Can Cheerleading be Considered a Sport?

‘A game without cheerleaders is a world without spirit’ expostulates cheerleaders. When we cogitate on cheerleading, we visualize scores of colors invading our mind, dancing with unity and launching each other in the air while flapping their pom-poms like crazed lunatics. Cheerleading as an activity has always been considered as a means to garner support for a particular team galvanizing the crowd and the players to persevere and succeed in the game. However, as emotional support becomes more competitive with competitions being set-up for the activity, should cheerleading be considered a sport?
This question has brought a lot of controversy to the sporting world as many athletes question the legitimacy of cheerleading as a sport due to their perception that it is relatively lacking in adroitness and prowess. Unlike sports, cheerleading is about precision and unison. Sports ,like football, require skills mastered over periods of time such as dribbling, shooting and defending. This is hence why cheerleading is not considered a sport.
Cheerleaders get thoroughly offended when they hear these statements. Cheerleaders like dance groups put days on end practicing and ensuring that their performance is flawless and impeccable. Thus, to say that their activity is lacking in effort is mind boggling for them. Although cheerleading is seemingly lacking in skill, it takes a lot of conviction to encourage a crowd of people to be more open of their support of their team. This along with the need to be perfect ,thus, shows why the activity should be considered a sport.

Remarkably, there have been some cheerleaders who wish for the exclusion of cheerleading as a sport as it defeats it sports. In the accepted definition of sports, it mentions that there is a need for a competitive nature in the activity. The main objective of cheerleading is to spur crowds to be more invigorated and support the team with enthusiasm and not entirely to be better than the opposite teams cheerleaders. Some cheerleaders are forlorn that as time progresses after the consideration of it as a sport, the main objective of cheerleading may be lost into oblivion.
Despite all this, there was celebration in the cheerleading community as when the IOC, International Olympic Committee voted in favor of having the activity be considered as a sport ,after much deliberation, in the 2020 Japan Olympics (Now 2021 Summer Olympics) along with 3 other additions in the category of sports. With the consideration of cheerleading as a sport, more funds are able to be passed on to the activity causing people aspiring to be cheerleaders to finally have a future career as an athlete!
In conclusion, whether or not cheerleading should be considered a sport is up to debate but with major sporting events such as the Olympics accepting it as such, the answer seems quite clear.