Is cheerleading a legitimate sport or not? I think it deserves genuine support

DD used to do cheerleading. It was intensely physical (gymnastics combined with weightlifting in my eyes 😂) and the cheer teams entire raison d’etre was to compete in local and national competitions. I can’t fathom why that doesn’t make it a sport

DD does competitive cheer after being a competitive gymnast. It’s hard work, arguably slightly less than she found gym as she’s training 5 hours per week rather than the 9 she’d be expected to do in gymnastics.

theres routines, team work, strength, tumbling etc. She’s a tumbler and base for one team which requires flips etc plus holding her teammates up in the air safely - and a flier and tumbler for the other team which involves her being held up in the air while also being able to move between different poses. She’s not just standing in a stadium shouting woop at a football team by any means.

She attended 4 national comps last year and will be doing 5 this year. All judged, with a winner being announced by trained judges who closely look at all elements of the routine. One slip from one athlete can ruin the score for them all so there’s pressure. The goal is hitting zero which means no point deductions and obviously getting first place is amazing.

she’s not at a high level yet with her still being in primary school but I know of a lot of older girls who compete internationally and spend the majority of their evenings training for various clubs. There’s no money in it despite it being quite an expensive sport to be involved in.

Pom dance is competitive also btw. It’s brilliant to watch.

if at the end of the day it comes down to someone's opinion who is best then I don't think it is a sport.

So boxing isn't a sport when there's no knockout, and it has to be judged on points?!

This is hilarious.

So many posters saying it’s dance and not competitive despite numerous people explaining there are completely different types of Cheer.

One isn’t a sport aka Cheer Teams for US Football Teams

The other usually US college and All Star Cheer is. It’s highly competitive. They are judged on difficulty of tumbles and stunts, technical achievement and execution. There is about 20 seconds of “dance” in the routine - similar to women’s gymnastics floor routine, blink and you miss the dance element.

This sort of Cheer is recognised as a sport in the UK. In Scotland & Wales they can apply for sport funding. In the UK they are still working towards being eligible to apply for funding. There is work internationally for it to be showcased at the Olympics and included thereafter.

There are no professional competitors yet the same as in so many sports - most athletes work alongside competing. Footballers are the exception.

England, Wales, Scotland have their own Cheer teams representing their countries at international competition. We have all female teams and Co-Ed teams as well.

So sorry to those that don’t agree but it is now a sport in the UK.

Fair enough, I've only really seen them at football in the UK and don't follow US sports. The one's associated with the local team here have other jobs and cheer on the side, same as the mascot. None of them have it as a career.

If you are going to post your opinion on something, at least know what you are talking about. There are cheer teams up and down this country and in the US which have absolutely nothing to do with supporting any sports teams. They exist solely to take part in competitions against other cheer teams.

They are very talented dancers, gymnasts, acrobats, but they are not participating in sport to my mind. They don't normally compete and there is no winning or losing in their day to day. They are support cast for actual sports and affiliated with sports teams. Pre-show and half time entertainment like mascots and musicians.

In my view, a sport is something physical where you play against an opponent to win or lose in a match style event, rather than just being a competition. Lots of things have competition - writing, cooking, poetry etc. but we don't say they're sports.

Cheerleading is definitely physical - arguably more physical than a lot of sports - but you don't win or lose by playing directly against an opponent so in my mind it's not a sport.

And I wouldn't see chess or darts as a sport either tbh.

I didn't mention cheer leading, I was responding to someone who mentioned about ballet being a sport. If there is competitive ballet then I would agree that's a sport. But in that case, not all ballet is sport. I suspect the same applies to cheer leading.

But... It is competitive. There are competitive cheerleading bodies; cheer teams compete, nationally and internationally.

Exactly, saying it's not a sport isn't belittling it.

If someone goes to watch a performance of Swan Lake you wouldn't in a month of Sundays describe them as going to watch a sport.

Sport has to have an element of competition.

‘Sport’ gets more support, recognition & funding at University level. ‘Dance’, doesn’t. One reason.

It only exists in order to support male sports teams. Cheerleading as a sport without a team to "cheer" is a bit odd.

It's a sport.

I've done cheer, dance (ballet) and gymnastics and I needed more strength and flexibility and fitness in cheer than the others, but gym needed more 'expertise' than cheer, mainly because it's individually assessed I think.

Cheer is really really hard.

The dallas cowboy cheerleaders are dancers though more than actual sport cheerleaders.

There are two different types of cheerleading. One is dance, like Dallas Cowboys-- undeniably needing high-level fitness and athleticism, but it is dance.

The other type of cheer is group gymnastics and is totally different to DC type cheer. It is gymasitcs and is a performance-based support the same way that female gymastic floor routines are performance sport (or ice skaters).

For the difference, watch Dallas Cowboys documentry vs Cheer documentary on Netflix.

I feel like all sports are quite dumb, and the idea that they need attention and praise when it's just people doing their own hobby rather childish.

There are clear rules and scoring definitions at cheer competitions.

No. It were a contest to see who can do the most or the highest somersaults then fair enough but it's not. Don't get me wrong the people who do it are incredible athletes and it clearly takes a huge amount of training and athletic ability but if at the end of the day it comes down to someone's opinion who is best then I don't think it is a sport.

I do think cheerleading should be regarded as a sport as well as a performance, by the way.

The competitions are a minimal sideline and are there only so young dancers are seen by the artistic directors of vocational ballet schools and professional companies. Winning a competition is not an end in itself if it doesn't lead to a job offer at the end of it. They are a stepping stone to a career.

If you are a sportsperson, you aren't having to compete whilst wearing a tutu and a tiara or dressed as a pirate, act out the character's emotions in a plot and do all of it whilst making it look effortless with a smile on your face. On stage, in front of an audience. With an orchestral accompaniment. Sometimes twice daily, to the same music and choreography, and doing it over and over again to the same exceptionally high standard. Week in, week out. Then whilst you are performing that ballet in the evening, you are also in the studio all day every day rehearsing all the choreography for for your role in whatever ballet the company is performing next.

It isn't a sport. It's a performing art.

And yes I do know quite a few professional ballet dancers.

So gymnastics isn't a sport by your definition?

You clearly are unaware of the existence of competitive cheer which is indeed a sport.

Except there are cheerleading competitions. Teams aren’t winning trophies for cheering a team of blokes on. They’re winning trophies for competing against other cheerleading squads in dedicated tournaments and winning based on the skill, complexity, and success of skills, stunts, tumbling, dance etc.

Clearly the people who say it isn’t sport or just think of it as what DCC do aren’t of the Bring It On generation

“cheerleading competition? Like a football game”
”No, not a game. Those are like practice for us. I’m talking about a tournament. ESPN cameras all around…”

Competitive cheerleading is absolutely a sport.

Well it is not hard to understand really. A sport is an activity where there is competition. There is no competition in cheerleading, but there is in darts.

I'm not arguing that cheerleaders are not athletes though.