Cheerleading Is Considered A Sport

There have been crowds to cheer on sporting players since the start of sports themselves however it wasn’t until the 1890’s that organised cheering came to be. The first ever group of cheerleaders belonged to the University of Minnesota in 1898 and consisted of all males yelling their Universities well known cheer through megaphones. Cheerleading has come a long way since then and there are now at least four million Cheerleaders in thirty-one countries. At the moment cheerleading is not considered a sport in any country. There is much debate about whether or not cheerleading should be considered a sport or not. The debate mostly revolves around what is considered to be a sport.
The definition of a sport according to the Women’s Sports Foundation …show more content…
The primary purpose is competition verses other teams or individuals within a competition structure comparable to other sport activities.
These rules are the most agreed upon in order to define a sport.
Analysing the activities of Cheerleading will allow a comparison and understanding of whether the rules of the Women’s Sports Foundation are met by Cheerleading. The main debate over whether Cheerleading should be considered a sport depends on the type of Cheerleading. The competitive type and the supportive/performing type. When examining the activities of Cheerleading both types will be considered.
The first dot point states that the activity must involve propelling a mass through space or overcoming the resistance of mass. There are two sections of Cheerleading which would satisfy this rule. Stunting and Tumbling. Stunting involves a flyer being held up or thrown into the air, either by one or up to four people. Stunts include both held and thrown stunts. Flyers are also expected to perform tricks and pull intricate positions while in the air which requires the overcoming of the resistance of mass. The second section of Cheerleading that would assure that the rule is met is Tumbling. Tumbling requires Cheerleaders to perform skills such as flipping with no hands and other similar …show more content…
There are thousands of different competitions held for cheerleading worldwide and hundreds of organisations running them. The most popular in Australia are the competitions held by the Australian All Star Cheerleading Federation which attract around 6500 athletes nationally. There are also World Cheerleading competitions in which the best from each country compete against each other. However not all Cheerleading squads compete in these competitions some only perform at sporting events which brings this point to an unsteady conclusion.
The definition states the activity must also be governed by rules. The time must be defined and for competitive Cheerleading it is. In most cases the time limit is 2 minutes and 30 seconds. For competitive Cheerleading the size of the performance mat is 54-foot by 42-foot and in non competitive Cheer the space in not limited. The purpose of a contest is to determine the squad with the best routine and skill and to reward them and in order to do so they are marked with score sheets by judges. In non-competitive Cheer there is no scoring system