US Judge Deems that Cheerleading is Not a Sport
Cheerleading has a problem; no one can accurately say whether it is a sport or not. Cheerleaders are very athletic, have high levels of fitness but they do not compete against anyone and the main purpose of cheerleading at the moment is to entertain and motivate. That is the problem with the activity. A lot of people do consider it a sport though but others say it is only a support activity that is attached to a sport or it is simply a recreational activity. A recent ruling by a US Judge deeming that cheerleading is not a sport has put the entire cheerleading world in a dilemma.
Cheerleading’s origins are not certain but the activity seems to have started in the later part of the 1880s in America. The first instance of a cheerleader being seen was during a football game at Princeton University when a student stood up and got the crowd to cheer in unison to encourage the team they were all rooting for. Over the years cheerleading has evolved and has become a very intense and physical activity that requires a lot of hard work and cheerleaders have formed an untied front. Cheerleading has become an integral part of most professional sports all around the world and has become a very serious activity.
A recent ruling by US Federal Judge, Stefan Underhill, has turned the world of cheerleading upside down. A case was brought before him by the women’s volleyball team of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut who had sued their university. They had sued the university because the volleyball team had been cut from competing because the university had deemed the sport would cost too much money. Instead of volleyball the university had said that it would put money into the cheerleading team because it would cost less money. The volleyball team had sued the university saying that cheerleading was not a proper sport and money should not be taken away from a proper sport and giving to an activity. The judge said in his ruling that he did not think that cheerleading was a sport but that it was actually a support activity. He said the activity was too disorganised and underdeveloped to qualify as a sport at the moment. He also did not think that money should be taken away from a sport that could lead to professional careers for some of the players and might also lead to being featured in the Olympic Games. Since cheerleading would not do the same at the moment it did not qualify as a sport. The volleyball team has since been reinstated at the university.
The problem for cheerleading is that a sport is defined in a dictionary as a physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and is engaged in competitively. Cheerleading does full fill two out of three of these factors; it is a physical activity that is governed by a set of rules but it is not engaged in competitively. It may do so in the future but it is not there yet. Even though cheerleading is a combination of highly skilled routines and intense gymnastics, it is not done as a competition against an opponent. If there can be a way found to make cheerleading a competition besides just giving good cheers points by a judge, than maybe it will have an easier time being considered as a sport.
Whatever happens in the future, cheerleading is a very organized and physical activity that requires a lot of stamina and high fitness levels amongst its participants. The only thing holding it back at the moment is being competitive; if a way can be found around that requirement then cheerleading will be declared a sport and move out of the shadows of simply being a support activity. Even though cheerleading has evolved by a great level since it started it will still take a few more years for it to become a full fledged sport. Although the hopes and dreams of a lot of young girls waving pom-poms around have been dashed, there is hope for them in the future.
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