Cheerleading The SPORT

Many people believe that cheerleading is not a sport; however, I am not one of those people. Some of the reasoning why cheerleading is not a sport is because it’s not in the Olympics or because there is no clear winner to the audience. Most of the people saying this are not cheerleaders; therefore, they are judging the SPORT from the outside perspective. I for one am a cheerleader and do believe that it is a sport, not just an activity or hobby.

            There are different types of cheerleading such as sideline and competition cheerleading. There are also different organizations of cheerleading like high school cheerleading, recreational cheerleading, and all-star cheerleading. The most advanced form is all-star. I think that high school, rec, and all-star cheerleading are all sports when they are in competition season. High school and rec teams both sideline cheer for sports teams during one season while practicing their competition routine for the next.

I do not believe that sideline cheering is a sport, only competition is. During sideline cheering, cheerleaders perform cheers to get the team and the crowd excited. There are the occasional stunts thrown in the air, but other than that it is mostly just cheering. On the other hand, all competition teams have a jammed packed two minute and thirty second routine replete with jumps, tumbling, stunts, and dance, all of which require major skill of an athlete.

         Others may also think that cheerleading is not a sport because there is no referee or umpire. Cheerleading has what other sports don’t, and that is a judge. There is never a set amount of them, so at any competition you could see any number of judges sitting in front of you criticizing every move you make. These people judge you on everything possible. Everything from the way you look, to the way you present yourself on the mat, and every teeny tiny thing that happens during your routine. If a stunt wobbles you get a deduction. If you have jewelry or nail polish on you get a deduction. If your hair bow falls onto the mat you get a deduction. And if a stunt falls to the ground you get an even bigger deduction. There is so much that goes into cheerleading that the public eye never sees or is aware of, so they just make the assumption that it is not a sport. If everyone knew every truth behind cheerleading then people would look at the SPORT differently.