Duke It Out: Is Cheering a Sport?

June 25, 2010 9:00 am     Posted in Reality  Lauren H - The New School g+ page

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like porn! ) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]


By Lauren H

There’s been big to-do recently over whether or not cheerleading counts as a sport and it all started when Quinnipiac decided to cut women’s volleyball in favor of a competitive cheerleading squad. Some of the volleyball players are suing the school saying that competitive cheerleading is “as much a sport as chess”… which is kinda a non-sequiter of an argument, but whatever. Whether you hated cheerleaders with a fiery vengeance or dedicated your life to being one, it’s time to cast your vote – cheerleading, sport or not?

On the pro-sport side, cheerleading isn’t easy; there’s lot’s of physical training involved, it requires both special skills and a major time commitment just like any other sport. What cheerleaders, at least the ones on competitive squads like the ones we’re talking about, do physically involves years of work with gymnastics plus strength and flexibility training – I mean heck, they lift girls up and throw each other around and do all kinds of impressive flippy things, it’s hard not to take that seriously. And in terms of the dedication it takes to be on a competitive college cheer squad, it’s easily on par with what, say, football or basketball players go through, so why shouldn’t it be a sport?

On the “not a sport” side, to be considered a sport under Title IX an activity has to have coaches, practices, competitions during a defined season, and a governing organization, plus competition must be its primary goal – not merely the support of other athletic teams. And while cheerleading does meet some of that criteria, there’s definitely some glaring holes. As far as I know, there’s not a defined cheer season nor is cheer set up as a primarily competitive sport; from what I always understood, a big part of being a cheerleader was sidelines cheering, which means the competition aspect is more of a secondary thing. Also, while I recognize the inherent challenges in cheer, there are plenty of other groups, like dance squads that are equally physically demanding but I wouldn’t call them a sport either…

What do you say guys? Is cheering a sport? Should it be? Or is this just the school’s attempt to meet Title IX standards on the cheap? Duke. It. Out.

22 Comments on "Duke It Out: Is Cheering a Sport?"

  1. A says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20104:37 am 

    simply the act of cheering (like say "go team" or w/e) is definitely not a sport. but what cheerleaders do is so much more than that, theres tons of gymnastics involved (and therefore skill and stamina), making it very much a sport.

  2. Anna says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20104:40 am 

    I would say no. I'm a dancer, and I wouldn't call dance a sport. While you can both dance and cheer competitively, it's an active and challenging hobby, not a sport, because the primary focus is not direct competition with another team. Similarly, I would not call rock climbing a sport, or similar heavily active and physical hobbies that require a great deal of training and ability.

  3. kate says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20105:26 am 

    its a competition not a sport. just because it's physically exhausting doesnt make it a sport. I mean golf (no offense) is a sport, and you can play that until you can barely walk. so its more than just being physically intensive.

  4. megan says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20107:07 am 

    I'm a cheerleader at a large D1 school and we have a larger time commitment than a lot of the other NCAA sports. Not only do we have our own practices, 6 am strength/conditioning and competition preparation but we support 5 other sports and have weekly appearances on behalf of the university at various functions all in addition to being full time students. We compete at NCA nationals so our season goes from mid-August to mid-April, that's 8 months of full-time cheerleading not including our "summer break" where we are "highly encouraged" to attend team tumbling practices twice a week. Not even our football or basketball teams have seasons this long. Because cheer is not recognized by the NCAA as a sport we are not eligible for scholarships through the athletic department, however they do cover all of the costs to be on the team.

    I don't see anything wrong with QU cutting the volleyball team to cover cheer expenses. If their volleyball team is anything like ours they are losing money every year despite claiming to be a "revenue sport."

    I was a competitive gymnast for 15 years before becoming a cheerleader and even though the sports are very different (gymnastics is much much harder) I would still consider cheer a sport that should be recognized by the NCAA

  5. Johnnie says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20107:46 am 

    Can't we solve this hugely controversial debate with a dictionary? When they Compete-Sport, when they are on the sidelines-Activity. I think the only objectively debatable question is..'Should Cheer leading be a NCAA recognized sport?'I suppose it could be (with the competitions) but I would find it surprising for cash strapped universities to dump a bunch of money into cheer leading along with the Title IX implications.

    I think what everybody is really debating is "Should we give Cheerleading more respect?" and that question is far less interesting.

  6. katie says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20108:05 am 

    A sport is something that requires athletic ability to compete in or "play" (my own definition)

    So if they are one the sidelines at a game, No. That requires zero athletic ability

    If they are competition cheerleaders then yes, I've been to one of those and it requires a great amount of athletic talent. Theres a lot of gymnastics involved as well as being strong enough to hold people up.

