When people think of cheerleading, they often think of the happy, fun gymnastics sport that involves  spirited dance and cheering for different teams to add more enthusiasm to a game. But to cheerleaders and even health professionals, it’s a sport where one false move when creating a pyramid made of people could be disastrous. Some people might call it a sport even more dangerous than football. Whether or not it is that dangerous, it cannot be denied that cheer has a whole box of perils in store for anyone who participates.

According to The Journal of Pediatrics, “Two-thirds of catastrophic injuries in female athletes are from this sport alone,” and cheerleading was ranked the most dangerous sport for females in 2013. Concussion rates have multiplied since cheerleading has gone from being an activity for sports such as football, to a competitive sport. Due to the amount of people it takes to complete one stunt such as a high flip or a pyramid, one false move could send everyone toppling and could serious injury.

Surprisingly, not much has been done to prevent these accidents, or to help to preserve the well-being of cheerleaders when they do occur. While there are people researching how to combat the negative effects of cheer, they only have so much information to use in order to create technology to help cheerleaders.

There are those who do have some ways to lessen the dangers of cheerleading.

“Take time to get stronger and practice,” stated Jenna Mourn, a student athlete who had sustained multiple injuries from the sport.

Cheerleading is definitely a fun, light-hearted sport, but it requires no less attention than any other sport. Injuries are very easy to come by in a teamwork based gymnastics sport, and they must be treated with extreme caution.