Cheerleading Is Not a Sport

Many people claim that cheerleading is not a sport. The reasons for this are varied, but essentially, cheerleaders have not traditionally competed (this of course is changing and changing rapidly at that), and many people don't consider doing routines a "sport" in the same way that football or basketball is a sport. So is cheerleading a sport? Or is it merely a past time?

There are many arguments made regarding whether or not cheerleading is a sport. In addition, many people distinguish between a "yell" leader, versus a cheerleader who does stunting versus the competitive All Star cheerleader. Can you say that some cheerleading is a sport while other cheerleading is not? That all depends on who you ask and their definition of sports.

One definition of sports is that they require some type of physical ability or skill that has to be learned and practiced. While no one would argue that cheerleaders practice, it can be argued that cheerleading, when it is simply yelling into the crowds, does not require a great deal of skill. Anyone can learn routines and yell into the crowd as long as they smile a lot.

With the advent of competitive cheerleading as an activity in its own right, cheerleading can arguably require competition. However, what if the cheerleaders are just clapping and yelling at games? Perhaps the school doesn't compete. Many schools do in fact have cheerleading squads who do not attend competitions.

Many would say that cheerleading is not a sport because it does not involve a defined strategy. Even if you are on a competing squad, the goal is to get the judges to think that you do your stunts and routine better than the other squads. However, this would also mean that competitive diving, gymnastics and other similar aesthetic activities are not sports either.

However, recognizing drill teams, cheerleading and similar activities as a sport gets far more complicated than whether or not anyone thinks that cheerleaders are athletes. In fact, the debate is rarely about whether or not cheerleaders are athletes, but rather delves deeper into Title IX politics, and other issues.

Not recognizing cheerleading as a bona fide sport means that there is no national governing agency that determines what type of safety training coaches need to have. In addition, at the college level, it means that cheerleaders don't have on site athletic trainers. Couple that with the fact that orthopedic experts say that many cheerleading injuries could have been prevented with proper safety precautions, and one could easily make the argument that, for the sake of the cheerleaders themselves, cheerleading deserves sport status.

For almost three decades, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights actually told schools not to include cheerleading as sport. Why? The OCR has the task of making sure that schools are not gender biased in their offerings. The sports offerings for schools need to be evenly distributed between girls and boys so that the school is not classified as gender biased. To even out the books, schools were told not to recognize cheerleading as a sport. In the last decade or so, schools have gotten around this by offering a spirit club that primarily cheers at games and a squad that attends competitions.

Some schools are quite content to keep their status as an after school club. Why? Because becoming an official school sport makes them ineligible to participate in some national cheerleading competitions. While being considered an official sport would increase safety, it would decrease the opportunities that the squad has to show off their skills.

Whether or not cheerleading is a real sport is a question that may never be settled. Although there are good reasons to consider it a sport and it certainly meets some of the accepted criteria of being a sport, there are many who will never consider it more than an after school club. One thing is certain; cheerleading is increasing in popularity so much that it might launch itself into sport status without having to try very hard.

• Cute Hello Cheers
• Freshman Cheers for a Pep Rally
• School Cheers
• Cheerleading Quiz

• Words for Cheerleading Cheers
• Popular Cheers for Cheerleading
• Cheerleading Chants
• Football Cheers Chants
• Cheerleading Routines

• Competitive Cheerleading
• History of Cheerleading
• Cheerleading Injuries
• National Cheerleading Association
• History of Competitive Cheerleading