# What makes something a sport? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 21, 2000, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818 "2000-10-21T21:32:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/21 "2000-10-23T14:54:47Z")
When this came up, I decided that in this context, a sport had the following things which differenciated it from a game: 1. “Real” physical activity 2. A score Now, I use the word “real” in #1 because, yes, pushing a rook into a position to checkmate your opponent is technically a physical activity, but it is also not what I mean… And a “score” is any number we would put on it to make a “winner” - whether it is 7 points for a touchdown, 7 minutes to run a race or 7.9 from the Russian judge. If something only meets the first but not the second, or the second but not the first, it is a game. I am still waiting for someone to come up with something which throws a monkeywrench into the above! 🙂 * * * Yer pal, [Satan](http://www.members.tripod.com/jmspoofe/sdmb/satan.jpg) \*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR: Six months, two weeks, 12 hours, 59 minutes and 47 seconds. 7901 cigarettes not smoked, saving $987.70. Extra life with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 6 days, 10 hours, 25 minutes. **I slept with a REPUBLICAN moderator!** \* ---
**Author:** ![MadHatter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MadHatter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadHatter)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/22 "2000-10-23T15:06:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by capacitor \* > \*\*If pro wrestling is not a sport, then pro boxing, which is on record as being at least as fixed as, if not more fixed than, pro-wrestling, must not be a sport either. \*\* That is the most ludicrous statement I think I have ever read on the SDMB. Please explain to us all how pro boxing is _more fixed_ then pro wrestling, which is 100% scripted and rehearsed. Also, show us this “record” you speak of that shows it. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/23 "2000-10-23T15:25:22Z")
How about this criteria. If you can be a professional at it … it is a sport. That is you are paid to compete, and can make a decent living at the activity. Dignan’s Original List: **-figure skating** “Professional” figure skaters put on shows. They do not compete as they do in, say, the Olympics. **Not a sport** **-running** I know of no professional runners. Some runners make money off of endorsements, but I don’t think there are competitions consisting of big money prizes. **Not a Sport** **-golf** Ask Tiger Woods. **It’s a sport** **-skateboarding** It is a judged competition (frowned upon as unsport-worthy earlier in the thread), and most skaters earn their livings from endorsements, but there is money to be made at competitions, and I’m biased because I love skateboarding. Tony Hawk rules. **It’s a sport** **-sprinting** Sprinting is running really fast. **Not a sport** **-swimming** Just like running. It’s an amateur event that has no correlation to the professional world. **Not a sport** **-gymnastics** There are no professional gymnasts. Once these little girls get out of puberty, they are shunned anyway (don’t get me going about “women’s” gymnastics). **Not a sport** **-shooting (guns or archery)** It’s possible that there are professional shooters that make a living off competitions, but I doubt it. \*\* Not a sport\*\* **-hunting** The only way to make money from hunting is to sell the meat from the game you’ve killed. Doesn’t count. **Not a sport** ---
**Author:** ![MadHatter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MadHatter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadHatter)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/24 "2000-10-23T16:52:54Z")
Skateboarding is a sport, but running isn’t? HA! Michael Johnson is a professional runner, and he would be earning WAY MORE then Tony Hawk. Also, “runners” are awarded more prizemoney then skateboarders, at the top end of the scale. ---
**Author:** ![Dumbguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dumbguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dumbguy)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/25 "2000-10-23T18:19:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by David B \* > \*\*Personally, I have a problem with “sports” that are judged subjectively… When you play football, you know who has more points at the end of the game. > > But when you compare figure skaters, it’s all up to a group of people who may or may not have prejudged the situation, may or may not see things the same way, etc. \*\* Most sports are judged subjectively to some extent. You know how many points each team has at the end of a football game, but you may not know whether the fullback really broke the plane of the goal line on the winning TD or why that bastard ref called pass interference on the DB when the receiver was clearly pushing off. Would the Marlins have won the series without Eric Gregg’s four foot wide strike zone in the NLCS? Maybe. Maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/26 "2000-10-23T18:48:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MadHatter \* > \*\* > “runners” are awarded more prizemoney then skateboarders, at the top end of the scale. \*\* Ok, there you go. I had no idea that there was a Professional Track and Field Association. I looked it up, there is. So running can be a sport too. For the life of me, I don’t want it to be, but I have to stick to my own criteria, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/27 "2000-10-23T19:06:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Most sports are judged subjectively to some extent. You know how many points each team has at the end of a football game, but you may not know whether the fullback really broke the plane of the goal line on the winning TD or why that bastard ref called pass interference on the DB when the receiver was clearly pushing off. A good point. If the ref (or whatever official in another such activity) doesn’t see or doesn’t call an infraction of the rules, then is the final score really going to be objective? Should we include football, hockey, soccer, baseball, and basketball (and others) in the non-sport list, since they have that subjective element? 