Cheerleading safety efforts have led to modest reductions in the number of serious injuries in recent years, according to a new report about college and high school sports and cheerleading mishaps.
But cheerleading continues to cause more serious and deadly injuries by far than other sports.
Researchers have long known how dangerous cheerleading is, but records were poorly kept until recently. An update to the record-keeping system last year found that between 1982 and 2007, there were 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes, with the vast majority (67) occurring in cheerleading. The next most dangerous sports: gymnastics (nine such injuries) and track (seven).
Today, the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released its 26th annual report on the topic. The latest figures are from the 2007-2008 academic year for college and high school sports, male and female. The report defines catastrophic injuries as any severe or fatal injury incurred during participation in the sport.
The new numbers are for the 26-year period from the fall of 1982 through the spring of 2008:
There were 1,116 direct catastrophic injuries in high school (905) and college sports (211).
High school sports were associated with 152 fatalities, 379 non-fatal injuries and 374 serious injuries. College sports accounted for 22 fatalities, 63 non-fatal injuries and 126 serious injuries.
Cheerleading accounted for 65.2 percent of high school and 70.5 percent of college catastrophic injuries among all female sports.
The number of cheerleading injuries fell slightly in the 2007-08 academic year.
"Progress has been slow, but there has been an increased emphasis on cheerleading safety," said the study's author Frederick O. Mueller. "Continued data collection on all types of cheerleading injuries will hopefully show that these safety measures are working to reduce injuries."
最新一項針對大學和高中學校體育運動和啦啦隊重傷事故的報告指出，近些年來，啦啦隊安全保障措施已使重傷事故數量有所降低。
但到目前為止，與其它體育項目相比，啦啦隊所導致的嚴重和致命傷患仍然比較多。
研究人員早就知道啦啦隊運動有多危險，但是以往的受傷記錄保存不善，直到最近才有所改觀。去年，對記錄跟蹤系統的更新顯示，在1982年至2007年間，高中女運動員中發生了103起致命、致殘或重傷事故，而其中大多數(67起)發生在啦啦隊員身上。體操(9起)和田徑(7起)分列第二、三大危險項目。
北卡羅來納大學教堂山分校的國家嚴重體育傷患研究中心於今日公布了第26期關於此問題的年度報告。最新的數據是從2007至2008學年度的大學和高中男女體育項目中統計而來的。該報告將嚴重傷患定義為在參與體育項目期間遭受的任何嚴重或致命傷害。
最新數據是自1982年秋季至2008年春季以來共26年間統計而來的。
在此期間，共發生了1116起嚴重傷患事件，其中高中和大學分別佔905起和211起。
高中體育事故中包括152起致命事故，379起非致命事故，以及374起嚴重事故。大學體育事故中包括22起致命事故，63起非致命事故，以及126起嚴重事故。
在所有女生體育項目中，啦啦隊引發的事故佔高中重傷事故的65.2%，在大學中這一比例為70.5%。
在2007至2008學年度中，啦啦隊引發的事故數量略有下降。
研究報告的作者弗雷德裡克.O.穆勒說：「雖然進展緩慢，但人們越來越重視啦啦隊安全問題了。繼續收集所有類型的啦啦隊受傷記錄，將有望證實目前採取的安全措施對於減少事故發生起到積極作用。」