Is it a sport?

Had this discussion at work today. Is cheerleading a sport? My argument was this: You do not achieve victory or score points in cheerleading. Therefore it is not a sport. I'm, by no means, taking away from the HIGH level of fitness required to be a cheerleader. It is JMO that it is not a sport. What do you think?

[nAz]

cheerleading is as dangerous as most sports. even more dangerous than football. With all those stunts and maneuvers like jumps, pyramids, twirling, flipping, and tossing, a lot of people are getting hurt while "cheering on the home team" hey heres a Quetions is pool a sport?? lol

[socrates]

Perhaps there is a differnce between a spirt squad and a competition squad.

However, for the benefit of my daughter who just returned from competing at Nationals in Orlado, FL (The ones shown on ESPN) I will need to answer most definetly yes. These girls train staring in the summer for approximately five or six competitons through the end of February. They train over twelve hours a week and their conditioning is grueling.

Their high school squad has won the state high school competition all four years she has competed and eight years in a row.

Combined with her early martial arts training she is one tough cute young lady.

A proud dad.

[snipershot]

For the more competitive teams it is a sport, they have to score points with the judges to defeat their competition, I think it isn't a sport for the teams that just cheer on their sports teams.

The band at my high school started conditioning in the summer at the same time as the football team. They also competed at a national competition in Florida every year. Does that make band a sport? Is ballroom dancing a sport? They have competitions for that too.