Cheerleading: Sport or Not?

[KSUViolet06]

I'd say it is if you are stunting, tumbling and competing.

One of my guy friends (and past formal date in college) cheered when we were in undergrad. He had conditioning every AM from 5:30-7 and practice every night from about 7-9pm..

The team competed in the big UCA competition at Disney every spring. As a result, they stayed at school over winter break and practiced every single day to prepare for it.

I've watched videos of the practices/routines and they are no joke.

Also, our family friend's daughter has cheered competitively since age 5 and is now competing at the highest level (there are difficulty levels 1-5).

During the summer, she has camp for a week, followed by 2x/week of tumbing, and pracice 3x/week. These aren't back-handsprings she's working on either. I think their team goal for this summer includes having the entire team know how to do full twisting layouts (or "fulls"). YouTube it. It's pretty serious. Her team also earned an invite to the World championship of competitive cheer, which is apparently (according to her and her friends) the holy grail of cheer.

I'd consider the above examples to be sports.

In contrast, my mom has coached rec league cheer via our local parks and rec for years. There is no stunting or tumbling involved, just sideline cheers. They also don't compete. I'd consider that an activity more than a sport.