Cheer leading? a sport or not? i dont understand!!

Question

i know this question has been a topic for like ever, but why don't people think of cheer leading as a sport??!! We train and condition just as hard as any other sport. Sure sometimes cheer leaders are looked at as a "s*x symbol" mostly because of the tiny outfits, but come on! Oh and the immediate though when people hear cheerleader is "ditsy or stupid" "stuck up or snotty" you cant judge someones personality by a sport. I'm not trying to start an argument i just want to here peoples opinions.

So the question: Why isn't cheer leading considered a sport?

Answer 1

cheerleading is a sport

Answer 2

Cheerleading didn't start out as a sport... it was originally just a group of people cheering for their school's athletic teams.  They didn't do much besides "lead" the crowd in cheering.  And it stayed that way for many, many years.  It wasn't until the late 1970s that cheerleaders started performing stunts, tumbling and advanced jumps.  And it wasn't until the 1980s that cheer teams began competing with each other.  

Today, cheerleading is most definitely a sport!  It takes a tremendous amount of athletic ability and skill, and All-Star cheer is highly competitive.  It's recognized by high schools and the NCAA as a sport.  But people who aren't involved with cheer still think of it as it used to be... just a group of supporters for the "real" athletes.  They don't realize what it's evolved into.

Of course, there are some people who will always believe that in order for something to be a "sport", it has to involve a ball and a bunch of sweaty, stinky guys.  But we know different! ;)

Answer 3

yeah it's a sport

but the reason people don't think it's sport is because unless your competing their is not points or score but most of the time the people who think it's not a spot are the people who don't know that cheer leader's compete at all  

Answer 4

Cheerleading isn't really considered a sport by many people including me because of the fact that they cheer on people in another sport. Although this requires practice it doesn't keep score in anyway. In sports they keep score. I would put cheerleading in a similar catigory as dancing.

People can consider it stupid or stuck up because most people assume that only people overconfident or stuck up is willing to 'show off their team', but this isn't really true.

I don't mean anything personal and I'm not trying to take offence to anyone. I don't like cheerleading that much, but I kind of like other people cheering me on.

Answer 5

It's really more of a performance. You have to draw the line somewhere, you know? Like, I'd say that anything where you're competing to see who LOOKS the best doing it is NOT a sport. I'm sure that it demands alot of athleticism, but I wouldn't call it a sport.

If this helps: Pro-wrestlers have to be very athletic, ice dancers are very athletic, the folks in the circus are very athletic, etc. None of these things are sports.