I can't even find the link for the article on their website, but in this weeks' print edition of Sports Illustrated there is an article titled "Pom-poms and Circumstance". Subtitle: "Cheer leading has become a 'serious' sport. Think sweat, blood, drugs."
I think the purpose of the article is to drive home the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs in college and professional sports, but I simply can't get past some of the assertions the writer makes. Case(s) in point: "...fascination with cheerleaders goes beyond the superficial." and my personal favorite, "...cheer leading has become as real as any sport out there".
Can we truthfully say that cheer leading is to sport what marching band is to music? I think not. Marching band members are muscians and cheerleaders are, well, cheer leaders.
4 comments:
I don't know. What we see at games is not a sport but their competitions are pretty intense. I know a few kids who competitively cheer. They don't cheer for a team - kinda weird. Anyway they practice as much as any sport and are just as athletic.
cheer leading as a SPORT? really? i think i just threw up a little bit in my mouth.
sweet mother of pearl, next it will be a summer olympic event.
CK
Did you READ the article?
"Over the past 23 years 107 female athletes died or were paralyzed in a high school or college sport; 60 were cheerleaders."
Now you can sit there and think, perhaps, that this is because they're stupid enough to trip over their shoelaces, but only once you try standing at the top of one of those pyramids will anything you just said have value.
Cheerleaders take a lot of flack from a lot of people, but not a single one of those people have ever tried it, and thus have no basis what so ever to stake a claim that it isn't a sport; that it isn't as difficult, frightening or physically demanding as anything else.
Hell, if Cheerleading were any easier, it would be called football.
Thanks for your comment lrbean! Yes, I did indeed read the article but personally did not find it a compelling argument for the justification of cheerleading as a sport. I'm not saying that cheerleading does not require athletic prowess (because it definitely does) and I'm not saying that cheerleaders are clumsy, silly or stupid (clearly they are not).
I apologize if I offended you with my opinion. That was not my intent.
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