NYT reporting that “Cheerleaders suffer more catastrophic injuries than athletes in all other sports combined.”
Of 104 catastrophic injuries sustained by female high school and college athletes from 1982 to 2005 — head and spinal trauma that occasionally led to death — more than half resulted from cheerleading, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. All sports combined did not surpass cheerleading.
As a rugby player long past his prime, such as it was, I feel somewhat ashamed.
Won’t someone save the cheerleaders by reminding them, us fellers only care that they wear the uniform?
What’s wierd is the competitive cheerleading, whose audience consists quite literally only of the moms of said girls, has become a huge draw and motivation nationwide. Most of these i’m sure are due to the extreme stunt routines cheerleaders perform, and the rather strenous size requirements that these stunts impose (things like 5’ 2" cheerleaders being considered too tall). If you toss a waifish girl 12’ in the air and let her fall onto concrete, bad things are going to happen.
