I'm sorry, but any "sport" that does not have a physically measurable determination of a winner and the trailing losers should not be in the Olympics. I'm looking at you, figureskating, halfpipe, ariels and moguls.
And at least some guy in Australia agrees with me.
Really, I wouldn't even call them sports if I had it my way. Anytime that it is left up to a group of fallible human beings to rank who has done the best job at something, to me, it's just not a sport. Athletic competiton, sure, but not a sport. Sure, other real sports have judges or umpires, but the determining factor of scoring is defined and actively controlled by the competitors and not by the zebras with a rubric.
Hell, even curling is measurable and that's pretty damn borderline as a sport. But it makes the cut.
Sorry gymnastics, but you're not gonna make it too. Try your luck in the XGames.
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Curling...a sport or a game? A sport (defined as physical activity engaged in for pleasure by merriam webster) would be anything that involves a higher level of athleticism. A game, ie bowling, curling, bocce ball, etc requires a lower level of athleticism. You call into play human fallibility. Umpires are never wrong? They never call an out on a base runner who was clearly safe? Every athletic competition will have human fallibility and this therefore cannot be the determining factor is what is a sport and what isn't.
ReplyDeleteYou can't use the word athletic competition to define figure skating, halfpipe, etc if you do not call these sports, as you are insinuating that its a sport. Athletes play sports. Who would call a bowler, a bocce player, or even a curler, an athlete? If the events you listed as not being sports are also definitely not games, and can't be called athletic competitions, then what are they? Frivilous activities?
I'm not saying that those events aren't athletic - they are. They absolutely require some degree of athleticism. That's not the standard I'm judging by though.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am judging is the degree of involvement of human fallibility. Sure, you will see an umpire blow a call in baseball, but they don't control all of the scoring. If a baserunner makes it across home plate after touching all three of the other bases in order, they their team scores a run. There is nothing comparable to that in figure skating or the other events in question.
Even in curling, the scoring is based on a physically measurable standard - the closest to the button after so many stones are curled scores, after so many scores one team wins. It's definable, unlike the events in question in which one could perform a "perfect routine" to receive a "perfect score" by the judges, but another person could perform the exact same routine with the exact same level of skill before another set of judges and receive a different score.
To me a sport shouldn't have its scoring be dependant upon those watching it be performed but rather by those on the field of play, regardless of it requiring a great degree of athleticism to perform it. You can be athletic and still not compete in a sport. And while figure skaters and halfpipe board riders and gymnasts are all certainly athletes, they compete in athletic competitions rather than sports.
That's just me though. And the Australian dude.