Competitive Cheerleading Injuries

Many people argue that competitive cheerleading is not a sport, but it is a sport. When individuals hear the term cheerleader people only think about those seen on the sidelines at your typically sporting event. But, not those who are out there cheering on the mat for about the most important two and a half minutes of their life. Sport is defined as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment (Oxford). Cheerleading requires hard work dedication as well as motivation for a successful team. Teammates must attend practice daily as well as get good grades to be able to partake in this physical activity. Competitive cheerleading is a sport because athletes
According to a 2012 report and policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics, cheerleading “accounted for 65 percent of all direct catastrophic injuries to girl athletes at the high school level and 70.8 percent at the college level” between 1982 and 2009. This statistic means that the sport of cheerleading is an extremely dangerous it risks the lives of males as well as females daily. Many cheerleading injuries are quite small injuries range from a torn ACL to a broken neck. Cheerleading also experiences more life threating injuries such as head injuries, skull fractures and cervical spine injuries that resulted in “permanent brain injury, paralysis or death” over that period — and the number of participants in cheerleading is large, an estimated 3.6 million nationwide, the academy found. (A number of other girls suffered cardiac problems and heat stroke.) But the disproportionate number of severe injuries in this one activity is striking. Cheerleading is dangerous, just like football, in which the athletes acquires injuries or even death. Everyone believes that football is a sport because of many reasons but cheer isn’t? Fourth eighty percent of a cheerleaders injuries are experienced through the head, neck or face (). When compared to football players who only acquires twenty nine percent of head, neck or face injuries. Needless, to say cheerleading is more dangerous.
The department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights actually told schools to not include cheerleading as a sport because the sport of cheer is gender biased. Perhaps this would be so, but many cheerleading teams all across the nation allow various opportunities for males to partake in the sport of cheerleading in which they are treated equally. For example, in the United Kingdom males and females wear the same cheerleading uniform (UKCA) which is a prime example of how males and females are treated equally.