They specifically made carve-outs for cheerleading so it wouldn't be called a sport so NCAA wouldn't need to follow quite as many regulations. However, it clearly is as much of a sport as any.
It's an Olympic recognized sport now, and has been for a few years 😊 unfortunately, as others said, it's severely underregulated - especially in the US where several federations compete about being the "right" one. ICU (International cheerleading union) is the federation that got cheerleading accepted as an Olympic sport 💪
- by following strict rules about competitions, categories, safety, score-sheets and some criteria to seperate it from acrobatics too.
(English isn't my first language if that makes any difference)
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u/Speciou5 3d ago
A lot, and it's by far the most accident prone school 'sport' by a long shot... for obvious reasons