The Cheerleading as a Sport Debate Continues
Cheerleading – and what it has evolved into – is on trial right now in a Connecticut courtroom. The debate revloves around a law suit brought on by the volleyball team at Quinnipiac University over the school’s decision to cut their team violated Title IX because of the resulting imbalance of athletic opportunities for women at the school. The university claims that new opportunities in competitive cheer balance out the numbers. So, what this is boiling down to is the question of Cheerleading being a competitive sport or not?
My thoughts:
No – cheerleading should not be considered a competitive sport for Title IX purposes. Even though cheerleaders are performing more and more athletic moves, train like athletes and now have more competitive opportunities within their “sport”, the primary role of cheerleading at the high school and college level has traditionally been to cheer on and support the school’s athletic teams.
If competitive cheer is going to evolve into a “sport” of its own that basically combines the elements of dance, gymnastics and acrobatics, then they need to give it a new name. And there is a trend to that – it’s called Stunt and Tumble. And even if it develops into a new sport, should a “new” sport replace a well establish sport in a college sport line up? I don’t think so. Even Cheerleading expert Jeff Webb agrees that cheerleading should not be considered a competitive sport for Title IX purposes.
So, what are your thoughts? Competitive sport or NOT?
7 Comments
July 2nd, 2010 at 7:27 am
Yeah I agree! I think it can also be considered as a sports.
August 3rd, 2010 at 1:36 am
Competitive Club Cheerleading is called “All Star” Cheerleading. There are set rules and regulations, there is a governing body USASF, there are good teams, and not so good teams, but to be so uninformed and consider cheerleading in general NOT a sport is just sad. The definition of “sport” is an organized athletic activity that is competitive in nature. Now I do believe that cheerleading before was not competitive in nature in the begining . But now as with most of the things we humans do, is ending up quite competitive. Watch any ESPN show on cheerleading, or go to you tube and watch the number one teams compete at Worlds. It is the most amazing athletic event I have seen in a long time.
August 15th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
It is absolutely a sport. The reason it was being considered not a sport had nothing to do with tradition. The judge decided it was not a sport at this particular college because “it did not have a longstanding governeing body.” (which I am not sure is even valid) In Arkansas, our cheerleaders do compete and do support our teams, and are governed by the Arkansas Athletics Association just like every other sport in Arkansas. Do I believe this is a sport, yes. Should a volleyball team be dropped, probably not, because is you look at the three prong test participation is a big factor in it. I think possibly the lawyer did not do their job.
October 10th, 2010 at 1:00 am
Whether or not an activity should be considered a sport should not be dependent on its origin or original intent. For example, weight lifting is a varsity sport at many institutions, but started out simply a means of being physically fit. Throughout the years it has evolved, and has since become a recognized sport.
Also, the name of an activity is not suitable criteria to deny it the categorization of “sport”. If this is the case, then the activity in question is a sport in the first place.
Cheerleading has evolved from its original purpose into a competitive sport, and, just like weight lifting, although it is sometimes still used for its original purpose, it has also become a separate entity which is most definitely a sport.
November 12th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Competitive cheerleading is, in my opinion, a sport because of the high athletic requirements a cheerleader must possess to run a put-together and clean routine for a full 2.5 minutes. It is physically exerting to flip end over end constantly, to lift girls into the air while they twist their bodies into impossible positions, and to try to keep your breathing steady when you’re not only using it to keep yourself going in a routine but to yell as loud as you can to get the crowd involved in your cheer or to cheer on your teammates as they do an arabian, or a full across the middle mat or power round-off three to a tuck. Nothing about cheerleading is easy. I’m not saying that any thing else is less of a sport because football players, basketball players, baseball players, volleyball players, etc. all are noble sportsman and women. BUT, I don’t believe you can judge whether or not cheerleading is a sport based on other sports because the object of every game is different.
December 7th, 2010 at 1:27 am
the definition of a sport is competitive physical activity. Look at cheerleaders. Do they not fit under that category? If you do not believe so then you need to look beyond the ones on the sidelines. You also need to stop thinking that it is a joke because some people take this seriously. It is a lifestyle whether you agree to it or not. It is dangerous and just as difficult as any other sport. If you have any doubts of why it should not be… do it… no TRY it because i am sure, without years of experience , you’ll fail.
July 5th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
[…] the debate as to whether cheerleading is a sport continues and as cheerleading statistically continues to be considered one of the more dangerous high school […]