When thinking of the word ‘sport,’ what comes to mind? Is it the star quarterback throwing a pass for the winning touch down? Or maybe it is images of a major league baseball player hitting a home run? Whatever it may be, it is not normally competitive cheerleading that comes to mind.
Competitive cheerleading meets all of the criteria to be a sport, though. A sport is commonly known as an athletic activity that involves individuals or teams competing against each other for the entertainment of others. Competitive cheerleading involves teams competing against each other in routines combining tumbling, stunting, and sharp choreography. There are four main qualifications an activity must have to be considered a sport by the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF). It must be a physical activity that propels a mass, competitions, be governed by rules, and acknowledgment that the purpose is a comparison of skills to be considered a sport. But competitive cheer has all of these!
One of the first qualifications to be a sport can be found in stunting. In competitive cheerleading one of the main and most important aspects is stunting. This is when individuals propel other individuals through the air, or when individuals overcome the resistance of holding another individual above their head for a specific time period. These different positions require strength, endurance, and cooperation of the teammates. Competitive cheerleading is a very physical and demanding sport that propels people as compared to a ball.
Competitive cheer also meets the second aspect of what defines a sport: competitions. This is the mere basis of what competitive cheer is. Annual competitions were created to expose the athletic ability of modern cheerleaders elsewhere than just the sidelines of other sporting events. These competitions are held all over America where teams compete for national titles just as in any other sport. In competitive cheerleading, teams compete against each other in routines combining difficulty, precision, and appearance to try and win.
The third requirement for an activity to be a sport is probably the most important. In order for an activity to be called a sport, it must be governed by rules that define the time, space, and purpose of the contest and the conditions under which a winner is declared. The United States All Star Federation and the International All Star Federation are the two correlated ruling associations for competitive cheerleading worldwide that create all rules and regulations used. Each team must abide by routine requirements and general safety guidelines. Routines must not exceed two minutes and 30 seconds, and they must be performed on padded flooring of 42 feet by 42 feet.
Last but not least is acknowledgement. To be a sport an activity has to be acknowledged. The largest competition is the Universal Cheerleading Association (UCA) competitions, which are televised on ESPN. The fact that cheerleading competitions are shown on the Entertainment and Sports Programing Network obviously acknowledges that competitive cheerleading is a sport. 12 broadcasts in 2001 were watched by an average of 445,000 households. According to USA Today, on June 9, 2014 the American Medical Association officially announced that they consider cheerleading to be a sport. There are plenty of acknowledgements of competitive cheerleading being a sport for the purpose of competition.
Needless to say, competitive cheerleading can be defined as a sport in many ways. Coming from the WSF, all four of the qualities have been fulfilled. Even though it is not widely acknowledged by most, competitive cheerleading is definitely a true sport. Maybe one day sideline cheerleading will make it as a sport, but as of now, competitive cheerleading is leading the way with the annual competitions held.
