Main content

How can cheerleading improve its diversity?

Caroline Nyemi-Tei founded Cheer from Head to Toe to address poor representation in cheerleading and speaks about a video which documents participant experiences of racism.

Caroline Nyemi-Tei founded Cheer from Head to Toe to address poor representation in the sport of cheerleading.

She told Sportshour presenter Caroline Barker about a new video she released documenting athlete and coaches鈥 experiences of racism in the industry, and how the sport can become more inclusive: 鈥淚 would like more of a reflection of people who not just look like me, but people of colour reflected in the advertising and the higher levels where they make really important decisions.

"Everyone is very unique, and somethings that I might think about, someone else might not cross their mind. That鈥檚 how things get missed, because we don鈥檛 have all the right people in the seats sharing their opinions. If we only have one set of people, you鈥檙e only getting one thought process.

"I don鈥檛 think people mean to be insensitive, but if they haven鈥檛 experienced it (discrimination) or they don鈥檛 know it, how can they share something they don鈥檛 know about? There鈥檚 a lot of education to be had, because I think people are trying but they鈥檙e not really sure what to do, or where to go.鈥

Photo: Caroline Nyemi-Tei poses in front of a gold background. (Photo: Caroline Nyemi-Tei)

Release date:

Duration:

8 minutes