Cheerleading may once have been relegated to the sidelines of football matches, but over the past decades it has increasingly become a sport in its own right. Starting in America in the late ‘80s, competitive cheerleading (aka “all-star” cheerleading) now attracts millions of participants worldwide.
At the Cheerleading Worlds last summer, more than 500 teams from over 25 countries arrived in Florida for the biggest competition in the season. It’s a massive increase from the first Cheerleading Worlds twenty years ago, featuring only 14 teams.
On July 20th 2021, the International Olympic Committee granted the International Cheer Union (ICU) full recognition, underscoring the development of competitive cheerleading as a standalone sport. There has even been talk about including it in future Olympic games. Forget pom-poms and pep-rallies: the sport features gravity-defying stunts and tumbling, meticulously precise choreography, and the sheer willpower to persevere through injury and exhaustion. In a world where “hitting zero” is a good thing (it means a team has made zero mistakes in their routine), athletes put hundreds of hours into training, all for a two and a half minute performance.
As the sport grows in size, people of all ages and abilities are being drawn in. Many gyms have teams for children as young as three, with their older teams including members well into their thirties. Since the 2000s, cheer competitions have begun to include athletes with disabilities, with the CheerABILITIES divisions encouraging inclusivity within the sport.
With recent research by Sport England showing that just 44% of girls participate in 60 minutes of physical activity daily, cheerleading’s popularity with young women is remarkable. It is one of the fastest growing sports in the UK: in written evidence submitted by SportCheer England as part of the ‘Parliamentary Inquiry into Sport in Our Communities’, it is noted how “96% of Cheerleading’s participants are female and the majority are under 18yrs” making it crucial in “promoting the physical and mental wellbeing of a key demographic in this country at risk of inactivity”.
As cheerleading grows as a sport outside of the USA, it is becoming critical in preserving many young women’s physical health, by capturing and maintaining participation from girls at an age when they are traditionally dropping out of sport. And the benefits are not solely for girls: coed teams are increasing in number as well.
So what is it about cheerleading that is taking the world by storm? Perhaps it is the diversity: people of all sizes, ethnicities, and abilities can compete on teams, far from the stereotypical cheerleader that many people might picture. Perhaps it is the promise that many gyms make: that if you try out, you are guaranteed a place on a team, unlike other sports where only the best of the best make the cut. Or perhaps it is how cheerleading, by its very nature, is the embodiment of “community”, as teams work together to, quite literally, lift each other up.
