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The following are not sports

October 26, 2009
By

Let’s just get it out of the way early — cheerleading, figure skating and dance are not sports.

There, I said it.

First and foremost I want to make it clear I am writing this to generate discussion. This is a jumping off point for a new definition of sport. I am not arguing against any particular activity — I am just trying to set a standard.

Athleticism and sport are not interchangeable. Figure skaters are athletes and their strength and conditioning regimen is on par with athletes from widely recognized sports such as football and hockey. However, figure skating is not a sport.

Don’t worry figure skaters, it’s okay to not be a sport.  You are still athletes and there is tremendous value to what you do. However, adjustments must be made — see objective scoring — before you can enter the realm of sport.

I think it’s time to make the category of sport exclusive to certain activities that uphold the standards and values that make sports great. If just any ordinary Joe — like myself, for instance — can take any activity and claim it as a sport, then what value does sport really have?

Sports are, by nature, exclusive.  You have to try-out, you have to be skilled and you have to uphold a set of standards. This exclusivity should be strengthened with a set of criteria designed to determine what is and is not a sport.

Furthermore, if we do not have a set of criteria for what constitutes a sport, then where does one draw the line? Without critera, why not deem beer pong or flip cup as sports? Why not bubble shooter or Monopoly or bridge?

A precedent has to be set to maintain the value and prestige of sports.

The following are my suggestions for criteria to define sport:

A sport must be inclusive.

No activity or event can be deemed a sport if it discriminates against any human being on the grounds of gender, race, or sexuality. Intolerance and prejudice may have flown in the ancient Olympics, but not in the 21st century.

There must be a skill level required and a competitive standard.

Any sport has to involve some sort of skill or talent that can be trained and honed over time. It cannot simply be based on a trait or attribute such as whitest teeth or longest fingernails.  Furthermore, there must be a standard for competition. There has to be a process of what determines who is the best at the sport and how the sport is governed.

There must be direct competition between at least two forces.

Whether individual or on a team basis, there has to be some sort of contest between two or more elements. A sport must involve a competition in which a winner is determined.

There must be strategy involved.

All sports have to be strategic. There absolutely has to be a way to outthink or outperform the opposition. There must be different approaches and tactics with which to achieve success.

There must be substantial levels of both physical and mental exertion.

A true sport must test one’s fortitude in both cognitive and physical effort, not just one or the other. Chess, for instance, is not a sport because it only tests cognitive ability. Rollerblading is also not a sport, because it only measures physical attributes.

There must be fluidity.

An individual or team within a sport must be able to adapt and adjust their strategy accordingly during competition.

There can be no artistic elements.

We must remember sport is quantitative, not qualitative. Art is far too subjective and vague to be properly measured in a sport. The aesthetic of an individual or team’s methods should not be scrutinized — simply the outcome should matter. There is a place for art — but not in sport.

A sport cannot be judged subjectively or by committee.

There must be a fair, objective system for determining the winner of the competition and there must be one impartial individual whose role is to tally the score. Any activity that relies on subjective judging is far too vulnerable to bias and unscrupulous judgments. The history of bribery and corruption within judged competitions is rich and including activities that operate under these pretenses would be detrimental to the legitimacy of sport.

Think you play a sport? Run it against these criteria and find out.

Sorry figure skating. At least you still have the Olympics.

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Arden Zwelling

Arden is the Associate Editor of The Gazette and in his fourth year of the Media, Information and Technoculture program at Western. He is also a writer for CFL.ca, a web editor for The Score and a blogger for The Score's University Rush. Arden hosts the Utility Men which airs every other Thursday at 6:00 PM on CHRW 94.9 FM. Email Arden at arden@westerngazette.ca or follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/ArdenZwelling

8 Comments

  • Vote -1 Vote +1Awk/Ward     says:

    Love the column. And I agree, judges should have no place in the definition of sport unless they are deciding whether or not a player stepped over or within the lines.

    One mistake, you claim rollerblading involves no mental exertion. I am not a fan of rollerblading. It is a ridiculous contest and a weak little cousin to more demanding and entertaining extreme contests. It is not a sport because the results are based on artistic merit. However, to design and execute a routine, whether in rollerblading or figure skating does require mental exertion, no matter how minimal you may feel it is.

    Otherwise nice work.

    On a side note, by all standards Beersbee is most definitely a sport. And that is amazing cuz I’m taking it to the Olympics.

  • Vote -1 Vote +1Alex     says:

    I find it hard to believe that people would consider cheerleading, figure skating or dance sports. You really can`t compare any of them to, say, basketball, hockey or tennis.

    To make things easier, we can simply define sports as physical games with rules and objectives. In cheerleading, figure skating and dance, there are fundamentals, but how any of them are done, overall, are not dictated in the same way that sports are.

  • Vote -1 Vote +1katie     says:

    Womens hockey by this description would not be a sport. Time for a coaching CHANGE!

  • Vote -1 Vote +1Arden Zwelling     says:

    Katie, maybe you should try reading this again. The game of hockey qualifies as a sport because it meets every single one of my criteria.

    I’m concerned with the game or sport in question, not who plays it.

  • Vote -1 Vote +1iz     says:

    Maybe you should develop your rhetoric before publishing it.

    You said:
    “Sports are, by nature, exclusive.”

    Then you said:
    “A sport must be inclusive.”

    That is pretty embarrassing. Luckily, you write for the Gazette, so you’ll fit right in.

    And, what does exclusion based on ethnicity have to do with whether an activity qualifies as a sport? That’s what I call “invalid” criterion.

    But I agree with your other points.

  • Vote -1 Vote +1Stuart A. Thompson     says:

    Iz, I think he means a sport must be inclusive on the lines of on race, gender, etc., but exclusive in skill level. I think that’s made pretty clear.

  • Vote -1 Vote +1ash bushfield     says:

    So is ski jumping a sport?

  • Vote -1 Vote +1Daley Dose     says:

    I think it’s important that when you make statements like “figure skating is not a sport,” you’ve got something to back it up with. Consider this:

    Judges in figure skating, cheerleading, and dance have a scoring regime to follow. A judge cannot assign just any mark to any competitor without reason. There are guidelines and a point system in place, especially in figure skating, which has developed quite extensively since the 2002 scandal (google ISU Judging System to see for yourself). I don’t know all that much about figure skating but I have watched my fair share of it this past week and I think it’s pretty obvious there is strategy and physical exertion involved. So if you’re going to make grandiose statements such as “figure skating is not a sport,” you better prove it to your readers.

    But even after reading your column, I’m not convinced. So I have to question how much you actually know about figure skating and whether or not you took the time to “run it against these criteria” as you urge your readers to do. I think if you did, you might have toned yourself down a little. You also may have realized that widely recognized sports don’t fit all of your criteria. For example, in baseball umpires’ strike-zones differ. There is an agreed-upon guideline about what is a strike and what is a ball but in the end it is left up to the umpire, so much so that coaches and players can be thrown out of the game for arguing balls and strikes, which are, arguably, subjective calls. And what about referees calling penalties in hockey? What is a penalty and what is not a penalty is defined by an objective set of rules, but it’s still the referee’s call as to whether or not what occurred constitutes a penalty. Similarly, difficult elements in figure skating are technically defined with corresponding point values, which are implemented, not created, by a judge.

    Your column got off to a strong start. I respect the debate around the need to set a standard and define “sport.” However, your argument would have done so much more if it didn’t simply work to prove that cheerleading, figure skating, and dance aren’t sports by picking out what you don’t like about them and then proclaiming those things to be the defining characteristics of sport.

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