Published: Jun 9, 2014 | Updated: Jun 9, 2014
By Sarah Wickline, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
CHICAGO — To me and many others, cheerleading is clearly a sport, but its official designation as such has many implications — both intended and unintended, all of which were apparent as AMA House of Delegates debated the issue.
I was a competitive athlete for 17 years, the last 3 of which as an NCAA Division 1 diver for Southern Methodist University (SMU).
I knew several cheerleaders in college, at SMU and other universities, two of them former diving teammates of mine, and there is no doubt that competitive cheerleading is as serious — and as dangerous — a sport as any other.
Labeling cheerleading as a sport isn’t about the medical profession or even the general publicbelieving that cheerleading is a sport. It is a simply a fact.
Anyone with an ESPN subscription can attest to the marked difference between pom-pom girls, who focus more on dance choreography, and cheerleaders, who focus more on gymnastics and acrobatics.
But designating cheerleading as a sport will loop it under the oversight of high school athletic boards and college athletic associations.
For one thing, if cheerleading is classified as a sport, the coaches will have to undergo safety training and certification — a clear pro. But, the team will also have to fight for their share of the athletic department’s finite and often scarce funding and resources — a definite con.
Even though Title IX ensures equal funds for female athletics, compliance is still a daily conversation in college athletic departments. So far, courts have ruled that cheerleading cannot be designated as a sport to even the allocation of scholarships between male and female athletes, the reference committee wrote.
The AMA’s Board of Trustees recommended equivalent safety standards for cheerleaders, training for coaches, and injury reporting as other designated sports. After hearing “significant, spirited testimony,” the reference committee decided the report needed to take the potential financial hardships official designation would create for school districts.
But the board, and the reference committee that reviewed the report, stopped short of calling cheerleading a sport. That decision didn’t fly with the HOD, especially those physicians representing pediatric, orthopedic, and neurologic specialties — all of whom backed an amendment that clearly stated cheerleading is a sport.
“It’s deja vu all over again,” Doug Martin, MD, Sioux city, Iowa, delegate for the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians, and chair of the reference committee that dealt with the same recommendation last year, said during the debate. “This is the same information and dialogue that we heard last year. I don’t think there’s any disagreement with or argument respect to the science behind this,” he said.
So, armed with this new designation, cheerleaders — boys and girls — may now find themselves on a level playing field.