What is a sport?

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Originally Posted by daveappr

I agree- motorsports aren't a sport- more like a game. It won't be a sport in IMHO until they pump their own fuel and change their own tires. Seems more like an expensive game to me

NASCAR Is a sport!!! Dont you ever forget that. I'm angry

[Lotan]

IMHO, a sport is any competitive activity that makes you sweat and isn't fencing.

[Reebek]

Any activity in which the participants are allowed, even encouraged, to drink beer is not a sport. That would include bowling, curling, darts, lawn darts, and horseshoes.

[Twinkletoes]

"SPORT:any recreational activity; specif., a game, competition, etc.
requiring bodily exertion."

This quote is from Webster's New World Dictionary.

This definition works for me as it excludes
games such as chess but includes games such as golf and,yes,motor racing
because of the physical element(bodily exertion) required. Same goes for frisbee golf and even syncronized swimming for that matter. They fit the parameters of this defenition, which I accept as valid.

The thought of excluding fencing, which is indeed a competition and does require bodily exertion seems to run against the defined parameters of a sport
in my humble opinion.

Marc

[OffTarget]

Originally Posted by Reebek

Any activity in which the participants are allowed, even encouraged, to drink beer is not a sport. That would include bowling, curling, darts, lawn darts, and horseshoes.

Now Rugby isn't a sport ??

[prittieinpink]

do you think skydiving is a sport??? bc this dude who sits in front of me in class was wearing a skydiving shirt that said "my sport ate your sport for breakfast" and i dunno if i would consider it a sport... they just sorta ... fall

[enigmagic]

Have you ever been skydiving? Are you aware there are more scored disciplines in skydiving then there are in fencing? Swoop, Canopy Relative Work, Freeflying, Relative Work, Wing Suit flying, and Freestyle all come to mind. Generally people don't just "fall" when they go skydiving, unless its one of the many introductory classes or completely recreational. That being said, I reiterate: who cares?

BASE isn't skydiving, by the way.

[40Saberthieves]

Originally Posted by enigmagic

Have you ever been skydiving? Are you aware there are more scored disciplines in skydiving then there are in fencing?

And there are far more areas of mathmatics, but mathmathics isnt a sport. Just because you can score something, doesnt make it a sport.

[enigmagic]

That was witty.

Math isn't physical, and its pretty obvious that 'being scored' isn't the only prerequisite, just the only one I mentioned(hence the fifty replies defining sport). That being said, defining something as a sport isn't a useful thing to do either way, I just object to her, rather trivially, saying that skydivers just "fall". Most here would object to hearing someone say that "you fencers just poke each other with buttons on sticks" as an account of the activity.

Understand this to be an objection to the tone, not the actual statement. In a sense skydivers do "fall" and fencers do "poke each other with buttons on sticks" but both are ignorant and irrespective of the skill and physical prowess it takes to do either.

[Inquartata]

Skill? Prowess? Skydiving?

I was an Army Ranger, lo, these many years ago. It involved lots and lots of parachute jumps, static line to HALO. I don't recall needing much in the way of skill or prowess. Now, maybe you need some to do aerobatics, but that's not all that physical---it's just turning into the wind in various ways. Gravity and the air do most of the work...

[sabreur]

Originally Posted by Reebek

Any activity in which the participants are allowed, even encouraged, to drink beer is not a sport. That would include bowling, curling, darts, lawn darts, and horseshoes.

It would also exclude softball and squash--and fencing for vets in Germany.

I like the idea of a sport being a contest in which the participant provides the motive power and requires levels of physical exertion well beyond those required by normal (modern) day-to-day life.

This allows swimming and running to be considered sports (and I do), and disallows driving racecars or motorcycles, jumping from airplanes, curling, bowling and epee.

And begs the question: is archery a sport? Shooting, IMNSHO, certainly is not.

MR

[Inquartata]

Depends on what KIND of shooting you're talking about. IPSC would qualify, IMO, and maybe Cowboy Action. Olympic-style target shooting OTOH? Nyet...

[sabreur]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

Depends on what KIND of shooting you're talking about. IPSC would qualify, IMO, and maybe Cowboy Action. Olympic-style target shooting OTOH? Nyet...

The key phrase was "the participant provides the motive power." In shooting, gun powder, or its more modern equivalents, provides the motive power.

Although I suppose that raises annoying questions about downhill skiing (sport)... and certainly things like waterskiing (CO2 producing abomination)... and what about equestrianism?

Maybe the best answer is:

"I know one when I see one."

or

"Man, if you have to ask, you'll never know."

or

"There's no disputing taste."

MR

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Reebek

Any activity in which the participants are allowed, even encouraged, to drink beer is not a sport. That would include bowling, curling, darts, lawn darts, and horseshoes.

And softball, and beach volleyball...shall I continue?

[fluidfencer]

What do you do when you have an Olympic sport that requires tremendous physical strength, highly advanced skills, extreme teamwork... but the idea of it being an Olympic sport makes me ill. I offer as an example, synchronized swimming... maybe trampoline... I could go on but I would probably get myself in trouble

[fresfisher929]

Originally Posted by ViewtifulMisho

I agree. Running is not a sport. Throwing of objects is not a sport. A sport includes direct competition, which means that what you do has an effect on what your opponent does and what he does has an effect on what you do. This is not to say that running, swimming, etc. do not take any skill. They are very impressive abilities, but they are not sports.

I run cross country and track and field in addition to fencing. We don't have a highschool fencing team. Running is most definently a sport. Having just returned home from a highschool invitational 5k (about 400 people per event) the degree of physical fitness and toughness is in itself an extremely difficult thing to acheive. In addition the real trick is the mental toughness to keep going even though every instinct in your body is telling you to stop. And there is also a good deal of tactics and positioning in large races. You have to know the course, espescially when its muddy and wet as this meet was, and it is a contact sport. You cut people off, if someone tries to you push them out. Then its also learning how to break people mentally, if its the last mile of a 5k and you pass someone with good form and give the appearance of not being that tired you can make them give up. I'm undecided over whether you have to be tougher(physical/mental/emotional) to be a good runner or a good fencer.


Think about this definition: An activity is only a sport if there is a reasonable chance of dying.