Quote:
Originally Posted by DrPhil
At its most competitive level and highest level of difficulty where people have intensive training and can get hurt:*** Sport.
When it isn't competitive and only has a "clap your hands" level of difficulty: Not a sport.
***That isn't the metric for what makes something a sport.
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Sideline cheerleading isn't just "clap your hands" level of difficulty, even if it isn't competitive. Many sideline squads do all of the same elements and have the same difficulty level of competitive squads. In the college ranks, it's usually the sideline squad that competes (i.e. Kentucky, LSU, Alabama, Louisville, etc.).
Also, it should be noted that the judge ruled that competitive cheer is not a sport
in its current form for Title IX purposes. It is not fully developed in that format. He writes toward the end of the case:
"In reaching my conclusion, I also do not mean to belittle competitive cheer as an athletic endeavor. Competitive cheerleading is a difficult, physical task that requires strength, agility and grace. I have little doubt that at some point in the near future – once competitive cheer is better organized and defined, and surely in the event that the NCAA recognizes the activity as an emerging sport – competitive cheer will be acknowledged as a bona fide sporting activity by academic institutions, the public, and the law. As the evidence in this case demonstrates, however, that time has not yet arrived."
</soapbox>
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