The Pros And Cons Of Cheerleading
The 2018 Winter Olympic Games are set to roll around in just a few more months, an encore of its 2016 Summer counterpart, highlighting the top athletes from across the globe vying for a spot to become one of three Olympic medalists. Sports fans alike crawl out every crack and crevice to tune into whichever channel that might be covering an Olympic event, and if they are lucky, they’ll catch Frank DeFord— a longtime sportswriter, commentator, and novelist— stirring up yet another controversial topic within the sports realm. DeFord’s thought-provoking piece on “what is a sport” touches down on Olympic soil where gymnastics in the Summer Games, and figure skating in the Winter Games take center stage in this raging debate (Orlansky). Although
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The cheer-as-sport conversation has divvied up the entire nation with one half believing that the activity has achieved sports status, whereas the other could beg to differ. There has been a surge in the amount of attention that cheerleading has been receiving given that the athleticism of cheerleaders has risen substantially since its founding in 1898 by Johnny Campbell. Despite the evolutionary modifications being properly attributed to cheerleading, this sole factor does not provide enough basis for athletic associations to designate it as a “sport”, let alone propel it into Olympic territory. Ultimately, it must be dropped from such consideration in that this is a label that would fundamentally change the nature of cheerleading, which is to promote school spirit and demonstrate support at athletic …show more content…
Given that 30 states already consider cheerleading to be a sport, the NCAA to the contrary, stands firm against labeling cheerleading as a sport claiming that “it’s not a real sport due to its supportive, noncompetitive role in galvanizing fans to cheer on other athletes.” Without this NCAA sports label, cheerleading misses out on the additional funding from their schools, more scholarships and much needed increased safety measures— not to mention funding from the NCAA itself of which reserves money for athletes who play the sports they recognize at the Division I or II
The cheer-as-sport conversation has divvied up the entire nation with one half believing that the activity has achieved sports status, whereas the other could beg to differ. There has been a surge in the amount of attention that cheerleading has been receiving given that the athleticism of cheerleaders has risen substantially since its founding in 1898 by Johnny Campbell. Despite the evolutionary modifications being properly attributed to cheerleading, this sole factor does not provide enough basis for athletic associations to designate it as a “sport”, let alone propel it into Olympic territory. Ultimately, it must be dropped from such consideration in that this is a label that would fundamentally change the nature of cheerleading, which is to promote school spirit and demonstrate support at athletic …show more content…
Given that 30 states already consider cheerleading to be a sport, the NCAA to the contrary, stands firm against labeling cheerleading as a sport claiming that “it’s not a real sport due to its supportive, noncompetitive role in galvanizing fans to cheer on other athletes.” Without this NCAA sports label, cheerleading misses out on the additional funding from their schools, more scholarships and much needed increased safety measures— not to mention funding from the NCAA itself of which reserves money for athletes who play the sports they recognize at the Division I or II