Cheerleading and Muay Thai granted provisional recognition as Olympic sports

ThestigGT999

ThestigGT999

ThestigGT999

Soldato
Joined
30 Aug 2009
Posts
8,108
Location
one nation under sony
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics...bc_sport&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=sport

Cheerleading and the martial art of Muay Thai have received provisional recognition as Olympic sports.

The two sports will receive $25,000 (£19,700) in annual funding from the International Olympic Committee.

They can apply to become part of the Olympic Games sports programme after three years.

"Cheerleading is a sport with growing popularity. It has a strong youth focus and we noted that," said IOC sports director Kit McConnell.

The international cheer union (ICU) has more than 100 national federations and nearly 4.5 million registered athletes.

Muay Thai is an organisation with 135 national federations, nearly 60 are recognised by their national Olympic committees and nearly 400,000 registered athletes.

The addition of the two would take the number of recognised Olympic sports to 37.

Tokyo, hosts of the 2020 Games, will have surfing, sport climbing and karate among the six new sports they have included.

Becoming part of the Olympic Games can take seven years, but host cities are allowed to introduce sports of their choice for a one-off appearance.

What is competitive cheerleading?

Competitive or "All-Star" cheerleading is very different to what you see at American football or basketball.

Teams are judged on gymnastic tumbles, dance, stunts, pyramids and overall impression and compete against other squads of similar ability.

It is daring, exhilarating, physically demanding and at times, the most dangerous sporting discipline for young women.
Click to expand...

Muay Thai might be fun to watch
 
Moses said:
Cheerleading isn't a ridiculous shout when you have the range of gymnastics events we currently do. Eg. when floor and rhythmic gymnastics are there...

Top level cheerleading is actually quite impressive to watch, although I've no idea how popular it is around the world/if enough countries have the participation needed to be competitive.
Click to expand...
It's because of what it is and why.
 
My usual criteria is that if there isn't already a well recognised world title to win then it's fine (so let's please dump golf and tennis). But cheerleading is too much choreography driven for me to be a sport that is won with physical prowess
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom