Is Cheerleading a Sport?

In her article In the Spirit of Title IX, author Emily Badger describes the University of Maryland’s decision to promote part of its cheerleading squad to varsity in order to create more scholarships and playing opportunities for other female athletes on campus. Badger explains this is deemed necessary because “the 1972 legislation mandated equal opportunity for women in all federally funded education programs” (Badger 350). In order to assess this problem and make the men’s programs content, certain Maryland faculty members suggest creating 12 cheerleading scholarships and 8 water polo scholarships so the men’s programs will be given 20 scholarships when the funding is available. Some argue against the idea because they don’t acknowledge cheerleading as a sport. “I couldn’t believe they were considering cheerleading as an actually sport,” says the president of Maryland women’s ice hockey club team who feels it would be more logical for Title IX to recognize ice hockey as a sport rather than cheerleading. This brings up the question “what is a sport?”

In order to differentiate competitive cheer from its counterpart, Maryland decided to divide its cheerleading squad in two so that one team will cheer at games while the other team will compete solely at competitions emphasizing gymnastics and eliminating cheer (Badger 352). The team traveling to competitions will receive scholarships, new uniforms and priority registration for classes. This is one effort attempting to convince the Title IX representatives that cheerleading can be considered a sport. Maryland’s cheerleading representatives and coaches are optimistic about the idea and believe it will work because it is a sensible modification to Title IX.

In Kris’ article Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk: Cheer is here from the Title IX blog page, she discusses a different approach to give cheerleading Title IX recognition. She explains the USA Cheer team’s announcement of creating a sport called STUNT with the intent to meet NCAA standards for an emerging sport as well as Title IX’s standards as to what constitutes a sport. She explains the “National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association, has partnered with USA Gymnastics in an attempt to give competitive cheerleading sport status at colleges and universities.” USA Cheer recently competed in their first STUNT competition and it was a huge success.

“This competition was a huge success for USA Cheer and STUNT…STUNT is becoming increasingly more popular and important in communities across the country," said USA Cheer Executive Director, Bill Seely.