The Most Dangerous Sport: Cheerleading

livescience ^ | 26 June 2009

[JoeProBono]

Cheerleading safety efforts have led to modest reductions in the number of serious injuries in recent years, according to a new report about college and high school sports and cheerleading mishaps. But cheerleading continues to cause more serious and deadly injuries by far than other sports. Researchers have long known how dangerous cheerleading is, but records were poorly kept until recently.

An update to the record-keeping system last year found that between 1982 and 2007, there were 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes, with the vast majority (67) occurring in cheerleading.

The next most dangerous sports: gymnastics (nine such injuries) and track (seven). Today, the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released its 26th annual report on the topic. The latest figures are from the 2007-2008 academic year for college and high school sports, male and female. The report defines catastrophic injuries as any severe or fatal injury incurred during participation in the sport.

[Niuhuru]

That is so WRONG!

[JoeProBono]

[DemforBush]

I don’t know if this was considered a “sport” under the scope of the article, but I had always thought Equestrian actually was the most dangerous in terms of # of serious injuries/fatalities.

At least that’s what my Equestrian coaches told me. Maybe he was just trying to make sure I cleared the jumps properly, eh?

[Alex Murphy]

I have bumped my head many a time on the underside of the seats in the stands

I won't ask why you were watching the cheerleaders from underneath the stands....

[JoeProBono]

[b4its2late]

LOL!

[mikeus_maximus]

ummm.. because it causes STD’s ?

[Fiji Hill]

Thank you for posting that picture of the USC Song Girls performing at the Rose Bowl. There are no cheerleaders at USC. Yell Leaders (headed by a Yell King) and Song Girls lead the cheering when the Trojans play.

[JoeProBono]

[Blackacre]

If they look farther, they will find that it is especially dangerous to be the smallest, lightest girl on the team, because she's the one at the top of the pyramid, and the one who gets dropped, and gets the back injuries.

I imagine cheerleading has gotten more dangerous since men have started participating on the squads. A 180 pound guy can throw a girl a lot higher than her 100 pound squadmates can.

My male cousin was on his high school's cheerleading team, in addition to participating in theater. Smart kid-spending time where the girls are.

[Tax-chick]

The study mentioned in the article was limited to girls’ high school and college sports. Very few high schools and colleges have girls equestrian sports teams, while we can assume just about all have cheerleaders.

[CAluvdubya]

My daughter was a high school cheerleader. She was tiny and was a flier, the one that got tossed into the air. She had many injuries and almost broke her arm when the boy that was supposed to catch her....didn't. She was lucky but I'll never forget that sound when she hit the mat.

[Fiji Hill]

Wow!!

[Wyatt's Torch]

My niece was in competitive cheerleading for 15 years. She just finished her sophomore year at South Carolina on scholarship as a cheerleader. She has broken both arms, both wrists, and ankle and blew out her PCL in her knee last year. It might not be a “sport” as they don’t keep score. But it sure as hell is incredibly athletic. It has also helped pay her way through school. The days of being bubbly and bouncing up and down on the sidelines are long gone in the upper echelons of cheerleading. They are serious gymnasts and athletes.

[ansel12]

Cheerleading is a sport?

I played football but I used to sometimes grudgingly sacrifice my time to help female cheerleaders with their training, I have considered it a sport ever since, there is some real athletic ability required.

[JoeProBono]

[frithguild]

[DemforBush]

That would explain it, though I think in the case of universities, it may be more about defining it as something other than a sport. For example, the equestrian team on my campus was considered a “club”, and thus not technically part of the school’s athletic department(s). Most of the teams I competed against were classified in a similar fashion.

Either way, though, point taken.

[StayAt HomeMother]

The “little one” on top can get hurt if the bases drop her, or if she is not strong and balanced enough to stay up. In addition, the “bases” - the girls on the bottom - get hurt when they get kicked in the face when a flier loses her concentration or strength. Bases can and do get nasty concussions and neck injuries.

In addition, fliers, bases, and spotters all can be injured tumbling across hard basketball floors or on the hard tracks around football fields. Notice these girls are all tumbling with NO MATS.

[Tax-chick]

Your point is probably part of the statistics, too. I know several of the colleges in Oklahoma had equestrian teams, but I don’t know if they were classified as athletic teams per se or simply as “activities.”