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.
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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.