Arriving at work this morning, I was instantly embroiled in a healthy argument about “what counts as sport?”
After learning that my colleague counts surfing and golf as “past times” and “badmington” as a sport I thought I would create a little survey as to what you think counts as a sport or not.
So cut and paste the following list into a comment and put a big YES or NO next to each item depending on whether you think it’s a sport or not.
- Cricket
- Golf
- Grand Prix
- Surfing
- Badminton
- Ballroom dancing
- Snooker
- Table Tennis
- Grid Iron
- Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging)
- Lawn Bowls
- Ten Pin Bowling
- Chess
- Football (soccer)
- Swimming
* Cricket – Yes
* Golf – Yes
* Grand Prix – No
* Surfing – Yes
* Badminton – Yes
* Ballroom dancing – No
* Snooker – No
* Table Tennis – No
* Grid Iron – No
* Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – No
* Lawn Bowls – Yes
* