The most dangerous sport for girls: Cheerleading

For high school girls and college women, cheerleading is more dangerous than any other sport, according to a new report that adds several previously reported cases of serious injury to a growing list. 

High school cheerleading accounted for 65.1 percent of all catastrophic sports injuries among high school females over the past 25 years, according to an annual report released Monday by the National Sports Center for Catastrophic Injury Research. 


The new estimate is up from 55 percent in last year's study. Research tells us that the true number of cheerleading injuries appears to be greater than had previously thought. And these are not ankle sprains. The report has been fatal, disabling and serious injuries. 

The statistics are equally grim in college, where cheerleading accounted for 66.7 percent of all female sports catastrophic injuries, compared with the previous estimate of 59. 4 percent. 
The revised picture results from a new partnership between the center of the sports injury and the Foundation for National Security of joy, a California-based not for profit body created to promote safety in cheerleading and collect data on injuries. The foundation provided the center with previously reported data. The new data added 30 injury records from high school and college students to 112 in last year's report. 

Catastrophic injuries to female athletes have increased in recent years since the first report was published in 1982. 

"An important factor in this increase has been the change in cheerleading activity, which now consists of gymnastic-type stunts," said Dr. Frederick O. Mueller, principal investigator of the new report and a professor of physical education and sport sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "If these cheerleading activities are not taught by a competent coach and continue to increase in difficulty, catastrophic injuries will remain a part of cheerleaders." 

Less catastrophic injuries are more common and occur at much younger ages, too. Children 5 to 18 admitted to hospitals for cheerleading injuries in the United States increased from 10,900 in 1990 to 22,900 in 2002, according to research published in the journal Pediatrics in 2006. The breakdown: 

Strains / sprains: 52.4 percent 
Soft tissue injuries: 18.4 percent 
Fractures and dislocations: 16.4 percent 
Lacerations / avulsions: 3.8 percent 
Concussions / closed head injuries: 3.5 percent 
Other: 5.5 percent 
The new report released Monday found that between 1982 and 2007, there were 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes, with most (67) occurring in cheerleading. The next most dangerous sports: gymnastics (nine such injuries) and track (seven). 

Among college athletes, there have been 39 of these severe injuries: 26 in cheerleading, followed by three in field hockey and two each in lacrosse and gymnastics. The report also notes that according to the agenda of the NCAA Insurance, 25 percent of the money spent on student athlete injuries in 2005 resulted from cheerleading. 

In 2007, however, two catastrophic injuries to female high school cheerleaders were reported, down from 10 the previous season and the lowest figure since 2001. However, there were three catastrophic injuries to college-level participants, up from one in 2006.