  7. Renee says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20108:38 am 

    You're wrong on some parts. i was a cheerleader a while ago and Competition is NOT secondary. There are squads out there who ONLY compete. Some out there who only do sidelines but a bunch do a mix of both. From my personal experience sidelining cheerleading was treated as secondary. We only did it because we had to. The only thing we really got form sideline was the use of halftime to pratice part of out competition performance and the pratice of being together and loud. Besides at competitons cheerleaders get the respect they deserve. At games all i heard was lip from the football players(who werent that great) about how wimpy cheerlading was and they mock us going rah rah and crap like that. As if they could do back handsprings, be stable in the air on one leg, hold a girl up in the air for over 7 minutes. Sure sports like football takes strength, speed, endurance, stamina etc. but cheerlading takes, strength, skill, percission, talent, ALOT of flexibility, patience, endurance, stamina, unity, all while having a smile on your face. Also in other sports injured players sit out, in cheerleading, you brush it off, do what you can, and go 2 the emergency room after you compete, or if your sick you perform, run off stage when stage when you can to throw up and then get right back in2 the performance.(Both true stories) So yes I do consider cheerleading a sport.

  8. Meg says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20108:57 am 

    If cheerleading is a sport then show choir should be too.

  9. lauren says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 201010:58 am 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Tnd0DjShY
    show choir? really?

  10. Taylor says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 201012:06 pm 

    Megan's comment speaks for itself. You try training for 16 years of your life and participating in 8 month seasons (yes, they are seasons because there are at least 4 big season competitions) in addition to all the "sidelining." My school recognizes both the cheer and dance teams as sports because we do compete. Cheerleading is definitely a sport.

  11. Emily says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 201012:11 pm 

    As a former competitive cheerleader, I would say that competition cheerleading is a sport. Cheering on the sidelines, as many others said, is not. We trained just as much as our football team did, if not more. Once our competitive season ended, we were back in the gym everyday running and lifting to make sure we stayed in competitive shape. During the summer, we would hold practices from 8 AM until 6 PM or later. Maybe we were the exception for having a defined season, but our competitive season was pretty specific, it just ran longer than most sports. And I agree with Renee. Unless a squad is in existence for only sideline cheering purposes, their competitive squad or material is going to take precedence over cheering on another team.

  12. steph says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20109:09 pm 

    No. From Bring It On: "Cheerleading is dancing gone retarded." I don't think "having spirit" makes you athletic. If you want to compete in a real sporting event, join a dance team. The pom-poms, the ugly uniforms…why? There's so much more freedom in dance competition!

  13. Syd says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 20109:17 pm 

    The only people who say it isn't a sport would be crying like a baby who just got punched if they had to spend five minutes with my JUNIOR varsity team in high school. The end.

  14. amy says:
    Sat, 26th Jun 20107:09 pm 

    haha yeah right. cheerleading is not a sport. i cheered in high school, but i did volleyball as well. comparing the two "sports," volleyball was a lot more challenging than us circling around, brainstorming cheers and clapping our hands together.

    and if any "real" sport had a season for 8 months, all the players would be injured for life. you can't play 8 months of football or basketball and still be healthy. the only reason cheerleaders can have seasons this long is because IT IS NOT A SPORT. it is not as physically demanding as other sports.

    it ticks me off to see cheerleaders saying how their sport is harder than sports like football. that is a joke. seriously.

    also, in cheerleading, you practice the same moves over and over and over. nothing ever changes. you perfect the move until you can do it in your sleep. you may be competing with other teams, but unlike real sports, other teams really have no effect on your team whatsoever.

    cheerleading is not a sport.

  15. Becca says:
    Sun, 27th Jun 20106:12 am 

    I believe Cheerleading is a competition, not a sport. It is judged as such.

    However, Cheerleaders are definitely athletes.

  16. Matthew says:
    Mon, 28th Jun 201011:58 am 

    Competitve cheerleading is absolutely a sport. Cheerleading programs in general need better safety regulations and better safety trained coaches which they won't get until it's considered a sport by the state. So if 30,000 girls are going to suffer catastrophic injury because they're not considered a sport then please for the love of pom-poms, call it a sport.

  17. Lindsay says:
    Thu, 1st Jul 20105:06 am 

    CHEERLEADING IS A SPORT!!!!!!

  18. RC says:
    Fri, 2nd Jul 201011:39 am 

    Lindsay: Well now that you've used ALL CAPS I totally agree.

    Kidding. I don't think it's a sport. It's a physical activity. I get that you have to train a ton to do it, but you know what? I use the elliptical every day; It took a lot of training to go the distance I go, at the speed I go and with the resistance I use… and it's still not a sport.

    And I'm sure I'll get flamed for saying this, but to me cheerleading seems like a cheap version of gymnastics and dance combined. The actual tumbling that is done by elite cheerleaders is really not that difficult compared to what a level 10 or elite gymnast does.. at best you get a full or a double full if its really something special, and usually the form is ATROCIOUS. Cowboyed legs on tucks, legs splayed and elbows bent on handsprings, incomplete leaps, jumps and turns…

    No it's not an easy activity, but it's still not a sport and I hope it doesn't end up an Olympic sport (in fact, I'm not sure trampoline, power tumbling, and other niche gymnastic sports should be either)

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  20. Carmen Sanchez says:
    Wed, 21st Nov 201212:42 pm 

    I think that cheerleading is definitely a sport! Some of the cheerleading mixes and song selections are very intense and upbeat which requires a lot of stamina and strength to keep going. I also think that cheerleaders are very skilled in their area which in my opinion means its a sport. Thanks for the great post.

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