Is Cheerleading A Real Sport

Is cheerleading a sport?
Below is a conversation from a forum that I follow.

Dear Cheer Blogger,
At my school cheerleading isnt considered a sport. I am on a competitive cheerleading team and i no for sure that it is a sport. I believe it is important if not more important than any other sport. We practice longer and harder. We lift people!!!! no matter what people say it is a sport!!

-Kelsey
I believe it is important if not more important than any other sport. We practice longer and harder hey yah at my school ppl tease us when we say how hard it is ..and yes its impossible to convince ppl to believe that its a sport..until basketball season when we do lifts that ppl give standing ovations for so just prove them wrong and everyone will see how hard we work and yes they will see that it is a sport...!! love danimal

CHEERLEADING

My school does the exact same thing. We have athletics and they say cheerleading dosn't count so last year i had to take p.e. AND cheerleading. We have different coches every year and the school thinks we do nothing and wont let us go to compotition. We have practices at 5:30 in the morning just like the boys athletics. only we have to be awake and ready to go and we get stuck practicing in the cafateria than they don't let us use the girls showers. Then we don't get out of practice early enough and we are late to class. Oh yah we have to all go get dressed in the restrooms and you have people doing their hair their makeup putting clothes on and people going in because they have to pee. How is that fair??? The only reason I stayed in it is because I love cheering. And I get a high that can't be beat anyother way because after you are finished you aren't tired you are still pumped up. but to our school we are just of girls that like to be in little bitty skirts and jump up and down. oh yeah the girls athletics have practice after school. when we have game that we are cheering at, we only cheer at home games because the school won't get us a bus, we have practices that morning and we have to stay after we can get to school at 5:30 and not leave till 10 pm and still have to be back at school at 5:30 am when the team that played in the game get to stay home and sleep till its time for school to start. We are called JUST cheerleaders peprallys are worse expecialy when the rest of the school dosn't know that their is a pep rally. We are usually let off the hook during peprallys, i think they just plan it like that, so we ride the bus in our cheer uniform and everyone thinks you just want to were the shortest skirt and the tittest top you could find. Then you have do deal with it all day and they will move the pep rally to the end of the day so you planed to change afterwards but no! their's not going to be a later is their. And at the peprallys they anounce everyone but the cheerleaders. Then we didn't even get a team picture because the school is lazy and gets one for all the other sport teams but us. It is so unfair. our boy basket ball team was tottaly defeted didn't win a single game and go more recognesion then we do!!!
smart cheerleader


Links
About .com article about cheerleading and sports http://cheerleading.about.com/b/2003/11/11/is-cheerleading-a-sport-2.htm