🙂 As for whether something is a sport or game or activity or hobby, I’m surprised nobody has yet asked about such things as a body or association that establishes the criteria governing the activity. Does the activity have some kind of governing body that writes the rules, certifies the officials, and authorizes competition? Perhaps the existence of a national or international governing body lends additional credibility to an activity, to the extent that the activity is seen by most as a sport. Hey, it’s a thought. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/28 "2000-10-23T19:17:05Z")
If you can beat somebody at it, it’s a sport. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/29 "2000-10-23T22:06:18Z")
One criterion might be “it’s a sport if they give out medals for it in the Olympics.” But then again, the Olympics have curling, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and synchronized diving. If they add Ballroom Dancing as an Olympic medal “sport,” I sewar I’ll never watch the Olympics again. ---
**Author:** ![Suo\_Na](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@Suo\_Na](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suo_Na)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/30 "2000-10-23T22:09:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*If you can beat somebody at it, it’s a sport. \*\* So Scrabble is a sport? Debating? Public speaking? Or as Spoofe mentioned, video games? I like Satan’s definition, although I’d like to know how he defines “real” physical activity. What criteria do you use for that? ---
**Author:** ![JuanDeCuba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JuanDeCuba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuanDeCuba)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/31 "2000-10-23T22:24:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dignan \* > \*\*You don’t have other skaters trying to knock down other figure skaters while they’re trying to land some spinny type move. \*\* Maybe there should be. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/32 "2000-10-23T22:44:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*One criterion might be “it’s a sport if they give out medals for it in the Olympics.” > > But then again, the Olympics have curling, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and synchronized diving. If they add Ballroom Dancing as an Olympic medal “sport,” I sewar I’ll never watch the Olympics again. \*\* As a dancer, I am _so_ sick of hearing this sentiment. Have you ever watched a ballroom competition? If your problem is with levels of physical exertion, let me point out that serious ballroom competition has about as much in common with what your grandmother does on Friday nights as a marathon has to do with a morning jog. Since you only mentioned “rhythmic” gymnastics above, I assume that you think that things like balance beam count as sports, so subjective judging is not your criterion. Ballroom dancing actually satisfies more of the potential criteria listed in this thread than gymnastics, since competitors are on the floor together in a competition where they interact with one another and directly affect one another’s strategies. Boxing other couples into corners and forcing direct comparisons of similar figures are two examples. I will admit that television coverage of ballroom competition in the US is excrable. It’s much better in the UK (where most of the world’s top dancers reside) - you can get actual commentary on technique, instead of asinine comments about the dress styles. I’m actually not in favor of “Dance Sport” being added to the Olympics, because I think it will have a detrimental effect on the sport in general. But it really burns me up when people who know nothing about it start mocking it. P.S. to **Jack** - you generally can’t make a living directly off of competition prizes in ballroom (prizes are usually in the $500-$1,000 range in the US and UK, but are much higher in Japan), but there definitely are professional ballroom dancers, whose primary income comes from teaching. That income is related in a very direct way to competition results, past and present; top competitors command _much_ higher prices. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/33 "2000-10-23T23:18:03Z")
ENugent wrote: > [@](#): > > I will admit that television coverage of ballroom competition in the US is excrable. It’s much better in the UK (where most of the world’s top dancers reside) - you can get actual commentary on technique, instead of asinine comments about the dress styles. And that’s another thing about it. The U.S. Olympic TV coverage showed a little snippet of Ballroom Dancing as a “demonstration” sport. My eyeballs simply _could not get past_ the female competitors’ false eyelashes. The makeup and costumes (excuse me, “uniforms”) were just _sooooooo_ gawdy. > [@](#): > > But it really burns me up when people who know nothing about it start mocking it. Q. Why is a pair of Levi’s like an old fashioned castle? A. No ballroom. Mock, mock, mock, mock, mock… ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/34 "2000-10-23T23:42:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*One criterion might be “it’s a sport if they give out medals for it in the Olympics.” > > But then again, the Olympics have curling, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and synchronized diving. If they add Ballroom Dancing as an Olympic medal “sport,” I sewar I’ll never watch the Olympics again. \*\* 1. Then American football isn’t a sport? And I guess any martial art not in the Olympics isn’t a sport, either. I don’t think Rugby is, either. 2. Ballroom Dancing . . . I’ve seen competitive ballroom dancing on television. You have to be VERY fit and otherwise in shape to do that. If that isn’t a sport, I guess marathon running isn’t, either. ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/35 "2000-10-24T05:52:26Z")
