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Cheerleading is by far the most perilous sport for female athletes in high school and college, accounting for as much as two-thirds of severe school-sports injuries over the past 25 years, according to a new report. Yet cheerleading remains one of the least-regulated sports, despite more than 95,000 high school girls and 2,000 boys signing up for spirit squads nationwide each year...
...data from the University of North Carolina's National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research (NCCSI) catalogs 67 fatal or life-threatening injuries due to cheerleading since 1982. By contrast, there were nine catastrophic injuries in gymnastics, the sport second most prone to such incidents. Indeed, cheerleaders suffered more injuries than all other school athletes combined - about 65% of severe injuries on the high school level and 67% on the college level. These findings confirm what many in this sport have worried about for years: as cheerleading has grown more competitive, athletes are willing to take greater risks. And because...
...Only about 20 states recognize cheerleading as a sport, which generally means there is less oversight than girls' soccer or basketball. But some states are now being pushed to expand regulation. One Massachusetts legislator, for example, is calling for the state to classify cheerleading as a sport, which would lead to codifying cheerleading training and competition safety practices. The push for legislation comes after two cheerleading fatalities in the state. In 2005, Ashley Burns, a 14-year-old from Medford, Mass., died after being thrown into the air and landing on her stomach, causing her spleen to rupture. Another Massachusetts...
...Such incidents have made safety an increasing priority within the sport, and these efforts appear to be paying off. Total catastrophic injuries went from 11 in 2005, including one fatality, to five injuries with no fatalities in 2006, according to the report. Part of that success comes from more coaches getting certified - about 30% of the 70,000 cheerleading coaches in the U.S. are now certified, according to the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators. The certification course touches on key medical and legal issues and trains coaches on how to spot squad members properly during routines...
...surprise gold medal in the 110-m hurdles in Athens four years ago, Liu morphed from amiable jock into national stud. In 2006 he shattered the event's world record with his 12.88 time. As an Asian athlete competing in a klieg-light track event - not an international sideline sport like badminton or table tennis or synchronized diving - Liu came to personify the Chinese nation's rising ambitions. The pressure for a golden repeat in China's Games must have been overwhelming...