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China Trains Thousands of Cheerleaders for the Olympic Games
Gimme a W! Gimme an O! Gimme a W! What's that spell? Wow! Get ready for a huge dose of team spirit. China is training 200,000 cheerleaders for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. The army of volunteers includes retired teachers and students. And they won't just be supporting Chinese athletes. They will cheer for athletes from every country. It's unusual for a host country to recruit so many cheerleaders for other teams, but the Chinese say this is just one of the many ways they hope to make this year's games unique.
The very best of the recruits, nearly 600 women, are spending four to six hours a day getting ready to cheer at the games. The women will jump, shout, and dance like cheerleaders in the West, but they'll also add a Chinese flair. Along with the usual pom poms, they will wave red fans and swing martial arts weapons called nunchucks.
Cheerleading is fairly new in China. To make sure the squads know the latest moves, some American cheerleaders went to China. The New England Patriots sent their squad, and they're showing the Chinese more than just a few moves, they're teaching them how to get a big crowd on their feet and cheering. The games are just a couple of weeks away, and that's reason enough to jump for joy.
I'm Lucy and that's what happened in sports this week! How well do you know your cheerleading moves? Play Match It and find out.
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