Thread: Is Cheerleading a sport?

I'm particularly interested in seeing the different answers of male vs. female here.



In my experience, most people who play regular sports do not consider cheerleading to be a sport, whereas more people who don't play a sport consider it to be one.

Cheerleading is a sport in the way things like ballet and other forms of dance are. It's the same effort and skill involved as sport, but it sorta misses the essence of sport, competition. Though I guess you could call cheerleading competitionts etc sports in my opinion. There are sports that require far less effort and training then cheerleading does.

I agree with Ramira... it's a sort of a dancestyle but at the same time it feels weird to call it a "sport" :P

Definitely more of a sport than poker, though

The "athlete" in your poll kinda threw me ;) I've played sports before and I did athletics in school (high-jump, 200m sprint, etc).

As soon as a physical activity is performed in a competitive capacity following a set of rules, something is a sport.

Paintball, played in a league, is a sport. Cheerleading performed in a cheerleading-competition, is a sport.

Cheerleading performed at a game in support of one team is a performance just as ballet is a performance. I wouldn't classify either of these to be a sport.

Chess is a game, there's no physical activity involved so it's not a sport. Poker or Starcraft is the same. e-sport should just be called e-game. IMO it's not a sport unless it's physical.

Lastly, we check wikipedia and find that it says: "A sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play." Pretty much exactly what I said ^^

It's as much a sport as syncronised swimming I guess. Similar discussions have been talked over in great length with friends over whether competitive pole dancing is a sport.

definately its a sport.The kind of synchronization between the cheer leader thaw me.

Not a sport.

Cheerleading requires skill and athletic abilities for sure, but it's an entertainment. Exactly like dancing, as said before. they can have competitions, but that's not the purpose of the cheerleaders. They don't work to win something, but to attract crowds!

As for poker, it's a game, not a sport. Same thing I said for caeerleaders, they have competition, but that alone doesn't qualify. I f it did, eletronic game competitors from games such as FIFA or Counter-Strike would be called sportsmen too.

Not a sport. Close, but not quite. It doesn't have the grading or point based system required of a sport, unless you count the cheerleading competitions. However those are more of an off-season type thing anyway.