Cheerleading

[Doug1233]

How does cheerleading get recognised before tumbling and DMT?

 

[irichluck21]

Right!
Although I feel as though rhythmic should be out and DMT and tumbling in.

Cheerleading will be interesting. How many countries have to compete at Worlds in order to be eligible as an Olympic sport?

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

You think RHYTHMIC should be cut?! Oh dear. I had to google what DMT is

 

[RedBirdie]

IOC will only allocated a certain number of spots to FIG. if FIG wants to add tumbling and/or DMT, they have to take away spots from WAG, MAG, and maybe rhythmic.

 

[lovegymnasts]

I’m sorry but I don’t get it, cheerleading and breakdancing an Olympic sport?

 

[arabiandoublefront]

Neither do I.

 

[MaryClare]

Why would you want RG cut?!

 

[Dex]

Because it is boring?

 

[Seyonne]

Is cheerleading actually a worldwide sport? It seems so utterly American.

 

[QuietColours]

Other sports have been cut from the Olympics because one or two countries were too dominate. Russia’s earned 10/15 gold medals ever, plus two more going to the USSR and Unified Team. What chance does a non-Russian RG have?

 

[irichluck21]

It is too political. Irina Viner has too much say and power. RG is corrupt.

 

[MaryClare]

Artistic has been corrupt for the majority of its Olympic history…

 

[irichluck21]

Not nearly as much as RG and certainly not post Eastern Bloc/Cold War era.

 

[MaryClare]

You can’t possibly be that naive

 

[irichluck21]

 

[Jack]

I mean, does the group competition really need to exist? I like individual but the group just seems tacky.

At the same time, that shit if anything would be cut for Acro… which SUPER hard pass on that.

 

[falcon9]

This is interesting. I feel like there needs to be a second Olympics so more sports can be added. Or maybe they need to run the summer games every two years… but each sport only runs every 4 years.

As far as I’m concerned… you can’t have enough Olympics.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

Meh. Too much displacement to run every two years.

 

[mnesiptolema]

Hm. Cheerleading is obviously physically difficult, and meets the demands of a sport, but I do agree with the reservations others have. Cheerleading exists in other countries (I know some people who do it here in Australia) but I’m sure the vast majority is done in the U.S. I also struggle to separate cheer as a sport from cheer as a rather weird institution before American football games. As far as I am concerned, cheerleading is the cultural (and messier) version of acrobatic gymnastics, which of the pair is the one which should be in the Olympics.

I feel the same way about skateboarding. I enjoy watching it and I don’t deny its physical difficulty, but it’s primarily a Western cultural phenomenon and street event rather than a formal sport.

If we added everything physically difficult to the IOC sports list, it would be a mile long, and the inclusion/exclusion of different sports in the Olympics would be increasingly arbitrary. It is already difficult to find countries to host the Olympics.

That does raise the question of how we decide what sports are worthy of being in the Olympics. Presumably we prefer a test which is able to evolve with the times. My suggestion would be that the activity must be trained for primarily formal competitive purposes.

 

[Hatsumomo]

They would need to make it significantly safer before even considering giving it a spot. It has a horrid injury rate because they want to do gymnastics without the proper training (despite taking up space at gyms).