Wimps lift weights, Cheerleaders lift people

Cheerleading as a sport is completely misunderstood.

They don’t  imply prance around with pom poms to overly-girly music and that their only purpose is to support other teams.

They work their asses off and sweat just as much as out rugby lads.

Yet the SU has rejected their application.

Smiling through my fear

Competitive cheerleading is in fact considered the most dangerous sport for girls (by Huffington post, Telegraph, Metro, Medical Daily to name a few) causing two thirds of severe sports injuries in the US.

Edinburgh’s sports club with the highest rate at picking up girls…

The reason the SU have rejected the Cheerleading club’s application for Change of Club status and funding is because of section 12.2.2 of the ‘Edinburgh University Sports Union Constitution’ which states:

“The Executive Committee will consider for approval the application of any Club that meets the above criteria. An application may be dismissed if the sport in question is not recognised as such by BUCS or sport Scotland. Any Club approved before the 2007/08 season (see Bye-Laws) which does not satisfy this condition is allowed to retain its full membership.”

FOLO: ‘flyers only live once’

National champions 2012, 2013, 2014 and already ‘Grand Champions’ in 2015 beating out 62 other universities (Including Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Loughborough) at the UK Nationals it’s hard to see why the Sports union do not consider them a valuable asset.

And this is coming from an entirely student run club because they cannot afford a coach unlike the majority of Universities they compete against.

SO MANY TROPHIES

In 2013 they won a bid to compete in America (the big leagues) but were unable to attend due to lack of funding and the cost this would incur personally to each member of the club.

Surely, the Sports Union should be promoting excellence in sport and not deterring it?