I was working under the assumption that cheerleaders were just a bunch of teenage girls doing dancing at a sports game. I never realised it was big business.
We do. Not usually at sports games but it's a decent sized sport in a lot of universities these days with national competitions etc.
I didn't know a lot about it until recently I watched a Netflix series on it (Cheer). Like any other team sport there are a variety of positions with different skillsets necessary. The athleticism required is pretty incredible.
Decent risk of injury at the high-levels - so you have to be very fit.
Same point as soccer: some people like it.
That's part of what they do. The other part is competing on a high level based on the athleticism and (I'm guessing) choreography of a given teams presentation. Similar to gymnastics but usually with a team and different genre of music.
There was an article posted recently to HN titled "Cheerleading, Monopolies and Sexual Predators" that gives some details about just how competitive cheerleading is, as well as the problems to the safety and security of its participants due to the monopoly power of a single company.
Isn't that this post?
I'm American, by the way.
All humans have crazy, and believe in explicitly made-up things. The best believe in Justice or Mercy, some both at the same time. Many more believe in King and Country, Capitalism, or Counter-terrorism, some all three.
Don't football clubs have fan groups that meet up and plan the chants that will be uses during a match? That is roughly what the "classic" cheerleaders (like George W. Bush) do. At some point this also developed into an independent sport, which is like a team gymnastics routine.
Apparently three other US presidents were cheerleaders, too, but finding out which ones seems to require opening clickbait.