THE president of the UK Cheerleading Sport Association (UKCA), Pat Hawkins says they are “delighted” that has cheerleading has been given provisional recognition as an Olympic sport.
All Star Cheerleading has been given the opportunity to apply to compete in the 2024 Olympics. In recent years cheerleading has grown rapidly and according to the International Cheer Union there are 4.5 million registered cheerleaders in the world.
Pat Hawkins told us that in Greater Manchester alone “we have thousands of athletes attending weekly sessions and we run four national championship events in Manchester every year.”
These events can see an excess of ten thousand cheerleaders of all ages and backgrounds.
Despite its new status and a recognised sport cheerleading is still a controversial topic as many don’t believe that it has difficulty and training to be considered a competitive sport.
Hawkins however deems that cheerleading is “incredibly challenging, exciting, and physically demanding. At the highest levels of the sport you see very technically complicated displays that are jaw-dropping in their execution and presentation. For these reasons, the International Olympic Committee has made a great discussion by choosing to work with cheerleading”.
Phoebe Jobling, Salford Sirens member believes that cheerleading is harder than it looks saying “people usually just think it’s dancing around with pom-poms, I did too before I started but it’s actually so difficult.”
The president of UKCA believes that this will bring many opportunities to the sport.
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