Louisville Cheerleaders to Be Drug Tested Like Athletes

Louisville’s cheerleaders will now be drug tested like athletes. 

After a cheerleader died of what is believed to be a heroin overdose, the university announced that its “spirit teams will have to undergo the same drug testing” as athletes, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

As the Courier-Journal noted, cheerleaders do not need to be drug tested because while “university rules require drug screening of student-athletes in accordance with NCAA rules to detect use of banned drugs, but cheerleading is not an NCAA-sponsored sport.” But Louisville officials told the paper that cheerleaders will have random drug testing throughout the season going forward.