Kristi Yamaoka is an all-American heroine. On 5 March, while cheerleading for Southern Illinois University鈥檚 basketball team, the 18-year-old fell from the top of a human pyramid. Concussed and with cracked vertebrae, she carried on her cheerleading gestures as she was stretchered from the court.
As cheerleaders perform ever more spectacular stunts, such injuries are on the increase. A team led by statistician Brenda Shields of the Columbus Children鈥檚 Research Institute in Ohio is launching a database to determine whether particular stunts put girls at serious risk of injury. Close attention will be paid to the gymnastic routines of 鈥淎ll Star鈥� cheerleading teams, which compete against each other in special competitions, rather than supporting sports teams. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e the ones you see flying through the air,鈥� says Shields.
In January, Shields revealed in the journal Pediatrics (vol 117, p 122) that 208,800 children were treated in US emergency rooms for cheerleading-related injuries between 1990 and 2002. The frequency of injuries seemed to have doubled over this period, but Shields says she doesn鈥檛 yet know why. The new database should provide the answers, and may form the basis for new guidelines if some stunts turn out to be particularly dangerous. 鈥淎ll the major cheerleading organisations have endorsed the study,鈥� Shields says.
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