Is Cheerleading a sport?

[Deleted]

*select wikipedia
*write Cheerleading
*press search
result:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nS0VVTyPnY

[MonsieuRoberts]

If Curling is a sport, Cheerleading is a sport.

[Pantelija]

If cheerleading is a sport then football hooliganism is sport aswell >.>

[Deleted]

Cheerleading would be the only sport that was created from the assisting another sport.

Time to get my Golf Caddy gold medal.

[llDemonll]

Sport or not, I'll continue watching.

[Kardezar]

yes, but not an Olympic sport. You should add a poll.

[xile]

Art is not "just" art, dance is an incredibly physical, demanding form. Cheerleading is incredibly physical and demanding. However, it's "just" a popular form of dance. Nothing against it, but it's not a sport.

The fact you don't get why NASCAR, a sport I loathe, isn't a sport is retarded. The body gets hugely punished with gravity as well as rapid weightloss through the heat. It's also directly competitive on simple grounds. Cheer is like ice skating, something I also don't consider a sport, because it's judged on artistic and not sporting merits.

The final point is that cheerleading wasn't ever originally designed as a challenge, unlike less intensive sports like lawn bowls or darts. Adding competition in later is a lame excuse for a sport, or you could call icing friends a sport depending on who gets iced the least winning.

Like i said if curling is a sport and nascar is cheering better be. Sure the body gets punished by gravity and heat, but last time i checked every sport or things halfway inducing activity at a high level go under ridiculous amounts of training.

[Paladin0228]

If gymnastics is a sport then cheerleading most definitely is too. It is also propably the most dangerous sport practiced high school students.

exactly this

[BatteredRose]

Like i said if curling is a sport and nascar is cheering better be. Sure the body gets punished by gravity and heat, but last time i checked every sport or things halfway inducing activity at a high level go under ridiculous amounts of training.

Hey now, those left turns are serious business.

[Varyk]

Yes, it is.

[Deleted]

as much as dancing is a sport, yes.

[Deleted]

Is it a sport? In a sense, yes definitly.

Should it be an olympic sport? No.

But then again, I don't approve of most of the currently existing sports in the Olympics, especially figure-skating and gymnastics.

[Anowyn]

As a former cheerleader, I would say it depends.

Cheerleaders who simply cheer for games like football, basketball, etc., and don't do any stunts, I say no. I would call that an "activity."

When cheerleaders do stunts that include gymnastic tumbling and holding or throwing girls in the air, or they compete in competitions/tournaments based on routines, stunts, form, and everything, then I would consider it a sport. I have done many stunts and a couple of competitions, and competition is pretty intense and can also be pretty dangerous when you start throwing girls 15+ feet in the air. Granted, they should always come down safely, but mistakes can happen.

[Dedweight]

The girls I talk to say they also get rated on how they looked, getting rated on how you looked for a judging system???
Hmm

Then either the judges are horrible or the girls don't have a clue as to what they are being judged on, I've never been to a cheer competition or even cared for cheer leading but I'd bet my left nut that there's more to judging a Cheer than how cute the girls look(it isn't a beauty competition after all).

As to if it should be considered a Sport? It definitely fits the criteria for being a sport by definition and as such should be considered one, same with Marching Band. I may be biased on the Marching Band part and I won't go into details as to why I think it should be considered a sport but both should be counted for logical reasons.

[Ishimada]

Its quite similar to gymnastics and aerobic.

So yes.

[Deleted]

[Zarghol]

As a former cheerleader, I would say it depends.

Cheerleaders who simply cheer for games like football, basketball, etc., and don't do any stunts, I say no. I would call that an "activity."

When cheerleaders do stunts that include gymnastic tumbling and holding or throwing girls in the air, or they compete in competitions/tournaments based on routines, stunts, form, and everything, then I would consider it a sport. I have done many stunts and a couple of competitions, and competition is pretty intense and can also be pretty dangerous when you start throwing girls 15+ feet in the air. Granted, they should always come down safely, but mistakes can happen.

^this basicly. Living in a country where cheerleading isn't that common I didn't really know much about it and thought it was mostly yelling cheers etc(ey, that's what most TV shows show us), and stupid girls showing off in a TV-show wouldn't be a sport. But I know a couple cheerleaders now, and they have MUSCLES, I seriously get a bit freaked out by that, compared to the pencil-legged girls in the shows(although it looks good, I like fit girls). One of them got dumped by her boyfriend because she had to practice so often they didn't have time for each other, even. Something giving you muscles like that and demanding that amount of practice and have contests IS a sport, period. Also, I watched the Bring It On-movies(my best friend, a girl for the record, has a thing for bad comedies, pizza and getting drunk. Which might be why we're best friends, really) and the parts not clouded by beer-fog looked pretty physically demanding!