February 11, 2010

A sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play.

That is the definition of all sport activities. Sports can be exercised as leisurely activities or they can be pursued competitively.

In any manner of activity sports usually need some form of physical exertion as well as technics.

An individual who is not a professional athlete may pursue any kind of sport activity for enjoyment or for competitive purposes.

There are a multitude of activities available to any individual where excellence is not a requirement. As long as the person enjoys what he is doing without causing harm to himself it is fine.

As soon as any kind of harm comes into the picture it is no longer a leisurely activity.

Professional athletes, using the terminology in its broadest sense, fall into a different category.

Watching professional football players, hockey players, boxers, any kind of extreme sport participants or any one of the multitude of professional sports is reminiscent of the old Roman gladiator duels. It was expected then and it is expected now that there would be injuries. Some serious, some not.

Why is fighting permitted in a hockey game? Because it is no longer a sport!

But I veered away from what I wanted to say.

Auto racing is not a sport! NASCAR racing is not a sport.

It is a business that is very high on promotion. What is the sport in sitting in a car a drive around a course with 150-190 miles an hour speed?

We all drive. Last week I drove on a major road where the speed limit is 65mph. That usually means one can safely drive at 72-74mph speed without getting a speeding ticket. Naturally there are always people for whom that is not satisfactory and they try to go much faster. Those are the ones who get caught.

What happens at these races is that they take these professional drivers and let them go as fast as they want without getting speeding tickets. And the bloodthirsty crowd is watching and waiting for an accident which always do happen.

These drivers have a skill. They drive fast and they drive well. But most of the licensed drivers drive fast and drive well. So why are these any different?

Because they get the sponsors and we don't.

The American public loves car races. They can sit through five-six hours of watching cars going around and around. I get dizzy after ten minutes.

But these drivers are not athletes by any means. They are people who know how to drive.

Maybe motorcycle racers have more athletic ability than the drivers but that sport didn't catch on here in the US.

To me an auto race or a truck race or a monster truck race is not any more sport than chess or stamp collecting.

There are several sports that to me are really not sports at all.

Take curling for instance. It's on the Winter Olympics' schedule. There is this 40 lbs granite piece that is being slid down the ice while two people vigorously sweep the ice front of it with brooms. Sweeping the ice with brooms is an athletic procedure?

How good one has to be with a broom to qualify for the Olympic Team? I'm sure once their sport career is over they all go into the cleaning business.

Bobsledding is not a very exciting activity either. It doesn't mean if one is a 90 pound weakling or a 250 pound powerhouse all one needs to do is to drive that thing down the icy chute. There is no physical conditioning necessary for this sport.

Skeleton and luge are equally idiotic. Kids do this in parks or mountainsides when there is sufficient amount of snow. I can't see a young kid who says I want to be a luger when I grow up.

At least catching butterflies requires some stamina.