Cheerleading: Is it a sport?

‘Is cheerleading a sport?’ is a question that I have personally debated with others too many times to count. Being a cheerleader myself, I know and have experienced the hard-work and athletic ability required to cheer. Though many of those reading this may believe it is not, and that it is simply a fun way to cheer on our teams, I am going to prove to you that it is indeed a sport.

For starters, not only do people with basic opinions say that cheerleading is a sport, but the Google dictionary defines cheerleading as a sport. The exact definition it gives is ‘a sport involving the performance of organized cheering, chanting, and dancing in support of a sports team at games.’ Think about it, in school your teacher tells you to use a dictionary if you need to know what something is, and you most likely use Google to define or discover what most things are. If Google considers cheering a sport, if the DICTIONARY considers cheerleading a sport, then why don’t you?

Not only is cheerleading defined as a sport, but fits the definition of the word ‘sport’. When you think of a sport, you probably think of something that requires athletic ability, that makes you sweat, that involves winning, and while this is all correct, why don’t you think cheer meets this criteria? I am currently on my 8th season of cheer, and soon I’ll be starting my 9th, so I know the hard-work, blood, sweat, and tears of a cheer season. You need flexibility, strong memory, to do gymnastics, tight motions, good dance moves, and strong legs, arms, and back. The hardest part of cheering may be stunts, because you have to lift people close to your size and hold them there, throw them (catch them of course!) and more! Often times football players drop the ball, but rarely do cheerleaders drop a flyer. Having said all this, you may still be thinking of the winning piece of it all, there is always competition cheering and the hard-work of helping to motivate the football players in hopes of them winning. Not only this, but the definition of ‘sport’ says it can be something of athletic ability that could be simply to entertain. With all this hard-work, just as much as any other athlete, then cheerleaders should absolutely be considered athletes.

Then, there’s the danger aspect. Most people consider sports to be dangerous, like fights in hockey or tackles in football, but who’s to say cheerleaders never get injured? Personally, I have been injured many times cheerleading, from spraining my wrist, to straining my back, to shifting my knee out of place for over six months and injuring it to the point where it’ll never be the same again. I have seen countless concussions, received multiple bruises, cuts, and scrapes, and watched bones break, joints sprain, and so many more injuries. So to say that cheerleading is just ‘playing it safe’ is simply unacceptable. It’s rare for anyone to leave practice without bruises on their thighs from slapping them while cleaning, without receiving a single blow in a stunt, or just simply pain-free. All in all, cheerleading is incredibly risky and as dangerous as any other sport.

Therefore, cheerleading is inevitably a sport, from the literal definition of it being classified as a sport, to the hard work it takes. Cheerleading can be more than a sport, it can be used to benefit other sports, or become a lifestyle. I hope you can now see the truth, cheerleading is just as much as a sport as anything else, and a hard one at that.