CHEERLEADERS, those queens of the American high school, are paying for their power and popularity in broken bones. New research says the girls in short skirts are more likely to be injured than the footballers they cheer on.

While the boys on the field are protected by helmets and safety regulations, the lightly dressed girls on the sidelines are increasingly expected to perform circus-like stunts, including three-tier human pyramids and hurling each other 20ft or more above the ground.

As a result, according to research from the University of North Carolina, nearly 25,000 cheerleaders went to hospital last year — five times as many as in 1980, and more than in every other outdoor activity for girls combined, including tough sports such as lacrosse and hockey.

Frank Mueller, director of the university’s national centre for catastrophic sports injury research, said cheerleaders used to face nothing worse than twisted ankles. Now their injuries include smashed skulls and fractured spines when “fliers” land on top of their teammates or crash through their cradle of hands to the ground.

“It has changed from a small town tradition into big business with an emphasis on spectacular and dangerous stunts performed for televised competitions,” he said. “But in many schools and colleges there is a lack of safety guidelines.”

A report from the University of California Los Angeles claims that cheering is more dangerous than American football. “There are fewer head injuries but many more broken bones,” said Jean Phillips, a researcher.

“It has moved from high-kicking to, at its best, Olympic-standard gymnastics.”

Leading the cheers, which started with a rebel yell at a Minnesota college game in 1898, has many proud champions, not all of them female: George W Bush was a cheerleader at school, as were Halle Berry and Renée Zellweger. Enthusiasm for “extreme” cheerleading surged four years ago when Kirsten Dunst starred in Bring It On, a teen comedy about rival teams that would do anything to win.

Some parents of America’s 3.5m cheerleaders are unnerved by the ever more daring stunts. Last November Peter Buczek of Indiana watched his daughter Ashlee, 15, rise 20ft into the air and then hit the ground, shattering her skull. “I had been having nightmares about it and then it happened. And it happens a lot more than we hear about,” said Buczek, whose daughter is recovering.

The serious injuries do not scare the stream of would-be cheerleaders. “It’s the pinnacle of social achievement in almost every school in this country,” said Natalie Guice Adams, co-author of Cheerleader! An American Icon.

“It’s about sex and popularity. Every girl understands the power of the short skirt.”

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