Let me start by stating why I find it necessary to have my definition and standards for what is a sport. Many people simply use the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) list of sports. When searching for the IOC’s conditions, the only requirement is that the activity must “be governed by an International Federation (IF).” According to the Olympic Charter, “the IOC may recognize as IFs international non-governmental organizations governing one or several sports at the world level.”
That doesn’t feel like a definition at all. The IOC has told us only that a non-governmental organization presiding over a sport is enough to make that sport a sport, and this creates a paradox: where a governing body requires a sport to govern before the sport it governs can be called a sport.
So instead of using the IOC, I’ll look it up in the dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary says that a sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”. OK, great, problem solved. Except, physical exertion is different from person to person. By that logic, the term sport is subjective and anyone can define it differently, so I defined it for myself: Physical exertion means the potential for physical exhaustion.
Physical exhaustion could be another subjective term, so I will take it a step further and define a sport as a competition where the average game, race, event, routine, etc. could result in a person losing consciousness or another such bodily function due to their own physical exertion. This is different from an injury — the average person can break their leg walking down the stairs, but the average person won’t pass out from walking down the stairs.
So what are some examples of a sport then? Cross country, track or any running competition is a sport because running even a short distance at full exertion could lead someone to pass out. Weight lifting, field events and gymnastics are all sports because manipulating mass could lead to exhaustion.
Swim and competitive dance also qualify due to the potential for exhaustion in those activities. Boxing and wrestling qualify as sports as they are physically exhausting even if you aren’t getting beaten up, and getting beaten up makes them more physically exhausting. It would take too long to provide reasoning for every sport, but I will say that I think football, baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, volleyball and many more competitive activities can be defined as sports given one or more of the reasons I have already listed.
Here’s the fun and controversial part: what I don’t consider a sport. Chess, as I mentioned before, would not be a sport under my definition. Golf and table tennis are not sports because physically exerting yourself to exhaustion would require playing beyond the rules of the games. Any motorized vehicle activity, while dangerous and difficult, is not a sport. The exhaustion that can come with those sports is not due to one’s own physical exertion but instead to adverse conditions such as torque, heat or crashes. Video games are not even close to a sport.
I want to finish by saying a few things. Again, I mean this as no insult to any of you non-sport lovers out there, as I also enjoy a good non-sport and can appreciate their diverse difficulties and challenges. Secondly, don’t take this too seriously. Part of my argument is that everyone could have their subjective definition of a sport. While I am passionate about mine, it’s just that, mine. And you can have your own. That is why this will not be the last time this debate is discussed in the Trinitonian. Tune in next week to see the debate continue.
Part one of an ongoing series.
