Federal Judge: Cheerleading Is Not A Sport

Sorry, Sue Sylvester. Apologies, Torrance Shipman. The Hartford Courant reports, "A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Quinnipiac University has discriminated against female student-athletes by denying them the same opportunities to participate in sports programs as men." Last year, when faced with budget issues, Quinnipiac cut men's golf, men's outdoor track, and women's volleyball, but established "competitive cheerleading as a new varsity sport" to keep the school Title IX compliant. Underhill wrote, "Competitive cheer may, some time in the future, qualify as a sport under Title IX; today, however, the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for student." The women's volleyball team, which had sued, is rejoicing.

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By Jen Chung in News on July 22, 2010 11:45 AM

Comments [rss]

Såkandulæredet

Just because something is very physically demanding and many times dangerous doesn't make it a sport. Ballet is not a sport either, but no one would suggest it requires no skills. Trapeze artistry isn't a sport either, no one would suggest that's not physically demanding. Cheerleading can have competitions however so this is not so cut and dry but I'd still say it leans closer to performance art competition than sport.

tingo

While I agree with the basic premise that females are discriminated against, I don't agree that competitive cheerleading isn't a sport.

Tell the high school cheerleaders with broken necks that it's not a sport.

texinyc

Tricky, because the school is obviously in the wrong.

But cheer leading is a pretty physically challenging activity in which more girls are injured on average than football players or any other sport.

There have been cases where students who were permanently disabled while performing in a cheer leading squad at their school were denied compensation for unsafe conditions because what they were doing wasn't categorized as a 'sport'.

ANGRYGOD11

The word cheer-leading doomed this case.

Maybe if they changed the name to JUMPING AROUND IN A MINIDRESS WITH A PLASTIC SMILE STUCK ON THE FACE FOR APPLAUSE.

fuboy

"Wait, you want to be on the cheerleading squad to prove to a girl you're NOT a looser?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, things have just changed since I was in high school."