Is Cheerleading A Sport?

All cheerleaders are:

Girls

Dumb

Stuck Up

Skinny

FALSE FALSE FALSE

All cheerleaders are not girls, both girls and boys have the equal option to cheer.

All cheerleaders are not dumb, in order to cheer you have to maintain a certain GPA.

All cheerleaders are not stuck up. Everyone brings something different to the table, not everyone is the same. From experience on various cheer teams, I have met the most genuine girls.

All cheerleaders are not skinny. Cheerleaders come in all different shapes and sizes, just like any other sport. You don’t have to be a size 0 just to cheer. All you need is a dedicated heart and a positive spirit.

Cheerleading is:

Not a sport

There are so many stereotypical assumptions about cheer leading.

I can understand where people may be confused with cheering, maybe because they never witnessed or lived through the life of a cheerleader. But there is WAY more to cheering than just “yelling and shaking their butts”, stated by anonymous.

Based on the NCAA and high school associations, cheer leading is not technically a sport. But, just by the definition of what a sport is… Cheerleading should definitely be defined as one.

According to Oxfords Dictionary, a sport is: “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”.

Cheerleading requires a lot of training, skills, practice and agility. When competing, doing very difficult flips and stunts is not an easy task. It’s not something you just wake up and know how it do. You have to work hard and practice over and over in order to master it. People don’t give the credit to cheerleaders where it’s due and it’s not fair. 

Cheerleaders aren't given the proper protection because of the fact that it's not considered a sport.  Cheering is just as dangerous as playing football, or even worse. Think about it, these girls are risking a lot when being thrown 20-30 feet into the air. Depending on someone to catch you when you fall can be such a scary thing. 

According to the Washington Post,cheer leading "is as rigorous as many other activities that high schools. Something seriously needs to be changed when it comes to taking this situation seriously, but how?