Flying without a net: Cheer injuries on rise Activity more dangerous than any other sport for young girls
May 19, 2009: With cheerleading stunts getting more daring, devastating injuries are increasing. Laura Jackson broke her neck while attempting a back tuck at cheer tryouts. She’s now a quadriplegic, adjusting to a new life on the sidelines.
Cheerleading — not basketball, not softball, not even field hockey or ice hockey — is by far the most dangerous sport for girls. Cheer accounts for 65 percent of all catastrophic injuries in girls’ high school athletics, shows a recent report by the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina.
That’s especially striking considering cheerleaders make up just about 12 percent of the 3 million female high school athletes in the U.S.
So, what do we do? Kids never recognize the risks of anything they do, so do we parents step in and restrict or stop them? Some of the cheer stunts are beyond what is necessary to exemplify cheer skill.
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