Yes. Competitive cheerleading is a sport. It involves organised competition, defined rules, judged performance, athletic skills, training and governing bodies. The International Cheer Union (ICU) is fully recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the world governing body for the sport of cheer.
But two distinctions matter. Competitive cheerleading is not the same thing as sideline cheerleading, whose main purpose may be supporting another team, and IOC recognition does not mean cheerleading is currently an Olympic Games event. This guide separates those questions instead of treating “sport” as a matter of opinion.
[toc]
Why Competitive Cheerleading Qualifies as a Sport
Competitive cheer teams train and compete using routines that combine stunts, pyramids, tumbling, jumps, dance and transitions. Their performances are evaluated against rules and scoring criteria, including difficulty and execution. That places competitive cheer within the ordinary characteristics used to describe organised sport.
| Sport characteristic | How competitive cheer fits |
|---|---|
| Physical skill | Tumbling, stunts, jumps, lifts, catches, balance and synchronisation |
| Training | Repeated technical, strength, flexibility and routine practice |
| Rules | Competition divisions, safety rules and routine requirements |
| Competition | Teams compete for ranked results rather than only supporting another sport |
| Scoring | Judges evaluate difficulty, execution and other competition criteria |
| Governance | The ICU is recognised by the IOC as the international governing body for cheer |
Competitive Cheer vs Sideline Cheer
Much of the “is cheerleading a sport?” debate comes from using one word for activities with different primary purposes.
Competitive cheer
The routine itself is the competition. Teams are judged against other teams under a defined format, and the result is determined by performance and scoring.
Sideline cheer
Sideline squads may perform athletic skills, but their primary role can be crowd leadership and support around another sporting event. That function is different from a cheer competition even when many of the same athletes and skills are involved.
So the strongest answer is not “all cheerleading is identical.” It is that competitive cheer is an organised competitive sport, while sideline cheer can serve a different role.
Is Cheerleading Recognised by the IOC?
Yes. The International Cheer Union received provisional IOC recognition in 2016 and full IOC recognition on 20 July 2021. The ICU describes itself as the recognised world governing body for Cheer, including Cheerleading and Performance Cheer.
That recognition is important because it establishes an internationally recognised governing structure. It should not, however, be rewritten as “cheerleading is in the Olympics.” Recognition and inclusion on the Olympic Games programme are separate decisions.
Is Cheerleading an Olympic Sport?
Cheerleading is not currently contested as a medal sport on the Olympic Games programme. The ICU’s IOC recognition makes the sport eligible to pursue opportunities within the Olympic movement, but full recognition did not automatically add cheerleading to Paris 2024, Milano Cortina 2026 or the Los Angeles 2028 competition programme.
The distinction is simple: IOC-recognised sport/governing body ≠ automatic Olympic Games event.
How International Competitive Cheer Works
The ICU runs international cheer championships across multiple divisions. At the 2026 ICU Junior World and World Cheerleading Championships, more than 5,000 athletes from 50 countries competed at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida. The championships included 33 divisions, showing that modern cheer is organised far beyond school sidelines.
Competition formats vary by division, age, federation and event, so one routine length or scoring formula should not be presented as universal.
What About STUNT?
STUNT is a related but separate head-to-head discipline built from cheer skills such as partner stunts, pyramids, tosses, jumps and tumbling. In the United States it has developed its own collegiate competition pathway. NCAA sport-sponsorship data now lists STUNT separately from cheerleading, which is another reason not to use the terms interchangeably.
Are Cheerleaders Athletes?
Competitive cheerleaders train athletic qualities including strength, power, flexibility, balance, timing, spatial awareness and partner coordination. Flyers, bases and spotters have different roles, but all depend on repeatable technique and physical preparation.
That does not require claiming cheerleaders “train harder than football players” or that one sport is inherently tougher than another. Different sports place different demands on athletes.
Is Cheerleading Dangerous?
Competitive cheer has genuine injury risks because stunts, tumbling, baskets and pyramids can involve falls and head or neck trauma. But risk should be measured with sport-specific injury data rather than claims such as “cheerleading is the most dangerous sport.”
Our Most Dangerous Sports evidence guide keeps injury incidence, catastrophic injury, exposure and severity separate. That page also includes an evidence profile for cheerleading instead of relying on old emergency-room figures without context.
Why the Debate Still Exists
Cheerleading developed historically around crowd leadership and support for other teams, so many people still picture only the sideline form. Competitive cheer evolved into something different: a judged contest in which the cheer routine itself determines the result.
The debate therefore makes more sense when the activity is named precisely. Asking whether a sideline squad is “a sport” and asking whether competitive cheer is a sport are not exactly the same question.
