椅坡道。

But it’s the barf that makes him a cheerlebrity, of sorts.

但从某种程度上来说，正是呕吐让他成为了一个快乐的人。

As Mario headed onto the stage with his wet vac and disinfectant kit for the 10th time, the audience was dancing to Mambo No. 5 and chanting his name.

当马里奥第十次带着湿吸尘器和消毒剂包走上舞台时，观众们随着第五曼波起舞，并呼喊着他的名字。

“It’s kind of like at the hockey game when everyone cheers for the Zamboni guy,” he said.

“这有点像在曲棍球比赛中，每个人都为赞博尼人欢呼，”他说。

“It’s a rough task, but we’re trying to make it fun for everyone.”

“这是一项艰巨的任务，但我们正在努力让每个人都感到有趣。”

The world of cheer is, if it needs to be said, extremely – even relentlessly – cheerful.

如果需要说的话，欢乐的世界是极其欢乐的，甚至是无情的欢乐。

As Nationals wound to its final performances on Sunday afternoon, the hallways of the convention centre were littered with a chaos of streamers and dotted with glitter.

周日下午，当国民队进入最后一场表演时，会议中心的走廊上散落着混乱的彩带和闪闪发光的星星点点。

It had been three full days of wild energy and thumping music.

这整整三天充满了狂野的能量和震撼的音乐。

There had been constant and uncountable hugs and squeals and woo-hoos and pep talks and selfies, spontaneous singalongs and exuberant hallway dance parties.

持续不断的、无数的拥抱、尖叫、欢呼、鼓舞士气的谈话和自拍、自发的合唱和热闹的走廊舞会。

There had been supporters chanting and cheering and pounding the floor, athletes singing and screaming, unrestrained female voices at full volume, with no one even thinking to tell them to be quieter.

球迷们高呼口号、欢呼雀跃、敲打着地板，运动员们歌唱着、尖叫着，女声无拘无束地开到最大，甚至没有人想到让他们安静一点。

There had been fogs of hairspray, gallons of energy drink, mounds of candy.

那里有发胶、几加仑的能量饮料和成堆的糖果。

And there had been tears – so many different kinds of tears.

还有眼泪——有很多不同种类的眼泪。

Tears of physical pain, of frustration, of disappointment, of joy and pride and accomplishment, slipping down the faces of athletes and coaches and supporters alike.

身体疼痛、沮丧、失望、喜悦、自豪和成就的泪水，从运动员、教练和支持者的脸上滑落。

“It’s beautiful.

“这很漂亮。

Everything is so crazy,” said Ziggy G, a former nightclub bouncer working security at the cheer competition for the first time.

一切都太疯狂了，”第一次在啦啦队比赛中担任保安的前夜总会保镖 Ziggy G 说道。

In one tradition, cheerleaders decorate clothespins and slip them onto other athletes’ backpacks for luck.

在一项传统中，拉拉队队员会装饰衣夹并将其塞到其他运动员的背包上以求好运。

As the weekend went on, Ziggy G’s lanyard and ID tag were increasingly full of colourful pins with messages like, “Get it!” and “You rock!”

随着周末的推移，Ziggy G 的挂绳和 ID 标签上越来越多地布满了彩色别针，上面写着“拿走它！”之类的信息。和“你摇滚！”

“It’s crazy how popular it is, and how much people get into it,” he said.

“它如此受欢迎，有这么多人参与其中，真是太疯狂了，”他说。

“The best thing is to see all those cheerleaders being so happy.”

“最好的事情就是看到所有啦啦队员如此高兴。”

The Golden Girls and the Great White Sharks warmed up across from each other in the practice gym on Sunday afternoon.

周日下午，黄金女孩队和大白鲨队在训练馆里面对面热身。

Their custom songs blared from two separate sound systems, electronic dance music pulsing with deep beat drops and laser pews telling their team stories for the season, clashing in a chaos of noise somewhere in the space between.

他们的定制歌曲从两个独立的音响系统中发出刺耳的声音，电子舞曲伴随着深沉的节拍跳动，激光长椅讲述着他们本赛季的团队故事，在混乱的噪音中相互碰撞。

“There must be blood in the water, I can smell it from a mile away.

