More than 10,000 cheerleaders competed at the All Star National Cheerleading Championships on the Gold Coast last month. Picture: Jerad Williams

“Most people have genuinely have never heard of cheerleading being a sport,” Ms Fordcye, 22, told news.com.au.

She’s one of the 19 Queensland Cheer Elite squad members who made the finals of the World Cheerleading Championships in May.

“If they’ve never seen proper cheerleaders perform, they don’t take it seriously. But all it takes to change their minds is one video of a routine. After watching that, people are like, ‘What these guys are doing is incredibly athletic. This is a legitimate sport’.”

But the decision by the International Olympic Committee to give “provisional recognition” to cheerleading, meaning the sport can apply to become part of the Olympic Games’ sports program after three years, was met with scepticism.

“Cheerleading is set to become an Olympic sport. So give me a ‘W’. Give me a ‘T’. And, please ... give me an ‘F’,” wrote The Daily Telegraph’s Nick Walshaw.

“So forget faster, stronger, higher. How about bustier, bubblier, blonder.”

The reaction was similar on social media.

“Shaking your pom poms is NOT a sport!!” one person said on Facebook.

“Next it’ll be pole dancing,” another wrote.

A performer at the All Star National Cheerleading Championships. Picture: Jerad WilliamsSource:News Corp Australia

But the elite cheerleading community has hit back at its critics today, arguing ignorance is the only thing standing in the way of it being accepted.

“People are used to watching sideline-type cheerleading in the NRL, but competition cheerleading is nothing like that,” said Australian All Star Cheerleading Federation executive director Steven James, who founded the organisation ten years ago.

“What the girls do at the NRL or NFL is really just dancing,” said Danielle Jimenez, managing director of Starlets Cheerleading, one of the biggest cheerleading gyms in Australia.

“I’m not taking anything away from them and what they do. But they are just dancing. I wouldn’t call it a sport.”

Competitive cheerleadings teams perform two-and-a-half minute routines in front of a panel of judges, who score based on difficulty and how successfully teams complete all the elements.

Elite teams train up to 20 hours a week, perfecting their tumbles, human pyramids, flips and “stunts”, a move where the “flyer” is thrown up in the air and caught by a “baser” or “spotter”.

“These are elite athletes,” said Ms Jimenez. “What they’re doing on that floor is a range of stunting, tumbling and dancing. They train for hours and hours every week to put these routines together.It’s extremely difficult.”

Cheerleaders from Queensland Cheer Elite. Picture: Elise SearsonSource:News Corp Australia

She says critics of the sport have “no idea what they’re talking about.”

“It’s like saying you don’t like a type of food even when you haven’t tried it. Don’t comment on our sport if you have no idea about what it, if you’ve never been to a competition,” she said.

“Maybe these people should come out and train with us for a week and actually see what it’s all about. It is a sport, it’s intense and it’s dangerous. It’s just frustrating when people don’t realise that. It requires the same amount of strength, agility and hours that gymnastics does.”

Ms Fordyce initially trained as a gymnast before turning to cheerleading at age 14.

“The criticism is extremely frustrating, as somebody who have been doing it for such a long time. You can get people to realise there’s an incredibly high level of athleticism involved. It’s really hard to be good,” she said.

Much of the sport’s challenge in being taken seriously can be attributed to the uniforms. But there’s a practical reason for those tight, short outfits.

“When you’re flipping and twisting and people are lifting you, if you’re wearing pants and a long top that’s quite unsafe,” Ms Fordyce said. “You can’t have baggy clothing wrapping around your face when you’re doing a flip.”

Members of the Queensland Cheer Elite squad perform at the All Star State Cheerleading Championships.Source:Supplied

Those who argue cheerleading sexualises young girls are misinformed, says Mr James.

“There are no mandatory requirements for uniforms. Some teams compete in shorts and T-shirts and other people have custom uniforms. There are no rules, they can wear whatever they want, they have to be covered, that’s all,” he said.

Junior competitors - those aged 14 and under - are not allowed to wear crop tops. Open age cheerleaders must not have too big a gap between their top and their skirt, and are required to wear shorts underneath.

“Those rules are set by the federation. Internationally, if you want to compete at a sanctioned event you have to wear that,” Ms Jimenez said. “I don’t see the difference in that and watching a gymnast who is showing her full legs and her bottom.”

Olympic audiences fawned over the athleticism and power of American gymnasts Laurie Hernandez and Simone Biles, who landed a coveted Nike endorsement deal post-Rio.

Cheerleaders too could one day become household names, says Ms Fordyce. And there is some support: “Cheerleading is a sport. Get over it” read the headline on a BBC op-ed from England’s national team coach Tori Rubin.

Ms Fordyce is hopeful others will begin to see it that way, too.

“All the cheer community wants is for people to take us seriously and realise the amount of hard work and effort it takes to get where we are,” she said.

“Stop separating us from everyone else. We really aren’t that different from other sports.”

rebecca.sullivan@news.com.au