The Most Dangerous Sport?

“Cheerleading is considered the most dangerous female sport right up there with football,” said the head cheer coach at Lakeland High School, Cynthia Peck. 

Cheer is a sport that can be very dangerous for the people on the team. 

According to Peck, some of the more common injuries from cheer involve “ankle sprain, ACL/other knee injury, facial injuries (broken nose), concussions, broken hand/finger, back pain, and shoulder injury.”

Injures in cheer can have a huge mental impact on a person’s mental health. 

Peck mentioned that mental health is very important for cheer. 

“As with any other sport, cheer is mostly mental. If you fall from a stunt and are scared every time you try again, it could potentially affect your ability to stunt again,” Peck said. “If you are a base and a flyer keeps falling on you and injuring you it makes it really hard to want to lift a flyer. That base can be so in their head about being afraid of being hurt again that they can’t focus on what they need to do.”

Many people in cheer receive fairly severe injuries while participating in cheer competitions. 

Students like Jillian Smith, a sophomore at Lakeland have experienced cheer-related injuries.

“When once performing a stunt, I had my grips wrong on a new skill I was learning and a girl fell on top of me. I got a concussion, black eye, and a scar under my eye.” 

Although not all injuries can be prevented, just like many other sports, Peck takes as many precautions as possible in order to keep the cheer team safe. 

“We always use the appreciate performing surface for the skills we are doing (think Mats). We focus on skill techniques and training. We stunt at the correct skill level.” 

Megan Cox, the athletic trainer at Lakeland High School also thinks the cheer team is being very cautious.

“The primary objective with returning (from an injury) is to ensure that the cheerleader is safe to perform everything that is required and that they are safe to stunt as well, to protect their teammates. In most sports, athletes have to focus on if they’re safe and able to do their own requirements, but in cheer, they have to ensure that they are able to lift their teammates as well, and keep them safe.”

Smith said, “It’s not one person’s fault in all reality. It’s no one’s fault, accidents happen and our coaches are very careful with our injuries and do the best they can to prevent them. Cheer is a contact sport and a lot of people do get injuries just like football or wrestling.” 

Cheer is a sport that not many people realize how dangerous it can actually be.