Persuasive Essay: Is Cheerleading A Sport?

Webster's dictionary defines a sport as "An athletic activity that requires physical prowers or skill and often a competitive nature.” There are a ton of activities that fit that criteria; football, basketball,gymnastics, dance,and so many more, but what about cheerleading? It is extremely popular all around the world,and it does meet all those requirements. However people have debated over it for years. Cheerleading should be considered a sport. In fact, a good deal of organizations like the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the International Olympic Committee along with over 30 states agree. In California the California High Schools Expanding Equality Respect and Safety act also known as the “CHEERS” act

Cheerleading is now a competitive and physically demanding sport with athletes who perform services for their schools and communities and train for competition. Non-profit independent news organization ' ‘The 19th’' says that “The history of cheerleading has worked against its acceptance as a sport.”. Natalie Adams, who's a professor at the University of Alabama added that “Cheerleading became an easy target for derision”. Since cheerleaders were on the sidelines supporting the male athletes, people thought they themselves couldn’t be defined as athletes. In 1972 President Richard Nixon signed the “Education Amendments Act '' the new laws Title IX (9) codified gender equality in education as a civil right. Cheerleading was NOT included in Title IX (9) deeming it NOT a sport, but Ellen Staurosky who is a professor of sports media at Ithaca College explained that “If you go back to look at some of the sports administration text from that time for things needed to run a football game, under promotional items it would be ‘band’ and ‘cheerleaders. Former head coach of Georgia Tech’s cheer team, Daniel Nester stated “History and pom-poms — that’s what’s standing in our

Cheerleaders do perform but professor of kinesiology which incase you don't know is the study of the acquisition of motor skills, the mechanical aspects of movement, and the bodies responses to physical activity), Marc Lochbaun notes that the amount of time cheerleaders spend in moderate to vigorous physical activity during football games is the cardiovascular equivalent to running a marathon or more. Cheerleading is very physically demanding and time-consuming. Cheerleaders must practice for hours to be able to perfect their dangerous and intense routines safely. They work on their strength, jumps, balance, flexibility, as well as their mental strength and cardiorespiratory endurance, just because of how risky a sport cheerleading is. The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research (NCCSIR) conducted a survey of high school and college catastrophic injuries from Fall 1982 to Spring 2018. The results showed that “Collegiate cheerleading accounted for 70.5% of all female catastrophic sports injuries and high school cheerleading for 65.2% of all high school female catastrophic sports injuries''. Meaning cheerleading had the second highest rate of injury overall, being outnumbered only by football. Hereby deeming it the most dangerous female