11/23/24
February 20, 2004
Competitive cheerleading is a sport, Jennifer Allen argues in today's New York Times, and it's not a girly one like hockey where athletes wear protective gear. "In what other sport is an athlete tossed more than 30 feet in the air -- smiling -- before spiraling down into the arms of a trusted teammate? Lifts and tosses and catches are the mainstay of competitive cheerleading. 'Fliers' do not wear hip pads or kneepads or helmets. There is little to protect a cheerleader from awkward or poor landings on the gym floor."
What is Title IX?
posted by garfield at 08:06 AM on February 20, 2004
yeah, competitive cheerleading is not girly when you see opposing teams run in and bash the human pyramid with a well placed shoulder.
posted by gspm at 09:09 AM on February 20, 2004
Given the way it handles what's on its plate right now, the NCAA should be shrinking, not growing.
posted by jackhererra at 09:25 AM on February 20, 2004
'Fliers' do not wear hip pads or kneepads or helmets. There is little to protect a cheerleader from awkward or poor landings on the gym floor." Crowd surfing: sport? Crowd surfers: athletes?
posted by LionIndex at 10:08 AM on February 20, 2004
How is it any less of a sport than gymnastics? Well, a 'flyer' in cheerleading is thrown into the air by other people and then caught by other people, while a gymnast runs and flips herself into the air and lands on her own. And I admit I have no idea what I'm talking about. Just throwin' out ideas...
posted by justgary at 12:51 PM on February 20, 2004
anyone ever date a (ex)high school cheerleader? they are most definitely athletes.
posted by garfield at 12:53 PM on February 20, 2004
Not surprisingly, cheerleading is the No. 1 cause of serious sports injuries to women, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, ahead of gymnastics and track. From 1980 to 2001, emergency room visits for cheerleading injuries rose fivefold. Pushing colleges to recognize competitive cheerleading as a sport will surely help to cut down on injuries. Actually, I highly doubt that. The sports injuries to women includes both high school and collegiate numbers, while recognizing competitive cheerleading as a varsity NCAA sport while simply regulate those trained at that level, i.e. the people who should need the help the least. Plus, it isn't like this is an amazing rash of fatalities — two in the 20+ years covered by the study, and 48 total serious injuries. What Allen fails to recognize here is that high school cheerleaders are attempting more and more dangerous stunts. I would be willing to wager that most coaching staffs at high schools are woefully inadequate in training for these sorts of stunts, and I find it difficult to believe attending a couple of camps will make you really ready for some of the stuff I've seen high-school squads try. As for whether or not cheerleading should be considered a sport — yes, it should. If you are going to count gymnastics and diving, then competitive cheerleading should allow be counted. Personally, however, I think anything that subjective (and boxing is getting there) should be considered just an exhibition.
posted by wfrazerjr at 01:12 PM on February 20, 2004
A couple of add-ons here: 1) A link to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research so you can draw your own conclusions. I have no idea where she got the stuff about the fivefold increase in emergency-room visits, but I didn't scour this site. 2) Jennifer Allen is the daughter of former Redskins and Rams coach George Allen. I just read her memoirs of those days, Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's not a football book, but life-with-football-looming-over-your-shoulder-all-the-damned-time book. Kinda whiny, but very interesting. 3) Title IX — Oh god. Just read this.
posted by wfrazerjr at 01:22 PM on February 20, 2004
wfrazerj: A link to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research so you can draw your own conclusions. Stats look like BS to me. One fatality and no other injuries for skiing -- and no skiing stats at all for high school? I wouldn't take anything in this report as accurate. I have no problem with considering competitive cheerleading as a sport, but the question (from the article): In what other sport is an athlete tossed more than 30 feet in the air -- smiling -- before spiraling down into the arms of a trusted teammate? is absurd. In alpine skiing, racers are often launched more than thirty feet in the air, and there ain't no trusted teammates to catch them when they come down. In ski jumping, they go a lot higher than that. Whitewater kayaking? Big-wave surfing? Sorry, but if you want to play riskier-than-thou, competitive cheerleadiing doesn't win any prizes.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:20 PM on February 20, 2004
its not sport, its dance
posted by tommy at 04:52 PM on February 22, 2004
We covered this topic a two years ago when a Florida paper ran a series on this kind of cheerleading. I'm surprised no other schools have followed Maryland by making it a sport. It could solve some Title IX issues. How is it any less of a sport than gymnastics?