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

[TheQuirkyMaker]

Here:

Not a sport in my opinion, agree with the person who says there is no definition of sport. The kind such as the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders is just an exercise and excuse for men to gawp at young women.

What about the type that compete in competitions?

I agree there are conversations to be had about the uniforms but you can’t deny the athleticism the cheerleaders display.

There’s definitely an element of snobbery on this thread.

I’m afraid if you think cheer is all about the type of thing the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders do, then you aren’t really well
informed enough to have an opinion about whether it’s a sport or not.

While what the DCC do is miles away from the Competitive Cheer (and whether you think dance is a sport or not).. they don't just stand around and wave pom poms. They are extremely good, very highly trained dancers.

What women are expected to wear in many sports (or "performing arts") is a different discussion. Like Beach Volleyball.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4iVs8kLf63/?igsh=MTZiNDFzeTlnbWQ2Yg==

Not a sport? Really?

I don't think it is a sport. To me a sport must have clear rules and some measurable way of deciding who wins. Run the fastest, score the most goals, shoot the most accurately etc.

Anything which is decided by a judges opinion is not a sport.

It's never occurred to me as being a sport. I'd think of it more as acrobatics.

Ballet isn't a sport. It's a classical dance.

Yes, it's certainly physical and skilful.

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.

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.

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.

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

So gymnastics isn't a sport by your definition?

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.

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

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.

There are clear rules and scoring definitions at cheer competitions.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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