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Rachael Kimball

Penny Sobinski

English Composition 2

April 26, 2020

What Is a Sport? How Does Cheerleading relate to sports? Is Cheerleading a sport?

Cheerleading is a topic that many people have disagreements about whether it should be a

sport or not. Many people have many different thoughts about this topic. Some people even think

that only certain parts of cheerleading are a sport. For example, they could think that cheering at

competitions is a sport and that cheering at games is not. What some people do not tend to think

about is what a sport actually is. A sport can be classified is an activity that has a physical

attempt or skill; and an individual or a team that competes against each other for amusement.

Cheerleading has been around for quite a few decades, “Cheerleading dates back to the 1860s, in

Great Britain, and entered the US in the 1880s” (“Cheerleading History”). It was not until the

1880s that a student from Yale changed rugby into American Football. Cheerleading is a sport

since it meets the definition, it uses teamwork, and it includes qualities of a sport, and in this

paper, it will cover both views on cheerleading being a sport or not.

Most people think you should do something “more athletic” than cheer. As a cheerleader,

you want people to realize that cheer is a sport. There are different reasons that individuals

suppose cheerleading is not a sport. Sometimes people think cheerleading lacks athleticism. The

Women’s Sports Foundation has a certain amount of facts of what you should have to be called a

sport. One fact started out as introducing that this kind of physical activity should involve a mass

being set into motion through space, and an example of this would be stunting in hip hop

routines for cheer or in normal routines.

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Another part that sports are required to include is that they have to compete against the

different teams or an opponent. An example of this would be cheer competitions, where athletes

compete against other high school teams. Some rules that go along with sports are that it is a

certain time, it needs to have a certain space and there should be a purpose of the competition.

The purpose for cheerleading would be to win the highest title of the day. An example of this is

the time of 2:30 seconds for the routine, seven to nine cheerleading mats, and score sheets.

Another example of cheerleading would be the national championships on ESPN. Also, any

physical activity that relates to performances that can be reviewed or eligible can be created into

a competitive sport. So, another one would be that physical activity includes the above

components. The last fact to make it a sport is that the purpose of competing against others is

that the routines are alike and so it is easy to judge the routines. Cheerleading does meet the

specifications of athletics, but they should be supporting high school and college athletic teams,

and this means competitions come second. When it comes down to it, it is saying that cheering at

football and basketball games take precedence over any cheer competitions.

The American Medical Association thinks that cheerleading is a sport. Less than 10 years

ago, competitive cheer was ruled against being a sport. This was because colleges could not meet

the requirement of equality between males and females. In an interesting article about

cheerleading, Bonesteel had other ideas about cheerleading and he states that, “The American

Medical Association says cheerleading should be considered a sport because of its rigors and

risks” (Bonesteel). Adding cheerleading as a sport would allow coaches to be better qualified and

more safety measures would be placed. Cheerleading can be dangerous when it comes to

tumbling and stunting. Our nation’s largest doctors group has concluded that cheerleading is as

meticulous as other activities and sports in high school. Dr. Rosman stated that “cheerleading is a
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leading cause of catastrophic injury in female athletes at the high school and college levels”

(Bonesteel).

Rosman stated that “These girls are flipping 10 to 20 feet in the air, and that they need to

stand up for the right of their patients and she demands that they get the same protection as their

football colleagues” (Bonesteel). Some people asked that maybe just certain parts of

cheerleading should be considered as a sport for women; this would help women have more

athletics. This means more sport sponsorship options, also it would help balance female and male

athletics, and it would help sports reach NCAA status. A while ago, the NCAA and USA

Gymnastics tried to get acrobatics and tumbling to be added. “Twenty or more varsity teams

and/or competitive clubs must currently exist on a college campuses” (Bonesteel). Even for

consideration the sport team would have to be on a list, and the team has to obtain the title of

championship status within ten years on the list or progression to stay on the list. Even though

the American Medical Association wanted cheerleading to become a sport, as of 2020 it is not

listed as a sport.

While talking about Gymnastics, Cheerleading has many relatable qualities to it.

Gymnastics is a sport that is very popular and it is also included in the Olympics and has been

for decades. “Gymnastics is both men and women trying to perform elaborate flips, tricks, and

other acrobatic feats while on mats” (Popoloski). In cheerleading, they perform on mats and they

do flips and tricks to impress judges. There are two differences with gymnastics and cheer, and

cheerleading is a team sport, and gymnastics includes bars, beam, and vault too. Also, many

cheerleaders take gymnastic classes to help get their tumbling to advance, gain better technique

and achieve more points during a competition. Cheerleading relates to Gymnastics in tumbling

aspects. Also, a cheer routine is like a floor routine, but as a team rather than an individual.
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Cheerleaders have not always traditionally competed. Even though they now compete,

some people do not even consider cheerleading routines or dance routines a “sport” compared to

other sports. There are different types of cheerleaders like the cheerleaders that just yell at

football and basketball games, or a cheerleader who does stunts and tumbling, and the

