Rachel Kanu at Cheer Competition 2015

Cheerleaders are commonly seen on the sidelines at football and basketball games supporting their teams. Fans just see them as other people supporting their team. However, the cheerleaders have to go through rigorous training and practice all the time to perfect the routines displayed at games. Along with cheering on the sidelines at games, most cheerleading squads participate in heated competitions to show their athleticism. Although it is not officially defined as a sport, it is obviously batter than many sports for numerous different reasons.

1. CORE STRENGTH AND COORDINATION 

Even the most common stunts in cheerleading require great balance, a solid build and flexibility, meaning most cheerleaders, much like ballerinas, have enough core strength and coordination to turn any top athlete green with envy. Even their warm-ups are intense.

2. DEFINITION 

 Cheerleading definitely fulfills the criteria of definition of Sports as: "an athletic activity that requires physical prowess or skill and often a competitive nature"  maybe even better than other activities commonly called sports.

3.  CHALLENGE

Not many people had actually paid attention to the cheerleaders besides just looking at them based off their looks, but their formations, flips, tumbles and tosses are kind of difficult to pull off. It is extremely difficult to chuck a hundred pound or more person in the air and catch him or her. Just picking up a person requires a lot of effort.

4.  COMPETITIVENESS

The basic purpose of a cheerleader is to either support competitiveness or to express it themselves. If you ever see a cheer competition, then you will know how competitive these girls and sometimes guys can be. They get very into their routine and can get as into it as somebody could get into a football game.

5. ACROBATIC  SKILLS

Gymnastics- the best known as acrobatic spot is a very popular sport where both men and women trying to perform elaborate flips, tricks and other acrobatic feats while on mats, beams or trampolines. Cheerleaders may not use beams or trampolines, but they do do their performances on mats. Cheerleaders do, with or without the help of their teammates, flips and acrobatic feats.

6. EXTREMENESS  

When one whole category of evaluation is called "stunting," that should indicate some of the extreme activity going on. None of this is possible in competitive cheerleading without a serious practice and workout regimen. Some high school cheerleaders train for years to make it to championships.

7. DANCING  

Dancing is in the Olympics in different forms. Cheerleading and dancing are basically the same exact thing except that dancers don't do any flips. They may do jumps or things to that sort, but they never do the risky things that the cheerleaders do.

8. SHAPE

A lot of cheerleaders join other sports such as track, just to stay in shape for cheering. You have to be able to either lift and toss or be lifted and be tossed. The ones being tossed have to trust their lives with the people assigned to catch them.

9. TEAMWORK 

Whether you're talking about high school or college cheerleading, there needs to be this level of trust,teamwork and cohesion, especially when you're doing stunts and similar.

10. UNISEX 

Though cheerleaders are mostly women, male cheerleaders are becoming more common. While high school participation in U.S. stands at only 3%, about half of cheerleaders in colleges and universities are men. Women aren't the only ones compelled by the athleticism and team-building of cheerleading. 

By Ljiljana Kostic