Funky Team Gorillaz has amazingly won 24 Finnish championships in consecutive years in mixed cheer. Now the goal is the seventh EC gold.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
Janna Rautionaho is thrown into the air during Gorillaz training.
He is aiming for his first European championship in the team.
Gorillaz have won 24 consecutive SM golds in the mixed cheer series.
Cheerleading is an injury-prone sport that requires good fitness and cooperation.
Janna Rautionaho rises to the top when the Funky Team Gorillaz throwers throw him into the air at the Salmisaaari sports center in Helsinki.
Rayon skin falls safely into the throwers’ hands and laps during Gorillaz training.
“I dare to be up there. I have a lot of faith in the boys,” says 19-year-old Rautionaho after coming down from the top of the three-story pyramid.
Rautionaho comes from a well-known ski jumping family, so he is familiar with aerial flights. His sister Jenny represents Finland in ski jumping, while Janna is Finland’s champion in cheerleading.
Next weekend, Rautionaho will aim for his first European championship in the Gorillaz team, which already has six similar titles from previous years.
Gorillaz go to the European Championships in Norway not only to “do their best”, but to win and improve on their fourth place last year.
No fewer than fourteen cheerleading teams represent Finland at the European Championships. A year ago, Finnish teams won four European championships and a total of nine medals.
You can talk about a successful sport with good reason.
Gorillaz has won the Finnish championship in the adult mixed cheer series for an amazing 24 years in a row since 2001.
The team’s first SC gold is already from 1996. The team of 36 athletes won their most recent SC gold a week before Midsummer.
The championship came with a difference of almost 50 points to the next. However, there are currently only three adult mixed cheer teams competing at the championship level in Finland.
Gorillaz practices four times a week for two hours at a time. The workouts are physically hard and require good fitness.
14 female and 22 male athletes compete full-time in Gorillaz, but according to the rules, 24 athletes can step on the mat in the competition team.
The age range of Gorillaz is 17-38 years, so it really is a team of adults. Funky Team is one of Finland’s leading cheerleading clubs, which has several teams in different leagues and age levels.
“We want to break prejudices that cheerleading is only a sport for women. Even in the beginning, cheerleading was a sport for grown men,” one of Gorillaz’s four coaches Opri Laamanen says.
For example, about the presidents of the United States George W. Bush, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt were involved in cheerleading in their youth.
In Finland, only about five percent of cheerleading enthusiasts are men.
“We need to get more men into the sport. We need more boys and men in the sport so that the mixed series also remains vibrant and competitive,” says Laamanen.
Sami Karjalainen, 31, has been cheerleading for almost 20 years. In Gorillaz, he is one of the team’s three captains. Previously, he competed in another club.
He discovered cheerleading through his sister.
“My sister said I don’t dare come to training,” Karjalainen laughs.
Although cheerleading was born in the world by the initiative of men, in Finland it is the team leader of Gorillaz Tuulikki Salmenkylän including being left in the shadow of the women’s teams for no reason.
“The importance of mixed cheerleading changes completely when you leave Finland for America,” he says.
The showiness and demandingness of the sport comes from the fact that men throw women higher with greater force.
“What is not always understood or remembered, even within cheer, is that precisely because of the greater strength and speed and height, the skill and body control level of women must be really tough,” says Salmenkylä.
“The sport is difficult, and everyone knows that success depends on seamless cooperation.”
In review the judges emphasize the unity of the team and the purity of the performance. Various cheers are part of the show.
Catchers and throwers are called bottom in the sport. Throwables are risers. So the division of labor goes so that in stunts, i.e. difficult performances, the bottom lifts and throws the riser up.
With the right timing, you have to be able to throw the soles high enough in a controlled and powerful manner. The grip must be sure and balanced.
“Explosiveness, mobility, acrobatics, weight lifting and freezing fitness in less than three minutes”, 29 years old Natalia Bartholdi enumerates.
Bartholdi has won eleven Finnish championships and two EC gold medals in Gorillaz. He has five world championship bronze medals in the Finnish national team.
Bartholdi also makes viral videos of the sport, where he presents his training moves, strength and acrobatic skills. On Instagram Reels the videos have almost 25 million views.
He has been doing cheerleading for fifteen years.
“Cheerleading doesn’t require you to run 3,000 meters in Cooper’s test, but the heart rate rises almost to maximum after half a minute and stays there until the end of the performance,” says Bartholdi.
“We also need a lot of mental strength. It’s not enough to trust yourself. You also have to trust others.”
Coach Laamanen says his heart rate rises to 200 from the sheer excitement and enthusiasm of watching the team’s performance. In exercises and competitions, the emphasis is on safety, he says. It is the number one thing and always a priority when planning choreography, movements, throws and lifts.
“All sports have their dangers, but safety is increased with the right technique and by doing things according to your skill level,” says Laamanen.
Competing in the Gorillaz ranks Tomi-Pekka Kangas is studying to become a paramedic. He has broken two fingers in training.
“Injuries typical for the sport are shoulder strain injuries, mild concussions and elbow injuries. This is a very injury-sensitive sport, so you have to be careful,” says Kangas.
Jere Nousiainen has received a couple of hits during training, once in the tooth and another time in the elbow.
“For a while I thought about mouthguards, but I gave up on the idea if something happens once in five years.”
Gorillaz members pay for their hobby and competition from their own pockets. It is difficult to get sponsors or there are none. Prize money is non-existent.
The monthly fee is 140 euros. The annual expenses are roughly 2,000 euros, which covers the coaches’ salaries, hall rent, competition trips, competition fees and camps and shirts. Race trips and equipment are usually paid for separately.
A possible national team representation costs more than 2,000 more each. It is a significant addition, when about two-thirds of the “gorillas” have also been in the national team.
Most members of Gorillaz are working or studying. Nousiainen is about to finish her studies and now dedicates all her free time to cheerleading.
“The club does not aim for profit. The society supports and would support more if it could”, says Laamanen, who is an adult teacher by profession.
“Although everyone pays their own expenses, we are happy to come. The visitors are of different ages and from different backgrounds. I’ve never seen the same sense of community anywhere, where there is one hundred percent trust in one another,” says coach Laamanen.
Cheerleading European Championships 28.–30.6. in Oslofjord, Norway.
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