This weekend, most eyes at the Georgia World Congress Center are trained on the 20,000 or so kids competing in the CheerSport National Championship, one of the country's largest cheerleading competitions.

Hard not to, with 800 teams from around the country tumbling, flipping and dancing for a shot at being cheerleading champions.

Johnny Crawford/Staff (ENLARGE)

Myke Johnson, 41, performs with Ace Chiefs during the CheerSport National Championship in the Georgia World Congress Center on Saturday.

Johnny Crawford/AJC (ENLARGE)

Peachtree City's Isabel Bush is lifted in the air during the CheerSport National Championship at Georgia World Congress Center on Saturday.

IF YOU GO • CheerSport National Championships • When: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday • Where: Georgia World Congress Center, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd. N.W., Atlanta • How much: $20 per day; free for children 5 and younger • Contact: 888-732-3965, www.cheersport.net • More photos • More Metro news

But in an international sport of more than 5 million young people, where innovation is measured in mid-air twists and turns, the idea that a 41-year-old can be a show-stopper is well, emboldening.

No, you say? A grown man in a one-piece Lycra outfit jumping around with people less than half his age is not dignified? Or a 34-year-old woman chanting as though she were at a junior high school tournament doesn't seem age-appropriate?

Laugh if you want to. Odds are you probably can't even touch your toes.

Over the past several years, one of the most popular events in this sport of teens and pre-teens has become the open competition for the 18-and-up set. And there is no age cap on the "and up."

But banish all thoughts of "Saturday Night Live's" Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri from the mind. The open competition is not so much a novelty act as a chance for some of the sport's more than 70,000 U.S. coaches to prove to their students that they can talk the talk, walk the walk, jump the jump — and come away without a broken bone or bruised pride.

Myke Johnson is a coach at Infinity Elite in Peachtree City, just one of the dozens of all-star cheerleading centers around metro Atlanta. The 41-year-old has been cheering for 20 years, was head cheerleading coach at Morris Brown College and has judged national competitions for years.

He was perhaps the oldest person performing Saturday. But by his own assessment, he is one of the highest jumpers on his squad, the ACE Chiefs, a group made up mostly of coaches.

"I push my kids and train my kids hard at practice, but when I'm on stage, I better do everything I've been preaching," he said.

'Cheerleading controls my life'

This is the heart of the cheerleading season, and for the next several weeks across the country, thousands of young people will be competing at events like this for regional and national bragging rights. At CheerSport this weekend, there are 76 different divisions, with most participants ranging from "Tiny" (5 and under) to "Senior" (18-year-olds), and including competitions in dance, hip-hop and for youngsters with special needs.

It's every bit as competitive — and time-consuming — as Little League, soccer or any other strenuous activity you'll see young athletes doing on weekends. If not moreso.

"Cheerleading controls my life," Alpharetta's Aimee Burdett, 17, admitted during Saturday's competition. "My coaches are like my parents."

Burdett and others did their thing Saturday on four stages, performing moves like "The Scorpion" as music blared and thousands of fans screamed. They came dressed in skin-tight uniforms ("Flip Factor," read the front of one team's outfits) and wearing heavy layers of glitter (even the pre-schoolers).

For companies such as CheerSport, JAMfest and Varsity that own these events, the open division is a tiny segment of the lucrative competitive or "all-star" market. Nevertheless, "it draws crowds," said Justin Carrier, executive director for strategic development for the National Cheerleading Association.

And though it started out as a way for coaches of a certain age to show what they had, increasingly it has become more competitive.

"When we walk through that curtain it's on and poppin'," says Johnson. "We go for blood."

Standing room only

When cheerleaders like Johnson, or his friend and competitor, Simone Smith, 34, hit the stage, the arena was standing room only.

The open teams, by their very makeup, often draw together the students of rival gyms as spectators. (And you thought the movie "Bring it On" rang true.)

"The difference it makes when they see me on stage is like a whole new world opens up for them, and they're like, 'She knows what she's talking about,' " says Smith, a member of the Force all-stars in Snellville.

Alexsis Bulter, 12, a student at Force who works with Smith, is performing this weekend with her junior level four team. She's proud of her own abilities, but admits that Smith is "just a good all-around cheerleader and she can work the dance. For real. She shows us up sometimes. And her jumps, they are really, really pretty."

Admiring words aside, their students are also quick to point out any toes that were pointed not quite correctly or smiles that were less than dazzling during their coaches' performance.

"You'll get embarrassed if you get out there messing around," Smith said.

Or you can get hurt.

Sam Hall, also of Force in Snellville, says this year is likely his last in the open competition, though he swears that at 38, he's still "outdoing some of these young cats who are 25."

Hall can "rewind" (jump backward from a standing position and land in the spot he started). If pressed, he can throw a "flyer" (small woman) in the air and catch her by the feet with one hand above his head. He makes it look so smooth, so easy. And don't his bones know it.

But maybe this won't be his last year. His students enjoy watching him, and for any athlete there's always the desire to prove he can do it, if to no one else but himself.

"You're only as young as you feel," Hall said.

— Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this article.

SOME NUMBERS TO CHEER ABOUT

• 70,000: Cheerleading coaches in the United States

• 5,000: All-star cheerleading clubs across the country

• 800: Number of teams competing in CheerSport nationals this weekend

• 20,000: CheerSport participants

• 209,000: Estimated number of young people treated in hospital emergency rooms for cheerleading-related injuries between 1990 and 2002

Sources: American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors; National Cheerleading 2 million: Cheerleaders in 50 countries, apart from the United States Association; National Spirit Group; National Council for Spirit Safety and Education; CheerSport