For high school girls and college women, cheerleading is far more dangerous than any other sport, according to a new report that adds several previously unreported cases of serious injuries to a growing list.
High school cheerleading accounted for 65.1 percent of all catastrophic sports injuries among high school females over the past 25 years, according to an annual report released Monday by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research.
The new estimate is up from 55 percent in last year's study. The researches say the true number of cheerleading injuries appears to be higher than they had previously thought. And these are not ankle sprains. The report counts fatal, disabling and serious injuries.
The statistics are equally grim in college, where cheerleading accounted for 66.7 percent of all female sports catastrophic injuries, compared to the past estimate of 59.4 percent.
The revised picture results from a new partnership between the sports injury center and the National Cheer Safety Foundation, a California-based not-for-profit body created to promote safety in cheerleading and collect data on injuries. The foundation provided the center with previously unreported data. The new data added 30 injury records from high schoolers and college students to the 112 in last year's report.
Catastrophic injuries to female athletes have increased over the years, since the first report was published in 1982.
For reasons that I cannot explain, there are several people in my social and family circle whose daughters are cheerleaders.
The "debate" about whether cheerleading is a "sport" is one that goes on often at family and other social gatherings, and you may be surprised to learn that I restrain myself from "contributing" to the discussion.
Cheerleading is much more competitive than many sports. The darlings around me spend more time, effort, and money - and invest more emotional capital on their cheerleading "careers" than I ever did playing baseball, basketball, or tiddly winks. Making or not making the cheerleading squad is invested with all the hopes and aspirations of a Bar Exam, "finals," and voting on the Homecoming Queen, all rolled into one. I feel real pity for the coaches who have to make these decisions and deal with the disappointed PARENTS (for God's sake) and their legal counsel.
I wonder if, when compiling the stats on "cheerleading" injuries, they also include the injuries in gymnastics classes and competitions, summer cheerleading camps, and tumbling about the Abode. I'd wager that the injuries suffered while leading cheers are only a small fraction of the total.
But I still don't get it. Why would anyone want to be a cheerleader, and why would a parent want that for their little girl? I have no idea.
Re: Most Dangerous Sport: Cheerleading
Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:44 pm
by Long Run
I think the cheerleading competitions developed for the reason that there needed to be more to cheerleading than just leading cheers. The competitions are a form of acrobatic gymnastics, which leads to the high injury rate. It is far more of a sport than rythmic gymnastics or ice dancing. All require athleticism, are a form of art, but have thrown judging into the mix to create a sport.
Re: Most Dangerous Sport: Cheerleading
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:10 am
by loCAtek
dsg49, that was the point to the OP: that if this was a real sport, then regulations would reduce injuries.
I know most 'extracurricular activities' aren't so physical to need regulation. However, while being non-curricular; 'sports' are regulated to maintain safety standards. Therefore cheerleadering, like gymnastics, should be classified as a sport.
Re: Most Dangerous Sport: Cheerleading
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 2:55 pm
by dgs49
I'm not sure classifying it as a "sport" for scholastic purposes would result in any meaningful safety regulations.
Cheerleaders have coaches and trainers already, and God knows any time a girl is injured she and her parents will be talking to a lawyer forthwith to see if there's anyone who can be held financially accountable for the injury.
Is "intramurals" a sport? I seem to recall more injuries in intramurals than they had on most of the "sports" teams. No coaching, minimal supervision, flexible rules - a formula for mayhem if ever there was one.
Re: Most Dangerous Sport: Cheerleading
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 5:25 am
by loCAtek
Wki
[edit] Intramural sports in the United States
The National Intramural Recreational Sports Association, a professional organization based in Corvallis, Oregon, provides a network of more than 4,000 highly trained professionals, students and Associate Members in the recreational sports field throughout the United States, Canada and other countries. In most of the world outside North America, sports scholarships and college sports on the North American model do not exist so the distinction between college and intramural sports has no relevance and is not made. One of the early innovators of intramural sports in the US was Forrest Craver of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.[6] Craver began the intramural sports program at Dickinson in the late 1920s or early 1930s.