Olympic Cheerleading?

[Mcfierceburger]

For years cheerleaders have wished for the sport to be a part of the Olympics. It seems like the perfect fit, doesn’t it? Though with competitive cheerleading having enough trouble even being considered a sport in most states how far off are we from seeing it in the Olympics? With the 2010 ICU World Cup upon us I think it is worth it to reflect on the current state of cheerleading trying to become an Olympic sport and what can be done to help this along.

Things going well:

* Cheerleading now has an active International organization in the ICU (something required by the International Olympic Committee)
* Cheerleading is booming in the USA
* Cheerleading has an international team competing at an international competition (Team USA)

Things that still need work:

* Cheerleading is still not recognized by the IOC as a sport (the first step towards Olympics)
* Cheerleading doesn’t meet the drug test requirements to be recognized as a sport (just take a look at a large amount of the boys stunting in college)
* Cheerleading needs to practiced world wide. Having an organization and one gym representing a country does not mean it is practiced world wide. Remember that baseball was recently taken out of the Olympics because there were not enough countries participating throughout that individual country. Cheerleading is not as big as baseball internationally.
* International competition needs to be more competitive. Team USA is ridiculously better than all the other teams.
* It is a lot harder to become an Olympic sport in the summer games. They have a set amount of spots for the summer games and have no trouble filling those spots with already recognized sports.
* There are no more demonstration sports for cheerleading to exhibition at the Olympics. They stopped those in 1992
* There is still not enough organization in the sport of cheerleading itself. The rules vary widely depending on what competition you are at and what age group you are in. This isn’t like international basketball and there is a funny shaped free throw lane. It is a complete different scoring philosophy everywhere you go.

Conclusion:

While we all love this sport of cheerleading there is a long way to go before we enter it into the Olympics. The sports for 2012 have already been voted in and 2016 sports are only being considered of the recognized sports (of which we are not). It took BMX biking 30 years to become a sport once their international organization was created and we are only in our 2nd year of the ICU. But every journey has to start with a single step. I just hope to see cheerleading in the Olympics in my lifetime.

Love the note "Team USA is ridiculously better than all the other teams" TRUE but totally unnecessary!
Of course Cheerleading is booming in the USA, you have 2 million cheerleaders!!
Its in international countries where its more needed, however in Asia, Europe, New Zealand and Australia participants have tripled in five years.
The thing is to, International would be more competitive if there was a Sprung floor!!!
"Cheerleading needs to practiced world wide. Having an organization and one gym representing a country does not mean it is practiced world wide. Remember that baseball was recently taken out of the Olympics because there were not enough countries participating throughout that individual country. Cheerleading is not as big as baseball internationally"
There are more countries competing in Cheerleading than in Baseball alone!!
And if there wasn't enough organization in the sport to hold something like the Olympics why does Worlds have Two International Competitions? that should be more than enough to start, the thing is too, the Olympics is an international event, stating that only one team from each country would be able to compete, yes... so even the most AMAZING country in the world would only have one team to represent them... thats how its always been!!

 

[cheersafety]

Love the note "Team USA is ridiculously better than all the other teams" TRUE but totally unnecessary!
Of course Cheerleading is booming in the USA, you have 2 million cheerleaders!!
Its in international countries where its more needed, however in Asia, Europe, New Zealand and Australia participants have tripled in five years.
The thing is to, International would be more competitive if there was a Sprung floor!!!
"Cheerleading needs to practiced world wide. Having an organization and one gym representing a country does not mean it is practiced world wide. Remember that baseball was recently taken out of the Olympics because there were not enough countries participating throughout that individual country. Cheerleading is not as big as baseball internationally"
There are more countries competing in Cheerleading than in Baseball alone!!
And if there wasn't enough organization in the sport to hold something like the Olympics why does Worlds have Two International Competitions? that should be more than enough to start, the thing is too, the Olympics is an international event, stating that only one team from each country would be able to compete, yes... so even the most AMAZING country in the world would only have one team to represent them... thats how its always been!!

Wow growth of 3X in 5 years, that's amazing growth. Are those numbers documented anywhere? I knew it was growing fast but I didn't realize it was booming like that. That's awesome!