I was waiting for dancing to be brought up. I would label it an **art form** rather than a sport. It is a very physical art form, and like almost anything it can be done competitively if you slap some judges down in front of the competitors. But it just doesn’t resonate in my head with the word “sport” (which is the only authority for their definitions anyone really has here). I was going to be flippant and say that any activity where the difference between winning and losing is whether your mascara runs isn’t really a sport. In other words, I would echo those who say that an objective criteria for winning is necessary. While many sports involve officials making judgement calls, the basis of those calls is clearly defined in such a way that the official is, in theory, fulfilling a mechanical function. The strike zone, for example, is not _in principle_ open to the umpire’s subjective interpretation. It is between the catcher’s knees, the batter’s shoulders, and over the plate. Umpires and referees can make bad calls, but there is a definite physical REASON the call was bad. Either the guy _really was_ offsides or he wasn’t, for example. The tag was in time or it wasn’t in the real world. And so on. This is completely different from the case in, say, gymnastics. If two competitors hit every technical point the same, a judge still ranks them differently because one of them just _looked better_, to that particular judge, doing it. Any argument with his call boils down to just another person’s opinion, unlike the case with umpires and referees. And I would add that there is sometimes expressed a general feeling, which I agree with, that the more you can automate the functions performed by umps and refs the more “pure” (in the sporting sense) the game becomes. A sport can involve competing with another person, or one can be competing with the clock, the yardstick, etc. So I disagree with those who rule out things like running and swimming as too individualistic. I also disagree with those who rule out sports based primarily on eye-hand coordination (billiards, bowling, golf, etc.). I personally find such sports fun to do yet boring to watch; maybe that’s just me. However, ruling them out because the “muscular effort” is the effort of fine control rather than the effort of strength or stamina seems to me to be, if you’ll excuse the expression, splitting the hair too fine. It’s like saying that a baseball batter is engaging in a sport (strength required) but a pitcher isn’t (mainly eye-hand coordination). I’ve never hunted, but I consider it a sport. Of course the deer knows it is being hunted. It’s a _prey_ animal! That’s its place in the food chain! A deer, and every one of its ancestors have known they’re in this competition every minute of their lives for millions of years. The animal doesn’t have a human appreciation of its position, but it has a deer’s understanding of it, to be sure. Just as I allowed competition against the clock and the yardstick, I must allow competition against the more complex natural environment a hunter experiences. And of course there is a clear and objective winner. Nor am I under the mistaken impression that the hunter always wins. _However_, I would NOT consider shooting a deer in a pen to be a sport, and I am under the impression that a lot of hunters have become so fixated on getting a deer that they have called upon technology to a degree that takes the sport out of it and makes the activity not far off from shooting deer in a pen. With elaborate camo ninja outfits, scents, blinds, modern rifles, scopes, bait, (and for ducks, decoys and calls), etc. etc. etc., well for Pete’s sake, your facing a creature with a brain the size of squash ball after all! The more “primitive” the hunting, the more sportsman-like I consider it. Bows moreso than guns, for instance. One way to assess man-animal competitions as sports, like hunting and bullfighting, is to look at the rate at which the humans fail. If the matador wins 99% of the time, I’m not sure it qualifies as a sport. The same sort of considerations might apply to the methods chosen by the “sport hunters”. If you can’t lose, or at least have barely any chance of doing so, I wouldn’t call it much of a sport. My final criteria for sporthood: 1. Physical prowess is somehow being measured or assessed. 2. The assessment is objective (at least in principle). 3. The objectives are sufficiently clearly defined that success (a win) and failure (a loss) are both possible, and reasonably likely. IN: -running (and the rest of track and field) -golf -sprinting -swimming -shooting (guns or archery) -hunting OUT: -figure skating -gymnastics -synchronized swimming -dancing (ballroom or otherwise) If it makes people feel better I would be amenable to putting these latter activities, which are fun to watch and deserving of respect even if they are not sports, into a category that we could call “sport arts”. ---
**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/36 "2000-10-24T06:25:26Z")
Wait, so hunting is a sport and gymanstics isn’t? Not that I have any particlur attachment to gymanstics, but: 1. Hunting does not involve competition against a \* human \* (barring the aforementioned contests) 2. You can’t score it, or really say who wins (“well Phil, deer A seems to have won this time, but deer B lost, hut human A lost to deer A and beat deer B…my head hurts”), short of a “who got the biggest deer” contest. 3. The deer never vonlunteered for it. It was born a deer. It expected to eat grass and try to avoid the occaisional mountain lion. It didn’t sign up for bullets being shot at it. If I stab an unsuspecting person–even if they are holding a foil–I don’t think I really just won a fencing bout. Gymanstics at leat pits you against other people, and gives you a score. ---
