Cheerleading: Perkiness Leads to DEATH

Parks's story is among the cautionary tales emerging from the increasingly popular world of cheerleading, which has evolved from prim sideline squads leading fans in the school fight song into glitzy, high-intensity, acrobatic competitive extravaganzas. Despite a sharp increase in the number and types of cheerleading squads and the complexity of their routines, cheerleading is not officially considered a sport at most high schools and universities. As a result, it's not subject to the safety regulations that apply to gymnastics, for example.

"When people think about cheerleading, they think about the girls with the pompoms jumping up and down," said Frederick O. Mueller, a leading sports injury expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "They don't think about someone being thrown 25 feet in the air and performing flips with twists and other risky stunts we see today."

A growing body of evidence indicates cheerleading has become one of the riskiest athletic activities for women, leaving a long trail of sprained wrists, twisted ankles, damaged knees, strained backs -- and sometimes much worse.

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