“水里一定有血，我在一英里外就能闻到。

It’s a feast of fear.

这是一场恐惧的盛宴。

There’s no one to save you,” the Great Whites’ music roared.

没有人可以拯救你，”大白鲨的音乐咆哮着。

“Work hard!

“努力吧！

Dream big!

梦想远大！

You can be anything you want,” pulsed the Golden Girls’ Barbie-themed song.

你可以成为任何你想成为的人，”这首金色女孩的芭比主题歌曲充满节奏感。

“Independent, so resilient, forget about Ken.”

“独立，很有弹性，忘掉肯吧。”

After being dismissed and discounted for much of its history, cheer is increasingly being acknowledged as something more than a perky appurtenance for male athletics.

在其历史的大部分时间里，啦啦操一直被忽视和忽视，如今，人们越来越认识到啦啦操不仅仅是男性田径运动的一个活泼的附属品。

The International Olympic Committee officially recognized cheer in 2021, paving the way for it to become an Olympic event as early as 2028, and perhaps settling once and for all – for anyone who still doubts it – the question of whether cheer is a sport.

国际奥委会于 2021 年正式承认啦啦操，为最早在 2028 年成为奥运会比赛项目铺平了道路，或许对于那些仍然对此持怀疑态度的人来说，一劳永逸地解决了啦啦操是否是一项运动的问题。

In All-Girl Level 6, routines are made up of a series of acrobatic stunts, pyramids and tumbling, finishing with a choreographed dance.

在全女子六级中，动作由一系列杂技特技、金字塔和翻滚组成，最后以精心设计的舞蹈结束。

With so many athletes performing at once, it takes at least eight judges to watch and score the elements of the routine.

由于有如此多的运动员同时表演，至少需要八名裁判来观看并评分该套路的各个要素。

Hitting zero – performing a routine with no deductions – is a source of great pride.

达到零——执行例行程序而不扣分——是一种非常自豪的源泉。

While it doesn’t guarantee a win, it means the team never faltered.

虽然这并不能保证胜利，但这意味着球队从未动摇过。

“Did they hit?” I asked Ali, as the team ran off stage 2½ minutes later, a blur of white and sparkles.

“他们打了吗？”我问阿里，2.5 分钟后，团队跑下舞台，一片模糊的白色和闪光。

“There was one slight thing.

“有一件小事。

I don’t know how the judges will call it,” she said, worriedly walking to the video screen backstage to view the replay.

我不知道评委会怎么称呼它。”她一边说，一边担心地走到后台的视频屏幕上观看回放。

When it was done, she turned around, relieved.

做完之后，她转过身来，心里松了口气。

“I think they hit.”

“我认为他们击中了。”

The Golden Girls gathered in the dark backstage, finding a moment of calm amid the thunderous noise.

金童们聚集在黑暗的后台，在雷鸣般的喧嚣中寻找片刻的平静。

Their coach, Jess Montoya, had taught them to focus inward and fuel their minds with positive thoughts in those moments, replaying every practice, every competition, every time their routine had gone right.

他们的教练杰西·蒙托亚（Jess Montoya）教导他们在那些时刻专注于内心并用积极的想法来激发他们的思想，重播每一次训练，每场比赛，每一次他们的日常工作进展顺利。

Then the Golden Girls took the stage, a swarm of black and pink and rhinestones catching the light.

然后，金色女孩登上舞台，一群黑色、粉色和莱茵石闪闪发光。

Jess clapped from the floor, making sure they sensed her confidence in them.

杰西从地板上拍手，确保他们感受到她对他们的信心。

It was a challenging routine, and they’d never hit it twice in a row at competition this year.

这是一个具有挑战性的动作，今年他们在比赛中从未连续两次击中过这个动作。

But she knew they could.

但她知道他们可以。

Hi, I’m Barbie.

嗨，我是芭比。

Their music started and 24 girls burst into motion, a synchronicity of bodies flying into the air, balanced atop pyramids, dropping into baskets of their teammates’ arms.

