[4] Its membership includes 116 national cheer federations on all continents - reaching over 5 million athletes globally.

[12] In June 2014, ICU's application for the inclusion of cheer-leading in the Federation Internationale Du Sport Universitaire (FISU) World University Championships programme was officially accepted, with the sport being included as part of the programme from 2018 on wards.

[16][17] In July 2021, IOC granted the ICU full Olympic recognition, allowing for ICU to be fully eligible to apply to be included as an event in future Olympic Games and multi-sport game events.

[18][19][20] As part of the IOC approval, this involved ICU being a fully compliant signatory with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) codes, being recognized as the international governing body by the organization.

[23][24][25] The International Cheer Union is a non-profit international governing entity with the objectives to serve as an advocate for those dedicated to the advancement of Cheerleading, provide balanced input and governance based on the levels of development to all participating members and to train and further educate athletes, coaches and officials.

Within the sport of cheerleading, the ICU recognises a number of disciplines encompassing club, allstar, recreational, scholastic (school and university), masters, special abilities, paracheer/adaptive abilities and national levels within all respective age levels, team sizes and gender grouping.