competition cheerleaders. Many people consider competition cheer a sport while others believe

game cheering is not. Cheerleading can only have certain parts of cheerleading, some schools

only have cheerleaders for games and do not compete. People look at cheerleading as something

simple as just learning a routine but during that 2:30 routine. There has to be so much of a certain

skill in the routine. You have to perfect every little movement you have. Sometimes you have to

change your parts with someone else the day of competition, and this can cause added stress, but

that is what comes along with cheerleading. Sometimes the unexpected happens at the last

moment like injuries. People think that cheerleading does not take skill, but to go beyond yelling

you have to have the skill to tumble. If your school does not compete, your school's cheerleading

program should not be considered a sport, because yelling does not take a lot of skill. Many

would say that cheerleading does not involve a strategy. Competitive diving, gymnastics, and

other similar activities have the goal to get 1st place and have the judges give them high scores.

In cheer, it is the same concept, and since they want to achieve the same goal, cheerleading

should fall under the same category: a sport.

Cheerleading is deeper into things in Title IX politics and other issues. Without

cheerleading being called a sport, there are no governing agencies that will help determine safety

measures for coaches and cheerleaders. Also, without it being considered a sport there is no on-

site athletic trainer. There could be ways to prevent many injuries in cheer with safety

precautions. “For almost three decades, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights
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actually told schools not to include cheerleading as a sport” (Betts). They told them not too

because it was gender-biased. At most schools they are supposed to have an even amount of

female sports as make sports, so to them, cheerleading was a female sport, even though boys are

allowed to join the cheerleading squad. The reason some schools tend to not have cheer teams is

that they have spirit clubs instead. Spirit clubs cheer at games, and then the school may just have

a competition cheerleading team. The downside of cheer becoming a sport is that it could make

some schools not eligible to compete at national competitions and then the team could not show

off their skills that they worked all season for. The good side of becoming a sport would be

safety measures.

Sideline cheer and competition are different. During sideline cheer you are just

entertaining the crowd trying to get them more into the game and to cheer on their team.

“Without cheerleaders it is just a game” (Cheer Quote Graphic). Competition cheer takes so

much more than just that; you have to use so much skill, and sometimes that is a challenge

because you are attempting new skills. You have to learn how to tumble and after that you end

up performing standing backflips, round off to different flips, and full layout twists. Also, some

schools will perform stunts and basket tosses, or the more common name stunts. Cheerleading

takes a lot of strength and cooperation with your teammates, if your team is not working together

it can cause the team to get off count. Competition cheer has certain guidelines such as; how long

your routine to be, that there should be flags and signs in the routine, and certain jumps. For

cheerleading you have less than three minutes to show what you have been working on for the

season. With that, cheerleading can be dangerous when trying new skills, and this makes the

number of emergency visits rise, because they do not wear any protective gear.
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On the opposing side, there are many people who back the side of cheerleading not being

a sport. People think that since cheerleaders do their hair and make-up, and wear skirts and long

sleeves, they are not professional. To start off, at cheerleading competitions on the score sheet

there is an area for appearance, and if you have fly-aways, or your bow falls out, you can get

points deducted. People think that cheerleading has no goal, but every cheerleader out there has

their own goal. As a team you have a goal to win, they are trying to achieve one goal that they

set at the beginning of their season. People think that since cheerleading does not have any direct

contact with someone else then it is not a sport, and that even though it is dangerous and difficult

that does not make something a sport. In cheerleading you do not have a lot of contact, but you

have certain spots to move to to make the routine successful. Just like in other sports, like

football you have certain plays and the same with basketball.

Another article also stated that cheerleading should not be considered a sport, because of

many reasons. To start out, Darnell stated “Cheerleading is not commonly considered a sport

because of the inability to compete against an opponent” (Darnell). In this article, it talks more

about cheering at games, because at games cheerleaders are not competing against each other,

they are cheering their team on. This article makes it clear that there are not many teams that

actually compete in the United States, less than 20 percent. Many times cheerleaders are only

seen at games, rather than when they are competing. While game cheer may not be considered a

sport, competitive cheer on the other hand does compete against other opponents. During this it

is important to look into college cheer or all-star cheer, because many of them compete at higher

levels than high schools do. At the end Darnells article it relates cheerleading to an activity rather

than it being a sport. While the true definition of an activity only means a situation in which
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things are occuring or being completed. Cheerleading is not a situation, it is people coming

together to create a team, to compete in competition cheerleading.

While the next article shares personal experience it also has facts that back up

cheerleading. “People are used to seeing cheerleaders at football and basketball games”

(Ferrara), but rarely do the same people show up for cheer competitions as well. Cheerleading in

the 1990s was focused on competing with other teams, not cheering on sidelines. Cheerleading

practice is a lot of commitment, “they practice anywhere from 3 to 7 days a week” (Ferrara). In

this article it also included, “there has to be a certain mat size to compete on, and there are score

sheets that the judges fill out” (Ferrara), to make it past regionals you have to meet a certain

score to get to the state level. Cheerleading may only be a two minute thirty second routine, but it

has been practiced countless hours.

