Cheerleading is a Sport
The debate of if cheerleading is really a sport gets into the skin of many who believe so. Some debates just spark out of nowhere in order to annoy the party in question or because these people just believe that there is no athleticism in cheerleading. To prove these people wrong, this article will relate it to the fundamentals or essentials that make an activity a sport.
Cheerleading is a sport. To begin with, there is no definite definition of the word sport. This is a fact! But what really makes an activity a sport is what raises all these questions. The Women’s Sports Foundation tried to narrow some elements into being a sport into this field. According to the foundation, for an activity to be termed a sport, it must fulfill the following credentials. For an activity to be termed as a sport, it must involve physical exercise that either resists mass or propels mass into space. The second condition it must fulfill is that there must be an opponent such that it is a competition or a contest. For an activity to be termed as a sport, it must be governed by rules. These rules must define explicitly space, time, and the reason for the competition or contest. It should also provide the conditions under which a winner is declared. Then lastly, the activity must have an acknowledgment that its primary purpose is to foster comparison of the participants’ relative skills.
Looking at the above conditions put down by the Women’s Sports Foundation, cheerleading passes the test! There are still two more qualification needs that determine if cheerleading is really a sport, however. The Women’s Sports Foundation lucidly explains that “any physical activity in which relative performance can be judged or qualified can be developed into a competitive sport as long as:
- The physical activity includes the above-defined elements and…
- The primary purpose is competition verses other teams or individuals within a competition structure comparable to other ‘athletic’ activities.”
Cheerleading is definitely a sport. It meets all the qualifications named above of athletics. The fact that cheerleading’s primary purpose is to give support to the college or high school athletes it gives competition the second position. This means that cheerleading is more than just a sport.
To gain more support that cheerleading is a sport, the USA cheer, in 2011, launched a sport called STUNT. The sport was to create opportunities for young lady athletes at both high school and college level. In doing this, it aimed at letting cheerleading to remain to be imperative and crucial part of the programs of the school’s spirit. The sports STUNT integrates all sorts of sports including cheerleading and then putting them into head-to-head four quarter competition. This is usually done in such a way that all the requirements of the sports under Title IX are met. STUNT has been the nation’s one of the most and fastest growing sports.
Cheerleading is a sport because it involves physical exercise, it is a competition, rules govern it, and it acknowledges the primary purpose of comparing skills of the participants. The above-explained facts can silence all the debates that arise to prove that cheerleading is not a sport.
