Cheerleading Injuries on the Rise

April 2, 2007 — -- As high school and college cheerleaders face increased pressure to perform gravity-defying leaps and flips, they are becoming vulnerable to permanent injury -- even death.

Cheerleading is one of the fastest growing high school sports in America, getting more than 4 million young women jumping, flipping and cheering every single year, but of all the serious injuries to female high school and college athletes, more than half were from cheerleading.

Jessica Smith, an 18-year-old cheerleader at Sacramento City College, broke her neck in two places as she performed a complicated cheerleading flip during practice last October -- ending her dream of becoming a professional cheerleader.

"When I landed on the ground, I heard a crack and I started screaming," Smith said.

"Our lives have changed dramatically," Jessica's mother Christine Smith said. "Knowing that Jessica is not sleeping through the night breaks my heart. She's got a long road ahead of her."

With higher pyramids and moves like the "basket," a backflip in the air requiring a minimum of two spotters, cheerleading accidents are increasing and the results can be devastating.

More than half of all catastrophic injuries to female athletes are attributed to cheerleading.

"Ten, 15 years ago they were basically standing leading cheers on the sidelines. They weren't throwing each other up in the air. They weren't forming tall pyramids, and the injuries that can result are severe if they fall from a high height," said Brenda Sheilds, coordinator of the Injury Research Center at Columbus Children's Hospital.

The number of cheerleaders being treated in emergency rooms increased 100 percent between 1990 and 2002.

Rechelle Sneath was living her dream -- cheerleading at San Jose State -- until January 2004, when she says her coach convinced her to do a double basket, a move she had never tried before.

"I had asked for an additional spotter and she said I didn't need it," Sneath said.

She fell on the second flip.

Sneath is now paralyzed from the waist down.

Not all accidents end so tragically. In March of last year, Kristi Yamaoka, a cheerleader at Southern Illinois, lost her balance and fell off a human pyramid.

As she was being wheeled off the court she suddenly began cheering with her arms -- much to the delight of the crowd. Although she fractured her spine Yamaoka made a full recovery.