 

[SharkDad]

Love the note "Team USA is ridiculously better than all the other teams" TRUE but totally unnecessary!
Of course Cheerleading is booming in the USA, you have 2 million cheerleaders!!
Its in international countries where its more needed, however in Asia, Europe, New Zealand and Australia participants have tripled in five years.
The thing is to, International would be more competitive if there was a Sprung floor!!!
"Cheerleading needs to practiced world wide. Having an organization and one gym representing a country does not mean it is practiced world wide. Remember that baseball was recently taken out of the Olympics because there were not enough countries participating throughout that individual country. Cheerleading is not as big as baseball internationally"
There are more countries competing in Cheerleading than in Baseball alone!!
And if there wasn't enough organization in the sport to hold something like the Olympics why does Worlds have Two International Competitions? that should be more than enough to start, the thing is too, the Olympics is an international event, stating that only one team from each country would be able to compete, yes... so even the most AMAZING country in the world would only have one team to represent them... thats how its always been!!

The problem isn't that there aren't enough countries competing and you are right, there is enough competition to start. But it is not orgnaized enough because there is no stnadardization or consistency within the sport. Even between 2 worlds level competitions and within the international division IOC in the US vs IOC qualification vs IOC rules at Worlds rules all have differences.

An organization like the Olympic committee has no reason to take this sport seriously if the leaders in the sport don't take standardization and safety seriously themselves.

 

[Mcfierceburger]

Wow growth of 3X in 5 years, that's amazing growth. Are those numbers documented anywhere? I knew it was growing fast but I didn't realize it was booming like that. That's awesome!

Yeah i think its amazing to and yes the numbers can be found on Competition Company Websites like AASCF (Australia) they recorded a 45% growth on this years National competition alone, i don't know all of the names of comps but i know about most of them cause i've attended quite a few over the last few years.

The problem isn't that there aren't enough countries competing and you are right, there is enough competition to start. But it is not orgnaized enough because there is no stnadardization or consistency within the sport. Even between 2 worlds level competitions and within the international division IOC in the US vs IOC qualification vs IOC rules at Worlds rules all have differences.

An organization like the Olympic committee has no reason to take this sport seriously if the leaders in the sport don't take standardization and safety seriously themselves.

Thats true and its such a shame because it is not something they shouldn't be thinking about anyway to keep the sport organized. especially if they themselves aren't.

 

[Aussiekat]

Are there any other olympic sports that compete coed? And similarly, is there any move to introduce a coed division in NCATA or STUNT?

 

[flipmac]

Yeah i think its amazing to and yes the numbers can be found on Competition Company Websites like AASCF (Australia) they recorded a 45% growth on this years National competition alone, i don't know all of the names of comps but i know about most of them cause i've attended quite a few over the last few years.



Thats true and its such a shame because it is not something they shouldn't be thinking about anyway to keep the sport organized. especially if they themselves aren't.

Some organizations In Australia do not separate crossovers for actual athletes competing... They ALSO combine cheer and dance into total athletes at one comp. Thirdly, it is very common to crossover two cheer teams as well as into 2-3 dance teams, so these numbers can be mis leading.

 

[melissaweisberg]

I am sick and tired of people not thinking that cheerleading is a sport. It absolutely is. If i could see cheerleading in the olympics in my lifetime, that would be one of the best things i could ask or, considering how much it means to me. Ping pong is in the olympics....but cheerleading isn't.

 

[Anna-grace]

I think it should be in the Olympics! But thing with that is, it'll probably end up being ICU style or like a British governing body called ukca who are run by British gymnastics, so it would involve cheers and chants and non sprung floor, I want proper Allstar cheer with its craziness and ability to show the world Cheerleading IS a sport and different to what everyone thinks. With ICU style everyone won't take a second look, they'll see the chants etc and put it down, even if some of the stunts are amazing. If it was to happen the cheer industry would need one team per country which is hard to achieve having them at a high level due to having to travel to train and needing to train A LOT if it was to happen the first time it did would have to prove everyone wrong and be amazing. Otherwise it wouldnt be all that great. It's unlikely to happen unless used as a vague form of gymnastics which I don't think it should be as its a SPORT in its own right x

 

[Deleted member 15407]

I agree completely. Isn't there already big teams across the world? Team Canada, for example, competes at worlds, along with Tapeai. Its like Worlds is our own olympics....

