For a long time, people have been debating whether cheerleading is really a sport. You usually hear this question from a football player or a snarky teacher. 

If you actually go to watch competitive cheerleading, you will see that it is not easy. Football players, basketball players, and track runners are athletes because they practice a lot and work their bodies hard, and so do cheerleaders. Cheerleading is like these sports, but it has to fight to be taken seriously.

The truth is that cheerleading is a tough sport that requires a lot of strength and endurance. In basketball, if a player gets tired, they can sit down. Rest.. In cheerleading, there is no rest. If one person in a stunt group makes a mistake, the whole routine still has to continue going. You can’t just play a game with people, and you can’t hide if someone is not doing their job. It is a team sport. Everyone has to work together. In football, you have four parts to the game. You can recover if you make a mistake. In cheerleading, you only have two minutes and thirty seconds to get it right. You have one chance to show the judges what you can do. If you make a mistake, you cannot fix it.

A cheerleader has to be good at a lot of things. They have to be able to tumble like a gymnast, perform like an actor, be strong like a weightlifter, and jump high like a track athlete. Some people say that cheerleading is not intense. They are wrong. Catching a football is hard. Catching a person who is falling from high up is even harder. This sport teaches you how to stay calm in a crisis. You have to be able to talk to your team and work together to stay safe. You have to be able to keep going even when you are hurt because if you stop letting down the whole team. 

The biggest end of the year competition is held at ESPN, which stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. If the biggest competition is at ESPN, then why are people still questioning whether cheerleading is a sport? It is time to stop thinking that cheerleading is not important. Whether it is the strength or the mental toughness, cheerleaders are athletes. The debate is over. It is time for people to realize the truth.

Cheerleading has been around for a long time. They work hard at practices and always have the risk of getting hurt. They keep pushing, and because they love what we do, it’s easy to see. Cheerleading is a sport. It is time for people to start treating it like one.