Last week, I wrote a column about NASCAR. Among other points, I argued that NASCAR is indeed a sport and made a case justifying this assertion.
To race at such high speeds - inches away from the wall and other drivers attempting to swerve past you for three grueling hours - must be both mentally and physically exhausting. I pointed out that if curling was a sport, NASCAR most definitely is, as well. I fully realize, however, that NASCAR drivers are not overly athletic and I'm not going to make any Kobe Bryant-Jimmie Johnson comparisons anytime soon.
This brings up the natural question: "What is a sport?"
There are dozens - perhaps hundreds - of different sports played around the world, and although at first this seems like an easy question to answer, once you delve into it, you realize that the criteria for what constitutes a sport is not easy to flesh out.
The Winter Olympics provides a good backdrop for this discussion. Traditionally, the Olympics are referred to as the "Olympic Games", but does this mean that they aren't sports? Certainly not. It would be foolish to believe that they aren't sports. Most of the competitions take an amazing amount of skill and athleticism. I won't be trying any kind of crazy maneuvers in aerial skiing anytime soon, that's for sure.
I keep making fun of curling, but I do believe it's a sport. It takes a certain type of skill set and physical ability to be successful at curling.
Maybe one of the determining characteristics for distinguishing a sport is that it needs to include quantifiable results. Are there definite winners and losers?
In basketball, there is a winning team and a losing team. The winning team scores more points than the losing team, and no one has to tell us that. In racing, there is a winning driver and there are many losing drivers. The winner finishes the race's designated number of laps before the other drivers do.
I have a problem with sports that are judged, such as figure skating. The status of a clear winner is uncertain until judges tell us who won by giving the skaters their scores. There's a fair amount of subjectivity that goes into judging figure skating and determining winners and losers. But there's no way I can figure skate, and no way anyone can deny the balance and coordination figure skaters possess, no matter how different it is from a more contact-oriented sport, such as football. Because figure skating is an Olympic sport and it requires superb grace and agility, does that automatically make it a sport? Does the fact that subjectivity factors into determining winners make it less of a sport? I have never figure-skated or curled, but curling looks like it requires less athleticism than figure skating. So does that mean it is less of a sport than figure skating? But at the same time, there are definite winners and losers in curling, unlike in figure skating.
There are definite winners and losers in billiards and darts, but they certainly take less athletic skill than figure skating. But I'd argue that billiards requires a great deal of hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Is billiards a sport?
Perhaps endurance should be assessed when determining the criteria for what a sport is and what it is not. Feel free to disagree with me, but I don't know if I can think of a sport that demands more endurance than cycling. The sport has been ravaged recently by steroid use, highlighting the difficulty of rejuvenating the body during long races that take several days, such as the Tour de France. I argued that NASCAR takes a special type of endurance - certainly not on par with cycling or long-distance running - but endurance all the same. NASCAR takes a lot more endurance than running the 100-meter dash, but we definitely think of sprinting as a purer sport. Nothing screams "athlete" like the world's fastest man, Usain Bolt. Sprinting requires little-to-no endurance, especially when compared to other sports. But who would dare argue that Bolt isn't an athlete?
I used to make fun of golf, but it takes an amazing amount of endurance - just ask Tiger Woods.
Seriously, though, I didn't really respect golf as a sport until I tried it. Not only does it take endurance to play 18 holes of golf and ride in a golf cart - much less walk the course - it's also an extremely challenging game that takes a lot of time and practice to master. It's definitely the hardest sport I've ever picked up.
Sometimes when I think about this question, I like to imagine myself participating in these different types of events. I could play in an NFL game - really. I would possibly have my bones crushed, but I could be a receiver out there and run routes. Heck, I could catch a pass, even if I would be destroyed immediately afterward and possibly would not get up after getting blasted by some middle linebacker. I could run up and down an NBA court, as well, but I would look really silly trying to guard Dwight Howard and would immediately become "posterized."
But I don't honestly know if I could complete a NASCAR race without first completing a much shorter race to get used to the g-forces to which drivers are exposed. And I definitely could not complete the Tour de France - even one stage would probably be a stretch. Of course, there are plenty of people who would probably argue that football and basketball are purer sports than cycling and definitely NASCAR, but what kind of factor does endurance play into it, if any?
My roommate said maybe a sport has to have spectators; it has to be something people gather around to watch. It's possible to find spectators for lots of different kinds of competitions, though. For instance, ESPN broadcasts the Scripps National Spelling Bee every year and also shows what seems like a trillion hours of the World Series of Poker. I'm pretty confident that even though these events are shown on a sport-centered television channel, they aren't sports. Or are colleges going to start spelling teams with Lane Kiffin-like coaches who recruit promising grade-school spellers?\nPerhaps there is just too much gray area to even bring up this question. In the end, the definition of a sport may come down to a feeling you have deep inside you. If something within the realm of physical competition surpasses normal human functioning and makes you say "Wow," it may be a sport, whether it's a thunderous LeBron James dunk or a sick combo on the pool table.\nBut I'll put forth the question anyway: What's a sport?
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