Sport or Not A Sport: Winter Olympics Edition, Part 2
Ice Hockey - A sport. It features the athletes most likely to do damage to hotel rooms.
Luge and Skeleton - Both of these events are basically sledding (in different positions) on a bobsleigh style course. The sport or not question here faces many of the same issues as the bobsleigh, only the competitors push off instead of sprinting to start. A tough call.
Nordic Combined - This is other event that is a contrived combination like the biathlon. It combines cross-county skiing (definitely a sport) with ski jumping, which has a major problem (see next event).
Ski Jumping - This event could be a sport, but the winner is determined not just by distance but also by style. It would be like having style points in the long jump field event, which is just plain silly.
Snowboard - Snowboarding has three separate events: half pipe, snowboard cross, and parallel giant slalom. The half pipe event is completely judged (and hence not a sport), the other two may be just races but I'm not sure.
Speed Skating - A race without style points! It's a sport.
Speed Skating: Short Track - A sport, but the short track induced pile-ups lead to possibly the greatest burden on referees (not judges) of any sport.
Events ranked in the order of true sportness:
1. Cross-Country Skiing
2. Speed Skating
3. Alpine Skiing
4. Ice Hockey
5. Speed Skating: Short Track
6. Nordic Combined
7. Biathlon
8. Bobsleigh
9. Luge and Skeleton
10. Curling
11. Snowboard
12. Ski Jumping
13. Freestyle Skiing
14. Figure Skating
posted by Freethinker at 8:05:00 AM
17 Comments:
Did you ever notice how the amount of "interesting-ness to watch" is in the exact opposite order?
Amen to Cross-Country (or Nordic) Skiing as #1, nothing burns energy like that. In Sweden, they have the Vasaloppet, in which people ski 90 KM (for Americans, this is about 57 miles non-stop). But I have to agree with the previous commenter, unless you're rooting for an individual, it's not that fun to watch.
Admittedly watching long cross-country skiing races live would be boring, but that's why the edit it for TV - they don't show the figure skating compulsories either (although I think TV edits too much many times, such as showing commercials during 5K track events).
At a swim meet this weekend I saw a t-shirt that said "real athletes swim - the rest just play games." I guess that could go for runners and bikers and powerlifters and jockeys...etc. I think it's true, though. Those in team sports have more outside factors motivating them...which makes it more "sport" and less "athletic event." I used to prefer sports, but now I admire athleticism much more. Not that any of that is really on topic...but it just got me to thinking about it.
Wow, you put figure skating last. That obviously shows that you know absolutely nothing about it. You're clearly not qualified to make such a false analysis. on the other hand, I can say that figure skating should be number 1 on there. I'm a figure skater so I would most definitely know. You're not a figure skater, so you wouldn't. End of story.
That fact that you put curling before figure skating just proves my point that you really have no idea what you're talking about. Have you ever even tried to skate? If you have, and most people have, I'm sure it didn't come easily to you.
If you're willing to comment back to this comment, I will gladly explain my reasoning. But you might wanna read up on some figure skating terms because I'm sure you know none of those either.
tank, the terms are of debatable, but I do like events that winning depends on the competitors, with the less amount of official interference as possible. This tends to favor the things you labeled athletic.
anonymous, I put figure skating last because the winner is determined by judging, with little or no objective measures. Determining who was the most "artistic" is impossible and very prone to bias (or corruption). Plus it is fairly much dancing on ice (dancing requires alot of athleticism as well), and very few consider dancing to be a sport.
Jasen, I think you hit a nerve. :) I agree with your assessment of figure skating... and for Anonymous, although figure skating is not a sport, it is very difficult. Every time I see a skater do a triple lutz, I am amazed how they don't land on their butt. But as Jasen said, it's not an objective competition, thus cannot be a sport. The same goes for syncronized swimming. Just because it may not be a sport in our eyes, doesn't mean it's not a difficult or impressive activity.
Personally, I think Air Hockey should be an Olympic sport, then Melchizedek (Jasen) would be champion of the world, not just LeTourneau.
Jasen, to your question about curling being a sport... one other definition of "sport" that I use is that it generally should also be an activity that is seperated by gender in physical abilities... in other words, the best women in the "sport" should not be able to regularly beat the best men in that same "sport". There may be exceptions to this rule, but this would eliminate curling, bowling, luge and skeleton, NASCAR, and scrabble. :) Thoughts?
11-0 baby since Damp was benched! This is so much more important that the "stealth Olympics" my friend. :-)
On a serious note, did you get my email I sent you yesterday? Let me know if you can help us!
Hammond
darius, I called the IOC about adding air hockey, but they can't figure out if it should go in the winter or summer Olympics.
You gender rule is interesting, but aren't the top men bowlers better than the top women bowlers? And probably also in luge and skeleton? There's no way to tell in curling since scoring is against the opponent and not an objective standard like time or pins.
Hammond, I see it now. I don't check that account as often. I'll send you an email reply.
I'm not for certain, but I would think that the top men's and women's bowlers are pretty close, maybe a little advantage to the men because of additional strength. Same with Luge/Skeleton...the men can push off harder, but the women are generally smaller and less wind resistant.
Basically, the four rules of thumb for me in decreasing importance in deciding if an activity is a sport is as follows:
1. Physical Activity (DQ's NASCAR)
2. Objective Results
3. Differentiable between genders
4. Recreational outdoor activity (i.e. fishing)
I would think being heavier would be an advantage for luge/skeleton.
I looked it up about bowling. The last five PBA average leaders have had averages of 228.4, 220.93, 221.54, 224.94, 222.73. The last five WPBA average leaders have had averages of 218.85, 215.18, 214.73, 216.45, 215.22.
So that's really close.
Hello. It's me again. Sorry it took so long I was busy training in my "non-sport" as you say.
Anyway, I looked up the words sport in the dictionary and here's what it says:
Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.
Figure skating is a physical activity, is governed by rules, and is engaged in competitively.
I would say that figure skating most definitely fits the bill for a sport. Furthermore, who gives a crap about how it's judged? The judges are separate from the skaters. What you're really saying is that a sport is a sport based on how it is judged or how it is won. Well, that is downright WRONG! SO are you telling me that gymnastics is not a sport? hmm? Answer that one smartpants.
What figure skaters do is extremely atheletic and just because a panel of 9 people decide who the winner is doesn't mean it's not a sport. You're taking a ton of credibility away from these skaters and that's not right at all. The next time you wanna make such a false analysis of a sport, DON"t. Cuz you know what? Figure skating is in the Olympics and is recognized as a sport. So you need to get over yourself.
Anonymous, we aren't talking about the dictionary's definition, because yes, by that definition, almost anything is a sport. We are discussing our own definition of "sport." Please note: we are not saying that just because an activity is not a sport that it is easy or non-athletic. Like I said before, and I think Melchizedek would agree, figure skaters are impressive for their abilities to do all those spins while keeping their balance. Partner skating is even more impressive.
However, I don't consider it a sport exactly due to the fact that the winner is subjective. One only needs to look at a few skating competitions to find controversy in the results due to some bad judging. What makes a competition a real sport is the ability to have objective results.
And yes, we are saying gymnastics is not a sport, at least I am. However, I think we'd all agree that it is about the most difficult athletic activity around.
Also, just because something is in the Olympics does by no means make it a sport. Curling anyone?
One last note, if anyone still comes back to read this comment section... a sports columnist just wrote this article describing how figure skating is not a sport... I think he must have stolen his ideas from me.
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