Somatotipo y composición corporal en deportistas de cheerleading, de la selección colombiana

The objective of this research was to determine the somatotype and body composition of the Cheerleading athletes of the Colombian team, differentiated between the roles of base and flyer. For this, a descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out in which 26 athletes participated, composed of 16 men (25.5 ± 3.9 years) who played the base role and 10 women (19.0 ± 4.5 years) who played the role of flyer, anthropometric measurements were taken following the protocol of the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK 2) for a restricted profile. Body mass indexes (BMI), fat, muscle and bone percentages, endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic components that determine the somatotype were obtained. The length of experience of each athlete was taken into account to determine time of active practice of the sport expressed in months. Descriptive measures of mean and standard deviation were calculated. The results infer that a high level of skill in Cheerleading at a national and international competitive level can be achieved by athletes who have adequate experience. The somatotype that prevails in the athletes evaluated is Mesomorphic Endo in men bases, and balanced ectomorph in flyers women. The bases are larger than the flyer, denoting importance in the muscular component of men and women for the proper performance of the different skills of this sport. To the best of our knowledge, this provides the first assessment of body composition and somatotype in competitive Cheerleaders at the national team level.