Didn’t some sportscaster or columnist observe “Track isn’t a sport, and neither is field.”? I used to have a coworker fond of saying “If it has wheels or hooves it isn’t a sport”.
Sorting out “sport” vs. “athletic competition.” vs. “game” vs. “recreational activity” vs … is something that is impossible to resolve, as already stated.
Personally, I’m with previous posters on disqualifying something that’s subjectively judged, as “athletic competitions” but not “sports”. If you have to have a panel of judges rate the performance, rather than an objective criteria for scoring, it isn’t a sport. Officials should be limited to deciding whether a ball went through a hoop in a prescribed manner, or somebody caught the ball in the end zone without having his foot out of bounds, and so on. Golf meets this criteria - the ball has to go into the hole. I’m not sure it meets other criteria, though.
I don’t like the “defensive” criteria. The element of “competition” can get fuzzy, too. Does a physical activity in which you are only challenging yourself or your group a “sport”? Like climbing a mountain. Many people will consider such activities “sports”, and there will usually element of competition in somebody trying to be the first to accomplish something, or do it faster, or in some new way. Or just trying to establish a “personal best”. However, that isn’t competition in the sense of people or teams directly competing against each other simultaneously.
If you knock me down three times in one round, or lay me out for the ten-count, the refereeing consist of objective measures no different than “he stepped out of bounds” or “the basketball was released before the shot clock ran out”. So there’s at least the possibility of any given match being decided without subjective judging, right?
Do team athletic events like relays count as “sports”? A 4x100m (or 4x400, for that matter) involves teamwork, and appear more sports-like than a simple 100m race because of that, at least to me.
That exemption only applies to Casey Martin, and he is no longer a member of the PGA Tour. The rule against riding carts on the PGA Tour never was overturned, there was an exemption granted to one person in the world.
I enjoy needling golfers by telling them that “golf is a game, not a sport”.
Working from the premise that one defining feature of “sport” is physical fitness,
I go on to point out that physical fitness is not a requirement for world-class golf
performance (at least it wasn’t during Jack Nicklaus’ first several years as a pro;
I never have followed the game that closely).
Right, and as I mentioned under the SI definition it does exclude most track and field sports because they are not direct challenges, but more akin to parallel performance competitions.
Jack Nicklaus played basketball, football, baseball and track. It was only when he got to OSU that he concentrated solely on golf, knowing that would be his best shot at a pro career.
My definition of a sport (and I’ve just recently come up with it, so it may be flawed) is “a competition where a participant must be in danger of getting a muscle cramp if they don’t hydrate properly”. Note that heat exhaustion or similar do not count, it has to be a muscle cramp. However, it could happen after the competition is over (right, Mr Nadal?) but it must be as a result of the physical activity of that competition.
I don’t think golf qualifies under this definition and probably auto racing doesn’t either, although I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong.
That’s why it’s SO much fun to start an 8am college class with “So… is NASCAR really a sport?”
The first time I tried this to wake up a class, we got in an animated discussion.
I followed the first question with “OK, [Redneck Guy], would you call Jimmie Johnson or Kurt Busch an athlete?”.
And we ended up drawing a continuum on the board, from “pastime” to “hobby” to “hardcore sport”. I commiserated with the race car fans, saying that the only sport I was ever awesome in (curling) would be on the “low-exertion” side of the board.
Oh, that was one of the criteria – how much work you do. The kids said you had to sweat, and not just because it was hot day in the car, on the links… or out on the ol’ bass boat.
I don’t disagree that the “defense is employed” definition excludes things people “feel” should be sports. I think its advantage is it is very clear-cut, if you can actively stop your opponent from doing what they need to do in order to win, then you’re employing defense. If you can’t, you aren’t. (So the examples of pacing in marathon running, various things in golf etc do not equal defense.) I think it is much more difficult subjectively defining what is “athletic.”
I did not deny Nicklaus was a great athlete. I do deny that he was a highly fit
physical specimen at a time when he was winning as many tournaments as anyone,
if not more.
Of course, he went on a weight-loss and general fitness program while still young,
and stuck with it. That may be why he was was able to win a Masters when well
over 40 years old.