 

[Mom Jeans]

Can we really be a sport when we dont make scores public? Free for all uniforms. We've come a long way, in some respects but something so simple seems to be so difficult. ..idk, I feel less like a sport than I did even 2 years ago. I've surrendered.

 

[munchkinmom]

20 years ago gymnastics and ice skating was gorgeous. Very artistic, very athletic. They changed the score sheets to make it reflect the "sport" aspect better. The sports are still pretty, and extremely athletic, just not as entertaining as they used to be. You want "sport" you'll likely get something close to NCATA's setup. I'm still not sure why we listen to people who say girls can't be athletes unless they look like boys. Field hockey wears skirts, tennis wears skirts. Bows only expose the weakness of the mind of the observer, not weaken the girl they're on. Also once you finally get NCAA onboard with "cheer - the sport" you'll see college and high school competitive teams quickly offering only "cheer - the sport" competitive squads to boost title IX numbers. Sideline spirit squads will likely still exist. Many of these high school athletes will then be locked out from taking part in teams outside their school team depending on local policies. What does that do to senior all-star teams, the kids themselves having to choose, the friendships split because of different choices, and college recruiting (if the colleges are on-board with "cheer - the sport" I'd imagine they'd be more likely to recruit out of the high school teams than all-star comps)? If it went that route, when my time comes, at least my state lets h.s. athletes participate on outsideteams - it's easier to gym shop than house shop based on enrollment areas and high school athletic programs... I like cheer - the performance sport. I danced growing up and didn't need a varsity jacket to prove to anyone I was an athlete. Maybe once the sport gets better organized on the international level we can have the Cheerleading Worlds move to follow the Summer Olympics every 4 years - the Disney event can become the US worlds qualifier that year. Hold it in the same city sometime in the weeks leading up to the Olympics. That'd be cool, an experience for those talented girls that get that far. The US would be in the mood to gobble up anything Olympics-related, maybe we could get some TV coverage?

Sorry for being somewhat ramble-y, I guess my point is are we willing to sacrifice comp. cheer as we know it to get a shot at being part of the Olympics one day, or would it be better to stay a sporty performing art and work at improving what we have?

 

[Ashley]

Are there any other olympic sports that compete coed? And similarly, is there any move to introduce a coed division in NCATA or STUNT?

Figure skating. As for your second question, not that I know of with Title IX and all.

 

[Brandon Madsen]

To give everybody some insight on some things people might not like to talk about but are reality and facts and things I learned being a former National Coach myself. The 1st World Federation was established and is currently ran from the Chinese still today International Federation of Cheerleading - LATEST NEWS. Back in the day when they established that Federation we as Americans turned down the offer to be a part of that Federation. Later as we all know America created the USASF and IASF and we would love to believe we are the only ones in the World who run Cheerleading and are the Best at it! Facts are the Chinese Federation is not planning on moving or giving up their position as the 1st and only World Federation, and is constantly battling the IASF with the "World Sport Accord" which is a very key factor in Cheer being accepted as a official sport. This is also one of the key factors I feel could also effect a future Olympic bid. WE AS A SPORT ARE NOT UNIFIED ACROSS THE BOARD and currently have 2 constant battling World federations. Even though the IASF has so many more Countries it still goes back to who created the 1st World Federation and 2 Groups of people with a common Goal not being able to come in a agreement which therefore effects the Sport and its progress on a big stage! There is a much bigger picture then most understand.

 

[Deleted member 15]

Brandon Madsen I'm pretty sure it Japan, not China, and there was a US contingent trying to join, but they didn't have their stuff together.

 

[Brandon Madsen]

Brandon Madsen I'm pretty sure it Japan, not China, and there was a US contingent trying to join, but they didn't have their stuff together.

Yes your right it was Japan I personally have Coached a Team stuck in the middle of the 2 Federations and trust me it isn´t as pretty as you might believe it to be.