NEWS: Cheerleading: The Toughest Sport?

CULTURE: Cheerleading: The Toughest Sport?

Bring it on? Unfortunately, the "It" that cheerleaders have been bringing is "themselves to the hospital." Recent reports show that cheerleading is now much more dangerous for the participants than are the sports they cheer for.

Since so many schools have decided to eliminate gymnastics due to budget problems, many of the girls (and guys) who would be doing that have now joined their school's cheer teams to get their tumbling fix. That, combined with the ever-increasing difficulty of the spins, throws and death-defying leaps that major cheerleading squads must do to compete have added up to the increase in hospital visits. Far from the simple pom-pom shakers of the past, these girls are downright bad-asses.

Peanut Butter: Too Spicy?

It's only a matter of time before somebody makes regulations that they have to wear protective headgear and pads (um...not the Maxi kind).

Where can I catch a cheerleader?

Amen to that! I was a competative cheerleader through high school and into college and having suffered multiple dislocated knees, broken fingers, broken toes, bruises for days and a broken rib, I have to agree that cheerleaders especially competative ones, are the ultimate athletes!

crazy, i can see where that is true - i was a gymnast for about eight years and when i hit high school i almost became a cheerleader to get my 'tumbling fix' as they put it. i went through some nasty injuries as a gymnast, so cheerleading seems no different. it's all the cost for the sports, you push the envelope to get the judges to look, and in cheerleading you're trying to get the crowd to... you always want to up your performance.

every now and then I think that I should become a male cheerleader in some hardcore competitive cheer squad.

I'd be in awesome shape, and I would learn to do cool flippy like things.

Then I get back to reality, and realize, it's not going to happen.

But yeah, cheerleaders at Auburn High were kinda lame, but those competitive squads can kick some ass!

I witnessed a girl lose most of her incisors and sustain a pretty nasty head and neck injury after a fall at some homecoming game a few years ago. I wonder if these kinds of injuries are more common at the competitive level (where they actually have rules about the more dangerous stunts) or the high school, football and basketball game level.

Wow, who knew. I will have to ask a few cheerleaders i know just how intense it gets for them.

I could do a cart-whell...Does that qualify???????

I guess when you're pitching people around like a game of softball you're bound to get some injuries.

i used to be a cheerleader. that shit was hard, and i got injured alot too. ironic enough, i wanted to play hockey, but my mom said it was too dangerous.

my cousin was a cheerleader in high school and she sprained her neck

We need more cheerleaders in the UK, then our cheerleaders can compete with yours, and we'll kick your ass

We now have proof that Kirsten Dunst's movies are bad for your health.

The chronic vomiting they induce is also known to cause esophogial collapse.

amen to that. i got a concussion from smacking heads with a girl in a stunt once. not fun.

ummm... there is a "National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research"?

This made me laugh, and then it brought up a mental image of the cheerleaders in Waterboy, which made me laugh even more.

<Joke of questionable taste, alluding to any of several wars>

You're not the only one. My two nieces were "Comp Squad" cheerleaders in high school, and when I would go to a meet I could never find a parking place. Man, those events draw a crowd.

C-U-T-E
Don't you wish you looked like me?
I'm Cute!
I'm Cute!

Sorry! Anyway, you'd kick our ass, and you guys know it

Seriously though, we don't have cheerleaders here, but we really really should. Maybe we'd be slightly more successful at the other sports if our teams had cheerleading squads.

Imagine Tim Henman's cheerleaders at wimbledon...