Cheerleading : The Sport in Camouflage
Written by Soha Mohammadhanif
Thumbnail and Banner Photo By Canadian Cheer.
The Olympic Games consists of 43 sports and about 400 events and Cheerleading isn’t one of them. Cheerleading has been a part of North American sporting events since the late 19th century and yet centuries after its formation it still remains excluded and un-recognized. This article will be going through the history and complications faced by Cheer.
In the late 1890’s, Johnny Campbell, a student in the University of Minnesota, jumped out of the crowd and onto the football ground to lead the crowd in a collective cheer. He was unaware that his actions would be recalled as the beginning of an entirely new culture and sport in North America and that he would be remembered as the first cheerleader in history. Cheer started out as a fun way to express support for a sports team at the university and high school level, and while the core of cheerleading remains the same, cheerleading in the 1800s was not how we know it today. Like most outdoor activities in the 1800’s, cheer was performed mostly by men. During the second world war when men were sent away to fight wars, young women slowly became a part of cheer teams. After the war, cheer teams continued to have female performers but the credit for cheer’s image as a “girly activity” can be given to mass media and pop culture.
Representation of Cheer in Mass Media
Movies and TV shows through their crude portrayal in scenes where there is an unnecessary sexualization of the female characters who play cheerleaders and romanticizing of the cheerleaders from the prosperous California suburbs, movies like Bring It On have showcased cheerleading as a sport meant only for the rich and popular. Moreover, the portrayal of cheerleaders having a “picture-perfect physique” was imprinted on the minds of viewers, the article I Didn't Look Like Other Cheerleaders. Here's Why 'Cheer' Is So Hard To Watch written by Ariel Henley describes the author's personal experience with cheerleading and the body-shaming it caused when she was barely 11 and how after more than a decade nothing seemed to have changed as the media keeps representing cheer as a sport where “beauty means status”. The docu-series America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders available on netflix unmasks how cheerleaders are constantly made to adhere to misogynistic beauty standards and end up with psychological issues like eating disorders. Cheerleading very quickly became a problematic topic in the sporting industry, the glittery and glamorous showcase of cheerleading made it out to become more of a piece of entertainment and less of a sport, shortly a debate emerged on whether or not it should be called a sport at all anymore.
After decades of debate on the topic, in 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) fully recognized the International Cheer Union, putting an end to the debate and declaring cheer as a sport, yet the war for cheerleaders is not over yet. Even after recognizing cheer as a sport, the IOC did not include cheerleading in the Paris 2024 Olympics and it is not included in the LA 2028 Olympics.
Complications faced by Cheer
One of the biggest reasons why the IOC hesitates to admit cheerleading in the Olympic games is because, while cheer is an integral part of games in Northern America and most parts of Europe.However, it has yet to dwell into the cultures of smaller Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Cheerleading is a form of expression, its presentation varies from region to region, which leads to inconsistency and discrepancy in the way this sport is performed in Japan, cheerleading coaches tend to give importance to synchronicity, tradition and precision while in South Korea routines are made to keep up with the current K-Pop trends. In just a single continent two countries have such vast takes on cheer, cheerleading performing techniques differ even more as we move along the globe. Australian coaches view cheerleading with an athletic dexterity involving stunts sequences in their routine. All of this makes it difficult to come up with globally accepted judging criteria. Uniformity is one of the foundation stones in the forming of the Olympic Games. It is difficult for the IOC to ignore the discrepancies of cheerleading while considering it’s admission in the Olympic Games
Another reason that cheer isn’t considered for the Olympics is that even after 2 decades since the formation of the International Cheer Union (ICU), there are several organizational problems that the Union faces. Among these internal issues, the biggest is funding. On an individual level cheerleaders face the issue of funding even more than the organization as a whole. After cheerleading gained popularity, expensive costumes, makeup, and glam became the norm. It started to become an expensive sport, which made it difficult for cheerleaders coming from a middle-class family background to access cheerleading. On average, pursuing cheerleading today can cost anywhere around $2,100 to $4,500 annually, more if one wants to participate in cheerleading camps, while originally the sport was essentially free or with very minimal costs. This high jump in costs clearly depicts that the entertainment industry was successful in turning cheerleading into ‘a rich man’s sport’. Inaccessibility towards cheerleading because of financial unavailability restricts hundreds of young girls from pursuing their dreams. If cheerleading is to receive global recognition and acceptance it first needs to become accessible to all sectors of society.
These problems have camouflaged cheerleading from the eyes of the public, it is one of the only sports that is recognized yet excluded from international games. Getting its long overdue recognition was only the start of a longer journey. Leaders of the ICU are working to make the sport more acceptable and soon if there is adequate attention paid to resolve these issue, there will come a time when cheerleading becomes an important part of sporting events in all parts of the world.