Cheerleading: Deceptively Dangerous

A five foot girl, wearing short skirts and a sweater, turns out to be far braver and tougher than the guys on the court or the field. Why you ask? This is because cheerleading is one dangerous sport.

Types of Injury

At basketball and football games, you see players rolling their ankles, dislocating their shoulders, and other cringe worthy injuries. You see them grimace in pain as they are brought to the locker room to assess their injury. But these are mere bruises when compared to the type of pain cheerleaders face day in and day out.

Young high school and college girls have been reported to suffer concussions, bruised lungs, broken ribs, broken necks, spinal injuries and other worse damage to their small bodies. It is hard to imagine these girls, with their wide smiles and cheery disposition can suffer these horrendous injuries but one has to remember that the aesthetic aspects of cheerleading often hides or masks the inherent dangers.

When we see human pyramids, or girls being tossed up in the air as they twirl and spin their bodies, we tend to forget the reality of the situation and remain in awe of the performance. We forget to see the reality that these girls are basically throwing themselves 10 to 15 feet in the air with no safety line or net to catch them if they fall. All they have below them are the hands of young boys, who unfortunately, are surrounded by distractions. Seen in this light, the dangers of cheerleading become apparent.

Gravity of the Injuries

To get an idea of the gravity of these injuries, one only needs to look a few years back to find examples. In 2005, a 14 year old girl ruptured her spleen when she fell on her stomach as she was practicing a spin. In 2008, a 17 year old was sent into a coma, lost the use of her limbs and eventually died due to brain damage after a fall in a cheerleading contest. That same year another student, a 20 year old, died after being kicked in the chest in another competition.

Cheerleading also comprises the highest percentage of athlete-related injuries in high school and in college (for girls). In fact, 65% of all major injuries of female high school athletes were from cheerleading-related activities. In college, this percentage increases to 67% of all injuries of female athletes. This is even more astounding when one considers that from the country’s 2.9 Million female athletes in high school, a mere 3% are cheerleaders.

Bravery is Equal to those of Other Athletes

The bravery that these young girls have should not be questioned nor dismissed. Even when faced with these statistics, and the high probability of pain, we still see countless young girls trying out for cheerleading squads, and dancing their hearts off at competitions. They knowingly face the dangers with smiles on their faces. No one can doubt that the bravery these girls have match (if not exceed) those of the players they are cheering for. GP