Blaire Lewis
RC 1000
Research Paper
25 April 2017 Cheerleading as a Sport
The controversial debate of whether or not cheerleading is a sport has been going on for many years now. Although it is the fastest growing women’s sport, many Americans do not consider it a sport, mainly because they fail to differentiate the sideline cheerleaders from the competitive ones. The purpose of sideline cheerleading is to interact with the crowd and generate school spirit, whereas the purpose of competitive cheerleading is to perform against teams across the country and demonstrate high intensity skills in a two and a half minute routine. In addition, cheerleading is more dangerous than one would assume, for cheerleading involves rigorous
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The Women’s Sports Foundation, however, has narrowed down some things that determine whether or not something should be considered a sport. What they believe qualifies a sport is “a physical activity which involves propelling a mass through space or overcoming the resistance of mass, competing against/with an opponent,” containing “rules that explicitly define the time, space, and purpose of the contest and the conditions under which a winner is declared,” and the “acknowledgement that the purpose of the competition is a comparison of the relative skills of the participants,” which are all components of cheerleading that qualify (Varsity). The main reason people disregard cheerleading as a sport is because they fail to distinguish between sideline and competitive cheerleading. Sideline cheerleading is interacting with the crowd, whereas competitive cheerleading is performing against teams at events all around the world. Cheerleaders not compete against teams from all over the country and there is a scoring sheet that determines who the winner is. The main events cheerleaders compete at can range anywhere from Washington, Texas, Florida, or California and are aired on ESPN. That being said, ESPN is a worldwide sports channel that airs major sporting events such as the NFL, NCAA, MLB, and so many more. Since cheerleading is aired on the “Entertainment and Sports Programming Network,” the same channel that football, basketball, and baseball are aired on, there is no reason it should be ignored as a