Cheerleading Is Not A Sport Essay

Many people believe cheerleading is not a sport, but I happen to disagree. Acording to Wikipedia, the definition of a sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Now I will admit that school cheering, when just cheering for another sport, is not a sport. Although competitive cheerleading is a sport, many people believe that it is not. (The Women's Sport Foundation has narrowed the field to the specific requirements: It must be a physical activity which involves propelling a mass through space or overcoming the resistance of mass.) Stunting is proof of this. When stunting you must take one of the cheerleaders and toss them up into the air and safely catch them, and then lower them safely to the ground. Cheerleading is a sport because they also have competition, and we all know …show more content…
They believe this for these reasons, though competitive cheerleading is a sport, school cheerleading is not a sport. A sport requires that there must be some competition involved and in school cheer there is not. Alyssa Roenigk, a writer at ESPN and former cheerleader at The University of Florida, states that, “Sports teams exist to compete, not to perform and entertain or support another group that competes. In the cheer-as-sport conversation, this is the most important element to understand. One can be an athlete and not participate in a sport.” So we can all agree that cheerleaders are athletes, though many believe it is not a sport. So we all agree that school cheerleading is not a sport but, competitive cheerleading is. Competitive cheer challenges you and takes one to the limit. School cheer can make you sweat, but it doesn’t push you and make you want to win. Though most people disagree that any type of cheerleading is not a sport I disagree. Because when some describes cheerleading they are defining a