**Author:** ![Feynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Feynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feynn)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/37 "2000-10-24T07:01:26Z")
You guys are all complicating things here, I’ll make it simple… It’s a game until someone loses an eye, THEN it’s a sport. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/38 "2000-10-24T17:31:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > ENugent wrote: > > > [@](#): > > > > I will admit that television coverage of ballroom competition in the US is excrable. It’s much better in the UK (where most of the world’s top dancers reside) - you can get actual commentary on technique, instead of asinine comments about the dress styles. > > And that’s another thing about it. The U.S. Olympic TV coverage showed a little snippet of Ballroom Dancing as a “demonstration” sport. My eyeballs simply _could not get past_ the female competitors’ false eyelashes. The makeup and costumes (excuse me, “uniforms”) were just _sooooooo_ gawdy [sic]. Ballgowns and tails actually do have a functional purpose outside of gaudiness. They have evolved over a period of many years as providing the best combination of freedom of movement and accentuation of turns (i.e., the tails and the dress provide a pretty good indication of how fast the couple is spinning). The purpose of false eyelashes is so that someone 100 feet away can actually see the face more clearly. They do look scary in close-up, but the sport isn’t designed for close-up. I don’t see that they’re any worse than the proliferation of hair glitter on the Russian gymnastics team. > [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > But it really burns me up when people who know nothing about it start mocking it. > > Q. Why is a pair of Levi’s like an old fashioned castle? > > A. No ballroom. > > Mock, mock, mock, mock, mock… \*\* Huh? > [@](#): > > _originally posted by APB9999_ > I was going to be flippant and say that any activity where the difference between winning and losing is whether your mascara runs isn’t really a sport. Of course that’s never the actual difference between winning and losing, but you’re being flippant anyway. 🙂 In general, as I said earlier, there’s a subset of competitive athletic activies (there - I didn’t use the ‘s’ word) that are subjectively judged. I can’t argue with those who feel that these should not be labeled “sports,” but I will argue with those who try to single out _my_ event as being different from the others in this group (wrestling, gymnastics, figure skating, etc). ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/39 "2000-10-24T17:40:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Suo Na \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > > \*\*If you can beat somebody at it, it’s a sport. \*\* > > So Scrabble is a sport? Debating? Public speaking? Or as Spoofe mentioned, video games? > > I like Satan’s definition, although I’d like to know how he defines “real” physical activity. What criteria do you use for that? \*\* Yup, they are all sports. ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818/40 "2000-10-24T19:28:14Z")
Myrr21, > [@](#): > > Wait, so hunting is a sport and gymanstics isn’t? Not that I have any particlur attachment to gymanstics, but: > > 1. Hunting does not involve competition against a human (barring the aforementioned contests) > 2. You can’t score it, or really say who wins (“well Phil, deer A seems to have won this time, but deer B lost, hut human A lost to deer A and beat deer B…my head hurts”), short of a “who got the biggest deer” contest. > 3. The deer never vonlunteered for it. It was born a deer. It expected to eat grass and try to avoid the occaisional mountain lion. It didn’t sign up for bullets being shot at it. > If I stab an unsuspecting person–even if they are holding a foil–I don’t think I really just won a fencing bout. > Gymanstics at leat pits you against other people, and gives you a score. By the criteria I gave, hunting is a sport and gymnastics isn’t. Why is that a problem? 1. I don’t see that the competition has to be between humans. It can be against an aspect of nature, like the clock or a set distance. Some have disagreed with this here and said you have to have two humans, but that is just one perspective and not one I hold. In some cases, the aspect of nature competed against could be an animal, as in bullfighting, or the much more complex environment that hunters engage: the entire forest, with all its random elements, distractions, hiding places, etc. in which the deer are found. 2. You CAN score hunting. Never heard of an eight-point buck? I don’t find that scoring system very sensible as a measure of a hunter’s skill, but it exists. Besides, you can think of the score as the simple binary: do you come back with a deer or not? As for the confusion you seem to suffer from the fact that the deer outnumber the hunter, well I’m not sure how to clear it up for you. I suspect you’re exagerating, and note that defense outnumbers offense when a baseball player steps up to bat, yet it’s pretty clear who, out of all the men on the field, performed best in a given at-bat. 3. Deer signed up to be prey animals when they evolved into deer rather than wolves. You are anthropomorphizing mightily when you claim to know what a deer expects out of life. If I were to do the same, I suspect a deer fully expects to be hunted by predators, and behaves accordingly. If you are decrying the extreme advantage given to the hunter by firearms over, say, bows or spears, reread my last post. I agree, and I already said so. The most sporting challenge would be hunting with just a knife or your bare hands, but I doubt many people are up for that: Too hard to ever win. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-something-a-sport/37818.md?page=3)