Why Cheerleading Should Be Considered A Sport

The cheerleaders you see at every football and basketball game aren't real cheerleaders. You could argue that cheerleading is not even a sport. The official definition of a sport is “a game, competition, or activity needing physical effort and skill that is played or done according to rules, for enjoyment and/or as a job”(Oxford languages). Competitive cheerleading is not what typically comes to mind when people mention cheerleaders. Competitive cheerleading is a team oriented sport where they put together a 2 minute and 30 second routine to perform in front of a crowd of people and a set of judges. From there they get scored based on certain criteria that was displayed in the routine and get ranked from the grading by the judges. However,

Competitive cheerleading should be considered a sport because, just like every other sport, there's different types of cheerleading, and it's a dangerous activity. Cheerleading is more than just bows and cute uniforms.

The majority of people love watching football and basketball games no matter if it's collegiate, high school, or the big leagues. Nonetheless, you won't find people putting a cheerleading competition on a big screen in a restaurant. What if I told you cheerleading and football are actually quite similar? In every sport, you are given an opponent. Like football, cheerleading does too. Not only do they have one opponent, but the majority of the time they have close to 50-100 opposing teams at once. Although it's not a direct comparison of ‘who's stronger’ or ‘who can do more’, it's still comparing teams in a less physical battle. Behind the scenes, athletes go through hours of training a week. All athletes have to be in a certain physical condition to be able to perform at the required level asked of them. “to training methods the activities of cheerleading and football similarities are heavy pushing activities, with

When cheering on the sideline, you can expect a low energy level and a good time. Competition cheerleading has to deal with a higher energy demand when performing a 2 minute and 30 second routine. You actively participate in a group effort oriented series of skills. On the other hand, sideline cheer could sit for as long as 10 minutes before performing the next stunt, cheer, or dance. Additionally, they don't have anything to get professionally judged on during their performance. “Competitive cheerleading teams revolve around a scoresheet. Cheerleaders are divided into teams based on age and skill level.”(cehsnews.com). There's no penalty for messing up on the sideline. Most importantly, sideline cheerleaders cheer FOR others, not AGAINST others. This determines the intensity of the sport and usually is what people would consider a sport. While you could call both cheerleaders, there's a difference between whether you can say cheer is a sport when referring to