音乐响起，24 个女孩突然开始运动，她们的身体同步飞向空中，在金字塔顶上保持平衡，落入队友怀里的篮子里。

They launched themselves into strings of backflips, jumped up into splits.

他们一连串后空翻、劈叉跳。

They vamped and stamped, hands clenched into fists, full of grace and power.

他们大步跺脚，双手紧握拳头，充满优雅和力量。

Then, as a flyer spun a pirouette atop her teammates’ uplifted hands, a momentary loss of balance.

然后，当一名传单在队友举起的双手上旋转时，她暂时失去了平衡。

It was the final moment of the final stunt, the last seconds of the routine.

这是最后一个特技的最后时刻，也是整个动作的最后几秒。

The flyer swayed, missing her teammate’s outstretched arms, then toppled backwards toward the ground.

传单摇晃着，错过了队友伸出的手臂，然后向后倒向地面。

On stage, faces flickered, registering panic then dismay, before springing back into broad smiles as they recovered and finished the routine.

舞台上，人们的表情闪烁着，先是惊慌，然后是沮丧，然后在恢复并完成例行程序后又恢复了灿烂的笑容。

The Golden Girls left the stage, gathering grimly around the screen to watch their video.

黄金女郎们离开了舞台，表情严肃地聚集在屏幕周围观看她们的视频。

They had been so close.

他们曾经如此亲密。

“Do not give up,” Jess told them.

“不要放弃，”杰西告诉他们。

“We just have to be good to one another.

“我们只需要善待彼此。

You can’t blame each other, and we have to move on.”

你们不能互相指责，我们必须继续前进。”

The team broke into smaller groups and drifted away into hugs, getting water, trading congratulations and condolences with the Great Whites, finding parents and supporters – many decked out in Golden Girls shirts and Barbie pink accessories – also feeling the crush of disappointment.

团队分成小组，互相拥抱、取水、与大白鲨交换祝贺和慰问，发现父母和支持者——许多人穿着金色女孩衬衫和芭比粉色配饰——也感受到了失望的压力。

“We’re there for each other,” said 18-year-old Steph Miles, another of the team’s flyers, standing outside in the sun later, after the Golden Girls collected their second-place banner.

“我们互相支持，”金女孩队拿到第二名的旗帜后，18 岁的斯蒂芬·迈尔斯（Steph Miles）是该队的另一名传单，他站在外面的阳光下说道。

“We all know that it’s not one person’s fault,” she said.

“我们都知道这不是一个人的错，”她说。

“We all take the hit as a team.”

“我们作为一个团队共同承受这一打击。”

By the next morning, the Golden Girls were back in their group chat.

第二天早上，黄金女郎们又回到了她们的群聊中。

The messages popped up on coach Jess Montoya’s phone one after the other.

教练杰西·蒙托亚的手机上一条又一条的弹出消息。

“I had a huge cry on the ride home because I freaking love this team so much,” one said.

“在回家的路上我哭了一场，因为我非常爱这支球队，”其中一位说道。

And another: “These are the moments we’re gonna remember.

另一个：“这些是我们会记住的时刻。

And are a reminder that we are nothing without each other.”

这提醒我们，如果没有彼此，我们什么都不是。”

The Golden Girls would be back at the gym that evening.

那天晚上，黄金女郎们将回到健身房。

There would be taped ankles and bruised thighs, old injuries and fresh pain.

脚踝上缠着胶布，大腿上有瘀伤，旧伤和新痛。

They’d wear their matching blue CheerForce shirts and their pink CheerForce shorts, and they’d work their routine, finding their smiles and that place they called their “golden bubble,” where all that mattered was their team and what they could do together.

他们会穿着相配的蓝色 CheerForce 衬衫和粉色 CheerForce 短裤，按照自己的日常工作，寻找自己的微笑，以及他们称之为“黄金泡泡”的地方，在那里，最重要的是他们的团队以及他们可以一起做的事情。

Looking ahead to Worlds, to next season, to another chance to hit zero.

展望世界赛，展望下赛季，展望另一个实现零的机会。

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