By Kayla Cohen ‘21, Sports Editor

“Is cheer a sport? Yes or no?” 

This question has become more prevalent recently with the new media surrounding cheerleading. Cheer originated as an activity to cheer for other sports teams as encouragement. However, cheer now commonly refers to “competitive cheer” which involves competition between cheer squads. Although competitive cheer has been around for many years now, new media coverage, such as the documentary Cheer by Netflix, has increased awareness of the competition in cheer. This documentary has also shifted the view of cheer from an activity for popular girls to a demanding sport that deserves more recognition. Competitive cheer entails higher danger with more tricks and tumbling; a study today even shows that cheerleading accounts for 65% of all injuries in female athletics. Still, many question whether cheer can be considered a sport. 

As the meaning of “cheer” evolves, so does its place in the sports world. In comparison with a sport like golf, competitive cheer requires gymnastic-like athleticism and team coordination. Yet, it is difficult to compare non-competitive cheer to golf as it can range so severely in level from simple choreography and cheers to large flips and stunts. This variety causes such debate in defining the overall branch of cheer (including competitive and non-competitive) as a sport. 

For this article, I decided to survey 70 NA students to find out whether they think cheer is a sport. Of the females asked, 74% answered that cheer is a sport, 13% responded that cheer is not a sport, and 13% brought up the separate answer choice that it depends if it is competitive cheer. This contrasted significantly with the men surveyed; 44% answered yes, 44% answered no, and 12% brought up the separate answer choice that it depends if it is competitive cheer. 

So why do so many more women believe that cheer is a sport? While cheerleading is a co-ed sport, 97 percent of cheerleaders are women, meaning that women tend to have a better understanding of what the sport entails. This, perhaps, caused more females to respond that cheer is a sport. One female, Molly Cantillion ‘21, responded, “While I don’t know much about cheerleading, I do think it is a sport because the aspects of physical activity exertion and competition both exist. A cheerleading athlete trains, rehearses and competes like any other athlete does and thus should be considered one.” 

On the flip side, one male junior responded that, “Cheer should not be considered a sport because although it involves physical exertion and skill, not enough skill is required to cheer at a high level as opposed to sports such as basketball in which you can be nothing short of perfect to make it professionally.” 

Whether cheerleading is a sport all comes down to how one defines sport, and this definition can largely be influenced by one’s surroundings. Because many more men closely follow professional sports leagues and channels (e.g. watching ESPN), a male would more likely believe that the definition of sport involves sport at the highest level (professional leagues). 

With more teams switching from traditional to competitive cheer, the level of cheer will keep rising in the years coming. And although your definition of sport might not include cheerleading now, it may in the future.