Is Cheerleading a Sport? (part 2)

So if you've been keeping up with my blog, which you probably haven't been, I recently wrote a post about whether or not I thought cheerleading was a sport. Well I only touched on the fact that I didn't believe that sideline cheerleading was a sport because it doesn't compete. However, I didn't get the chance to say that I strongly believe that competition cheerleading IS a sport. Please don't try to fight me on this one, I have done competition cheerleading before, so I know what it's like.
There are so many reasons why I believe that competition cheer is a sport, but let's just start with the time commitment. Competition cheer, depending on how extreme, can have 3-4 practiced a week, for 2-3 hours each. Also, on days you don't have practice there is open gym, which means a couple of hours working on stunts and tumbling. Then, when competition season starts, you spend the entire weekend at the competition. It's safe to say that these cheerleaders spend equal or more time training then every other sport.
Reason number 3 is that the skill and endurance it takes to be a competition cheerleader is intense. You have to work at it to be good, and it isn't an easy road to success. Tumbling and stunting and the dance component all take a great deal of training, you aren't just born with that kind of skill. You have to be in extremely fit to be able to tumble and do the tricks that these people do. Also, when stunting, the bases (people on the bottom of the stunt) have to have a great deal of muscle to hold a girl in the air for as long as they do and to throw and catch their flyers. Now the girl on top may seem like she has the easy job, but she too has to have a great deal of muscle and flexibility to hold her poses and keep her balance. Lastly, it takes a great amount of endurance to get through a 4 or 5 minute routine, of dancing, tumbling, and lifting/throwing people. I am a long distance runner and I remember breathing hard after my routine.
My last point is that they compete, and the judging isn't subjective. They are judged on the difficulty of their stunts and tumbling as well as the amount of facials they express. Competing is the part that really makes competition cheer a sport.
I also believe that school cheer squads that compete are considered a sport. Sideline cheer alone is not a sport, but competition cheer or competition cheer combined with sideline cheer should definitely be known and thought of as a sport.

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