What makes a sport a sport? – Part 1
“What makes a sport a sport” is a point up for great conjecture.
Really, just about every different person will give a different answer as to what constitutes a “sport”.
In my opinion, a “sport” revolves around an athletic pursuit, whether it be done for fun and enjoyment, for serious competition, to keep fit and healthy, for a professional career, or all of the above.
A sport can be against a human opponent, whether it be an individual or a team, or it can be against the clock or the like, but to constitute a sport there must be some quantifiable opposition: whether human, electronic or otherwise.
What I cannot stress enough is that in my opinion, a sport requires at least some sort of physical exertion.
By its very definition, a “sport” revolves around an athletic pursuit, and an athletic pursuit is something that takes some sort of physical exertion.
This can cause gray areas: How much physical exertion would constitute a sport?
My answer is simple: any physical exertion at all constitutes a sport.
Thus, tenpin bowling, which requires only minimal physical exertion, is thus defined as a sport in my opinion.
However, games that require great “concentration”, but no physical exertion, such as darts, billiards and chess, would NOT be considered a sport, in my definition.
I would call these pastimes “games”. Like sports, these games are done for fun and enjoyment, recreation and the like, against an opponent, but they do not contain the key element of physical exertion that is necessary to be defined as a sporting pursuit.
A sport doesn’t have to be organized to be known as a sport. A simple game of tennis at the local courts, where scores are either loosely kept, or not kept at all, is still a sport.
Having said this, all sports, to be considered as such, must be governed by a set of universally agreed upon rules or customs.
There must be some formula to a sporting pursuit. Again, the games I described above share this factor as well, and this is why many people confuse them with being called sports.
However, the major factor of a sport requiring physical exertion renders these games, and not sports, in my opinion.
