For years, cheerleaders have been plagued with the same six obnoxious words: "But Cheerleading is not a sport." Cheerleaders have both figuratively and literally jumped through hoops to prove to the rest of the athletic world that they are indeed athletes. Not only does competitive cheer require a huge amount of stamina, technique and strength, but it also requires grace, personality and entertainment. Anything that can combine that level of physical strength and entertainment goes down as a pretty difficult sport in my book!
First, let's start off with the argument, "If it's not in the Olympics it's not a sport." According to this reasoning, then football, mixed martial arts, cricket, baseball and softball (both added into 2020 Olympics) are not sports as of now. However, these hardworking athletes are never talked down on like cheerleaders are; their athleticism is never doubted. Come to think of it, what sets cheer apart from these other sports? Oh! That's right, femininity and grace are incorporated making this sport "girly" and "easy." However, if you have ever cheered you know that this sport is anything but easy.
Cheerleading consists of four parts: stunting, floor routine, jumping, and tumbling. Each of these components requires months, even years, of rigorous training to reach perfection. Conditioning and working out are a huge factor for cheerleaders and their competitions. In order to stunt (for example a pyramid, half, full, liberty etc.) correctly, all members of the stunt group must have strong muscles in their core, legs and arms. Without strong muscles, the stunt will most likely fail, bringing down the entire group and deducting points. Same goes for jumping and tumbling without the correct muscles cheerleaders would not be able to perform those awe-inspiring flips and twirls that get's the crowd going wild! Finally, the floor routine which is basically a dance that incorporates stunting, jumping, and tumbling. The routine usually goes on for about three minutes but it is constant movement and requires very high stamina. It usually takes months for cheerleaders to be able to perform this dance flawlessly and at the end, they are often still out of breath.
So now that the most popular argument against cheer has been proven invalid, you know how psychically demanding cheer is, and what it truly is about. Do you think cheerleading is a sport now?