I chose this next article to show that sometimes all people see is one type of cheerleading.

“Several N.F.L. teams determined cheerleading programs had a scarcity problem on game days”

(Macur). This is where it all began, this led the NFL to hire females just for their appearance.

People then began to just look at cheerleaders for their look or only see sideline cheerleaders.

One woman said, “We were made to look almost exactly like cheerleaders, but we weren't a

member of that society” (Macur). That statement right there is stereotyping, cheerleaders have ‘a

look,’ but in all reality anyone that wants to work hard can be a cheerleader. These cheerleaders

who were just there for looks did not have to think about practice of perfecting a routine before it

was performed during a game. Again, people only see the cheerleaders when they are out on the

field for showtime. They do not see how many hours that some practice to perfect a routine, but

they can recognize a football player for doing the same thing, but he could be perfecting his
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catch, throw, or route. Their claim is to show what was going wrong in the N.F.L. and who the

teams were hiring and why.

In 2020, there was a show added to Netflix called, “Cheer,” this series shows practices,

competitions, gameday, and community events about cheerleading. In this article it states, “the

series illuminates the complex role that cheerleading can play in helping young people to learn

about themselves and how they fit into the world around them” (Tensley). Cheerleading is not

always about keeping the crowd cheering during the games, it is more than that. At practices you

spend countless hours with your teammates and no matter what on the matts you have to work as

a team to accomplish your goal. The ‘Cheer’ series goes into detail of the term of exhausted

stereotypes that occurs along with cheerleading. Cheerleading is not about the looks, it lets

people who have a drive for it experience working as a team, getting to know more people, and

allows you to fit in somewhere. This article is a great example to help show not every

cheerleader has a perfect look or past, but rather you can fit in, and have a chance if you want

something.
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This picture shown is the Navarro Cheer Team at the 2017 NCA College Nationals. This visual

supports my paper by showing how many people it can take to make only one type of pyramid

(“American Cheerleader”).

In conclusion, this paper has covered many topics relating to cheerleading, it has talked

about the definition of a sport, how cheerleading relates to sport, information about why people

do not consider cheerleading is a sport, and why cheerleading should be considered a sport. This

paper gives reason why cheerleading is not just about games, but rather it should be more

focused on competitive cheer. Game cheer is important to help cheer on basketball and football

teams, but cheering at games should be considering more of a club or activity. On the other hand,

competitive cheer requires practice for stunting, tumbling, and creating a routine at a certain time

of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. In that little amount of time, one team competes against others to
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see who has the best routine by being judged on looks, jumps, tumbling, and synchronization.

After this paper has examined and included insight from the Netflix series “Cheer,” competitive

cheer shows many reasons why cheerleading should become a sport. The series “Cheer,” only

shows one team and how it has molded and allowed each person to be themselves and grow.

Cheerleading is a sport, but it is also so much more, it helps you gain life skills and work

together as a team to achieve one goal, which is to win at competitions. This paper answers what

a sport is, how cheerleading relates to a sport, and now it is up to you to decide whether or not

you think Cheerleading is a sport.

Works Cited
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“American Cheerleader.” American Cheerleader, 2017,

www.americancheerleader.com/photos/2017-nca-collegiate-cheer-

championship/#foobox-1/14/IMG_5298.jpg.

Betts, Jennifer. “Why Is Cheerleading Not a Sport?” LoveToKnow, LoveToKnow Corp,

cheerleading.lovetoknow.com/Cheerleading_Is_Not_a_Sport.

Bonesteel, Matt. “Is Cheerleading a Sport? The American Medical Association Thinks

so.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 10 June 2014,

www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2014/06/10/is-cheerleading-a-sport-the-

american-medical-association-thinks-so/.

“Cheerleading History.” Cheer.epicsports.com, cheer.epicsports.com/cheerleading-

history.html.

Darnell, Brea. “Definition, Statistics Proves Cheer Is Not a Sport.” Daily Republic, 15 Feb.

2012, www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/wires/features/youth/definition-statistics-

proves-cheer-is-not-a-sport/.

Ferrara, Alexa. “Is Cheerleading a Sport?” WRTC 103, 2014, sites.jmu.edu/103fall14/is-

cheerleading-a-sport-draft-2/.

Macur, Juliet. “N.F.L.'s Alternate 'Cheerleaders' Don't Cheer or Dance.” The New York
Times, The New York Times, 31 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/sports/nfl-
cheerleaders.html.

Popoloski, Dan. “10 Reasons Why Cheerleading Is a Sport.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report,
3 Oct. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/613494-10-reasons-why-cheerleading-is-a-
sport#slide4.

Tensley, Brandon. “Netflix's 'Cheer' Invites You to Unlearn What You Think You Know about
Cheerleading.” CNN, Cable News Network, 28 Jan. 2020,
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www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/politics/netflix-cheer-america-identity-
cheerleading/index.html.