A cheerleader performs during the women's basketball European Championship qualifying round game between Slovakia and Poland in Riga June 11, 2009.

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 mishaps¹.

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 Chapel² 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 incurred³ during participation⁴ 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 fatalities⁵, 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."

最新一项针对大学和高中学校体育运动和啦啦队重伤事故的报告指出，近些年来，啦啦队安全保障措施已使重伤事故数量有所降低。

但到目前为止，与其它体育项目相比，啦啦队所导致的严重和致命伤患仍然比较多。

研究人员早就知道啦啦队运动有多危险，但是以往的受伤记录保存不善，直到最近才有所改观。去年，对记录跟踪系统的更新显示，在1982年至2007年间，高中女运动员中发生了103起致命、致残或重伤事故，而其中大多数（67起）发生在啦啦队员身上。体操（9起）和田径（7起）分列第二、三大危险项目。

北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的国家严重体育伤患研究中心于今日公布了第26期关于此问题的年度报告。最新的数据是从2007至2008学年度的大学和高中男女体育项目中统计而来的。该报告将严重伤患定义为在参与体育项目期间遭受的任何严重或致命伤害。

最新数据是自1982年秋季至2008年春季以来共26年间统计而来的。

在此期间，共发生了1116起严重伤患事件，其中高中和大学分别占905起和211起。

高中体育事故中包括152起致命事故，379起非致命事故，以及374起严重事故。大学体育事故中包括22起致命事故，63起非致命事故，以及126起严重事故。

在所有女生体育项目中，啦啦队引发的事故占高中重伤事故的65.2%，在大学中这一比例为70.5%。

在2007至2008学年度中，啦啦队引发的事故数量略有下降。

研究报告的作者弗雷德里克.O.穆勒说：“虽然进展缓慢，但人们越来越重视啦啦队安全问题了。继续收集所有类型的啦啦队受伤记录，将有望证实目前采取的安全措施对于减少事故发生起到积极作用。”