Study - Cheerleading Accounts for Most Sports-Related Injuries

Cheerleaders perform the "Toe Touch Basket Toss"

Cheerleading accounted for two-thirds of sports-related deaths or serious injuries to high school girls over the past 25 years, according to a new nationwide study.

August 13, 2008 

John Boccacino staff writer
Kat Glass McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Cheerleading accounted for two-thirds of sports-related deaths or serious injuries to high school girls over the past 25 years, according to a new nationwide study.

It's because cheerleading increasingly requires complex — and dangerous — gymnastics stunts, said report author Frederick Mueller, who directs the University of North Carolina's National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research in Chapel Hill.

"Many of the coaches weren't ready for that kind of change and weren't ready to teach those kinds of activities" when cheerleading changed from pompoms and chant-leading, Mueller said.

However, local cheerleading coaches, participants and coordinators say the numbers are blown out of proportion and don't reflect the emphasis placed on safety at high school competitions. As Section V's (Rochester, New York) cheerleading chairperson, Joanne Small has seen her share of tumbling, twisting and gravity-defying maneuvers at competitions during her 12-year tenure.

After traveling across the state and seeing how other cheerleaders perform, Small is proud of the safety standards in Section V, which has 110 to 114 teams and approximately 2,200 varsity cheerleaders for the football season.

Teams follow the National Federation of State High School Associations' rulebook, which details what moves are allowed during competitions.

"Section V is definitely the safest in the state; we don't push a required level of difficulty on the teams, where they might be performing intense flips or stunts to try and one-up the other squads," said Small, a Geneseo resident.

Over the past decade, varsity squads have gotten away from the traditional pomp-and-spirit style of cheerleading to spotlight more gymnastics during their two-minute, 30-second performances, said Laurie Miller, Hilton's 18-year varsity coach.

Two years ago, mats became mandatory for all routines, an overdue safety precaution, according to Miller, whose athletes practice once a week with the school's gymnastics coach to get a grasp on the high-flying maneuvers being incorporated into their routines.

"These new mats give when an athlete falls, especially with their ankles and knees, and they're good at preventing shin splints," said Miller, of Irondequoit.

"Cheerleading puts a lot of wear and tear on these kids' legs, knees and backs. Safety is always first. You can't be limping around for the rest of your life because you loved your sport."

Today's cheerleaders perform stunts like the basket toss, in which a cheerleader is thrown 20 feet in the air and then caught in her teammates' interlocked arms, or the helicopter toss, in which a cheerleader makes a 180-degree, helicopter-blade rotation after being flung in the air.

By Paige Kelly's math, more girls doing more-complex stunting and tumbling equals a pretty dangerous sport. "Cheerleading is even more dangerous than getting tackled in football because one little thing goes wrong that's out of your control and you can fall and mess up your ankle," said Paige, 16, a Hilton senior and cheerleader for nine years.

"Judges are looking for more difficulty in your routine and there's more pressure to pull off flashy moves. More girls are making more stunts and twisting in the air more. It's definitely more dangerous."

Last year's rate for catastrophic injuries in cheerleading was two injuries per 100,000 athletes. For football, it was 3.2 injuries per 100,000 athletes, Mueller said. One hundred and three female high school students suffered sports-related catastrophic injuries — deaths, permanent disabilities and serious injuries such as skull fractures — between 1982 and 2007. Of that number, 67 were cheerleaders. Second was gymnastics with nine injuries.

The sports research center compiled data from coaches, athletic directors, a national clipping service and the National Cheer Safety Foundation of Irvine, Calif., an organization for cheerleaders' parents.

Source:   Rochester Democrat and Chronicle