Cheerleading at School and College Level
Recognition and sponsorship differ by institution, state, association and competition system. In U.S. college data, NCAA institutions can report cheerleading sponsorship, while STUNT appears as a separate sport category. Individual universities may also run competitive cheer as varsity or athletic programmes under their own structures.
That means the legal, funding or varsity status of a specific cheer programme should be checked with the relevant school or governing association rather than inferred from the global sport definition.
Takeaway
Competitive cheerleading is a sport. It has organised competition, rules, scoring, athletic training and an IOC-recognised international governing body. Sideline cheer can have a different primary purpose, and IOC recognition should not be confused with current inclusion on the Olympic Games medal programme.
For related cheer topics, WU keeps salary and entertainment intents separate rather than folding them into this definition page. See our NFL cheerleader salary guide for compensation questions.
My daughters team cheers on the football players and performs against other cheer squads at the state, regional and national level. I don’t understand why the article would say there is no competition?
Well, as you know there is a large debate on cheerleading to consider a sport or not. Yes, I agree with your comment that some cheer teams compete, but not all do. That’s why critics say cheerleading isn’t a sport because it sees cheerleading as a physical activity. Supporters consider cheerleading a sport that involves the heavy use of athletic talents.
Isn’t that true of drill teams as well? And yet – they are considered a sport????
bruh you suck at typing
so are you implying that throwing 130 lb girls in the air and throwing our bodies upside down and sometimes twisting also isn’t a sport…. lol okay
Cheer is absolutely a sport because it takes training and physical agility……
Well if you wasn’t a idiot you would know that cheering is not all about flips and tricks. We practice just like football and basketball players.And plus half of the audience at the games don’t come to see the players they come to see us cheer.So next time you want to say something stupid think about how cheerleaders get hurt and injured just like the football and basketball players./
However, it’s not a sport. Cheering for another team is basically just showing off that you can do flips and tricks, cheer is NOT required for Basketball to be Basketball or Football to be Football, the crowd does just fine cheering on their own! All cheerleaders do is just scream in sync and flips and tricks, While it is cool, It’s just not worth the injury to do something the crowd can do a lot of encouraging without the distracting outfits and glitter
Take a look into competitive cheer. Although there is the glittery uniforms and makeup, there are new rules starting in a few years that the athletes have to dress more collegiate with minimal makeup, straight slicked back ponytail, and no more gemstones on the uniforms. This is because cheerleading might be in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
competitive cheer is more than dangerous than any other sport the flyers give you their life in your hand and they trust you to catch them and if you don’t well that may just cost you their trust and may cause the flyer to cost their life or even a body part that no one would like to loose!!!
Im so glad to hear this. I am a cheerleader and that is awsome!!
Okay, I disagree because it’s more than what you think. It’s more than a sport. Flyers like myself put their life in someone’s hand to trust them to catch them when they come down and if not that it may cost someone’s life or even body parts that nobody would like to lose.
excuse me, but if you look at competitive cheer leading, it is a sport. They are placed in teams and you are in certain levels to your extent of how good you are at the SPORT. They earn points and they either win in first, second or third place depending on what you cheer for. Yes, as you are younger, cheering for high school or middle school sports, it is not exactly a sport because of the reason you applied. other than that, it is a sport .
EXACTLY, also how can track be considered a sport but not cheer? They run against other people in races it is the same concept except no one is really caring about that debate because everyone bashes cheerleaders.
Go see an all star cheer team, then you can talk. Thanks bye. Most of the time cheer teams don’ t want to cheer at the basketball games or football games but it is required at the school and school teams still compete. Unlike any other sport teams we don’t have subs. If yo get hurt you have to keep going.
Other sports are not needed also, such as track, basketball, football etc. but they are wanted there for entertainment purposes.
I like the way you think… I respect it
we don’t just cheer for games and stuff we compete at competition
The Sideline portion maybe not, but there is miscommunication because cheer leading also has its own competitive portion and its own branch CIF sport called stunt where two teams go head to head.
I think cheerleading is a sport because It takes a lot of dedication and commitment to become a cheerleader its, not something you cant just quit its something you work hard for to get to that point you want to get to.
I think cheerleading is a sport because It takes a lot of dedication and commitment to become a cheerleader its, not something you cant just quit its something you work hard for to get to that point you want to get to.
As far as I know as a all star AND school cheerleader I know that we compete and it’s one of the biggest things we look forward to for the season!
The definition of a sport in the Oxford dictionary is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”. A cheerleader ticks all of these boxes, not even while competing. In competitive cheerleading cheerleaders compete against each other for points, much like an ice skating show. To discount cheerleaders by saying cheerleading isn’t a sport at this point is prideful, and pedantic.
Nicole Ariela