Tossing, flying, tumbling, and jumping around a big, blue mat. Can you guess what this is? It is competitive cheerleading of course. For years there have been many controversies to decide whether or not cheerleading is a sport. In my opinion, cheerleading is not only a sport, but one of the most dangerous and exhilarating sports played by today's teens.

Before we can decide if it is a sport or not, we need to know, what is a sport? According to the Oxford dictionaries, a sport is "an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment". Due to the fact that it follows these guidelines, it should always be considered a sport.


During a normal cheerleading practice, it includes a great amount of physical activity. To start, we have to learn to jump. This is done is many sports such as track and field. Nevertheless, while jumping we have to spread, cross, and straighten our legs. Next in a routine is tumbling. This is also used in gymnastics and dance. This takes strength, balance, and flexibility. Most people don't have these skills. In addition to jumping and tumbling, we also have to stunt, cheer and dance. Now, take all these tasks and squeeze them into a two minute and thirty second routine. Yes, this is not an easy task and is a full cardio workout.

Competitive cheerleading has become increasingly popular and, according to pediatricnews.com, there is "400,000 participants in high school cheerleading alone." Although there is a great number of students involved, "only 29 state high school athletic associations recognize cheerleading as a sport." With these large amounts of participants, there also comes an unbelievable number of injuries. According to CBS News, there was "37,000 emergency room visits for cheerleading injuries." It would be hard to believe that a non-sport would cause this much injury.

So, with all these reasons, why do so many people still believe cheerleading is not a sport? This is because people say it does not require strategy. It is only yelling, no physical work, and just an activity. Yes, this can be true for your stereotypical rah-rah sideline cheerleader , but I do not believe that is true for a competition cheerleader.

If high school cheerleading was to become a sport, many things would change. First,

we would have required meets just like any other sport such as track. Next, we would have a deadline and start time for our season, instead of starting and ending whenever we wanted. The last major change for high school cheerleaders would be their discipline. Although these changes would be hard to adjust to, it would help the cheerleading world to become a serious and competitive sport.

In conclusion, competitive cheerleading has all the qualities of a sport. Whether or not you sees it as a sport, we can agree that it is an intense , physical , exhilarating activity. I hope that some day cheerleading will not only be considered a sport, but be respected for the hard work and dedication of all the athletes and coaches involved.