Cheerleader cheers on gurney despite chipped neck...
 

Talk about school spirit...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ritethru.0532/

"When the pep band fired up SIU's fight song "Go Southern Go,'' Yamaoka gave a two-handed thumbs up from the gurney, then moved her arms - the only things not strapped down - in time to the music and cheered."

Link to picture on yahoo

I admire the girl. She's lucky to be alive. Gives me flashbacks.

And there are people who don't consider cheerleading to be a sport????

-KR
(who can't even do a cartwheel)

Glad that she's going to be okay, but I bet the paramedics were fllipping out at her moving around like that. At that time they didn't know the extent of her neck injury, and I know with neck and head injuries they try to keep the body as still as possible

that's not school spirit, that's being retarded. If you're strapped to a gurney, how about you don't move until you've ben cleared by a medical professional. mmm'kay?

The Cheerleading coach (or someone close to that) told her to be still, but the paramedics didn't seem concerned, so she let her cheer.

Seemed a little shaky to me, too, but I guess they were the professionals on the scene.

Cheering has more brainwashing than any cult.

wow, talk about being a cheer-nazi.

Cheerleading is awesome!
That girl has serious team spirit.

I'd say that was a selfless thing she did.

That's right. Yay for cheerleaders.

Cheerleading group wants stunt restrictions
'We dodged a bullet,' national agency says after Yamaoka's near-tragedy

Updated: 4:24 p.m. ET March 8, 2006
ST. LOUIS - A group that sets standards for cheerleading safety wants new restrictions on certain stunts through the end of this basketball season, citing a Southern Illinois University cheerleader’s 15-foot fall onto her head last weekend.

The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators’ advisory came just a day after the Missouri Valley Conference, which includes SIU, barred its cheerleaders from certain aerial or towering stunts during its women’s basketball tournament, which begins Thursday.

Both moves were reactions to Sunday’s nationally televised scare involving Kristi Yamaoka, who late in the MVC title game suffered a concussion and a fractured neck when she fell about 15 feet onto her head from the top of a pyramid formation. Yamaoka, 18, was released Tuesday from a hospital.

Read the rest here

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11729191/

The video is of Kristi Yamaoka and her doctor talking with 'Today' show anchor Katie Couric about her fall.

The Conference Banned this type of Cheerleading Practice.

There are many more Cheerleaders hurt each year and they are lucky if they are not paralized. She should have been strapped down, period.

Try to be the best and well?

I will not say it is a sport, it is an event. Many of teh Cheer (Yell Leaders) at The Pitt were LXAs. I was more than surprised to find this out from My Brothers who were in the H C Parade honoring them from Years past.

In the pictures, and according to the article I read, her head and body were strapped down and totally imobilized, and she had a cervical (sp) collar in place.

Only her arms were free.

When our daughter was a HS cheerleader, the school placed first in Colorado several years and went to the competition at Disney World.

Some of their stunts were amazing (and dangerous), and if a kid wasn't a gymnast, they had essentially no chance of making the squad. They practiced as much as any of the other sports teams.

I'd like you to explain this, please. I've been involved in the world of cheerleading for 9 years, eight as a high school and college cheerleading and the last four as a coach, also. Never once have I seen anything remotely close to "brainwashing" in my experiences with high school, college, or all-star cheerleading.