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

[TheQuirkyMaker]

Here:

Excellent analysis.

Those who think it’s not a sport - do you think chess should be a sport? To me that is absolutely ridiculous. It’s a game not a sport. But because Very Smart And Serious Men play it, it’s somehow exempt from the fact it requires no physical skill apart from being able to sit in a chair for hours.

Indeed it is! Cheer squads train very hard and enter competitions often groups are created at uni my daughters squad won nationals a few times. Her best friends from the squad are still besties now even though they all have professional careers and children!

I almost levitated recently when I read a top darts player referred to as an ‘élite athlete.’
If you were reading Martin Amis in the 1980s, there’s no way darts could be called athletic in nature, in your world! 🤣
Keith Talent, the drinking man’s Jude Bellingham?

If men did it, it would be considered a sport lol.

It requires good balance, coordination, gymnastic ability, teamwork, and a lot of strength and dedication. How is that not a sport? My niece competes in national competitions.

No, I don't.
Nor darts, nor snooker.
I'd describe them as games. Games you need to practice and have a natural talent for, but games nevertheless.

I think a few people here maybe don’t know the background. There are two different things both called cheerleading. One is basically team gymnastics: no pom-poms, clearly a sport, lots of scary lifts and flips. The other is what the Dallas women do: cheering on a sports team with impressive dancing and poms. They aren’t really the same at all. The former is definitely a sport and runs like one, the latter is more like an athletic dance squad and could be a sport or not depending on how you define a sport.

Cheerleading is a recognised sport, meeting the criteria set by Sport England with SportCheer as governing body, which is also recognised worldwide by the International Cheer Union

It’s a Sport, it is competed nationally and internationally. Like other sports there are those who compete and there are those who just take part as an activity

Oh definitely, they're athletes. My friend's DD (in the US) has been a cheerleader since she was tiny. The amount of gymnastic skill involved in itself should warrant more respect.

Ballet isn't a sport.

I don't class it as sport its more dance. Lots of dance requires a huge amount of strenght and athletisim. Ballet, tap, Irish or highland dance all require a huge amount of strenght and practice but they are dance not spprt

Cheerleaders set the tone of the game, rallying fans and players alike. Their chants, stunts, and dances amplify the crowd’s energy, which can influence team morale. Cheerleaders are part of the ritual of American sports culture. The anthem singer, cheerleaders, marching bands, and mascots together form what makes the games cultural events rather than just athletic contests. They embody tradition and pageantry that frame the game as a communal event, not just competition. Cheerleading really sits at the intersection of sport, performance, and tradition. Beyond game-day performances, cheerleading has its own competitive circuit (like the National Cheerleaders Association and Universal Cheerleaders Association events).

Agree with this. My DD competed at Cheer for several years and trained hard 3 times a week. She was also a competitive gymnast. Cheer is definitely a sport and much more similar to gymnastics than it is to dance. She had no involvement with cheering on teams and there were no pom poms involved!

It's entertainment. Like ballet or the circus. Sport is competitive. They all need strength and hard work.

Competitive cheerleading is becoming a big thing in the UK, with UK teams winning in world championship competitions for the past several years. It is undoubtedly a sport. The fitness of the competitors is insane.

Competitive Cheer is a sport and will debut at the Olympics soon. There are Co-Ed and para teams too.

Orginally there were men in the founding Cheer your team squads.

There are also competitive Cheer dance teams too.

Acrobatic gymnastics is more controlled and has no connotations of being the sideact for the titillation of men waiting for the 'real' sport. Cheerleading being big in America is probably why acrobatic gymnastics, which is big in the rest of the world, is not in the Olympics. There's a better chance of recognition as a sport from acro than cheerleading think and therefore the recognition that these, very dedicated and talented and largely female, athletes receive.

Choose acro over cheerleading for feminist and national identity reasons. I'd say it's healthier for bodies too as less focus on high impact moves and more on strength and control so a better environment for your children.

This isn't correct - there are loads of cheerleading competitions. Just google it.

There are loads of dance competions, inc strictly, doesn't make it a sport.

This! Definitely a sport

If you wanted your child to do an activity that kept them fit and active, required training and focus etc... would you chose ballet or chess?
Ballet is more of a sport than chess and darts.

As for competitions... my Goddaughter actually does competitive ballet in the same way her sister does competitive ball room dancing.

LOL Competitive Cheerleading, 2.5 minute routine there is 30 seconds of dance maximum, the rest is tumbling and stunting.

The fact that competitive Cheer Dance has its own category (which isn’t a recognised sport in the UK) makes the distinction.

I personally think it's a dance/performance, but that doesn’t take away from how hard they work or the level of skill involved. Many dancers have to be incredibly fit, train intensely, and develop a high degree of technique—think ballet, ballroom, and other competitive dance styles. Plenty of dancers compete.

That said, the line can get blurry. Rhythmic gymnastics and artistic swimming are also performance-based, yet they’re still considered Olympic sports. Artistic swimming is one of the hardest Olympic events!

Why are people arguing as to what is or isn't a sport - as though there's some kind of hierarchy whereby sport is the best/most worthy, then dance/art/games come lower down?

It's absolutely fine to say that you think some forms of dance are far more interesting or impressive than some forms of sport, and vice versa.

I can't help thinking that people maybe subconsciously stereotype sport as generally 'men's stuff' and dance as mainly 'women's stuff' - so they feel a need to prove that 'women are just as good as men'.

Women can indeed be as good as men - and are frequently far better - in just about everything (however you choose to quantify it), without any need to seek to 'man up' traditionally female-dominated pursuits in order to justify their worth.

Chess and darts are games, and I'll die on that hill.

Cheering at a football game isn't sport, but I guess the competitive events could be?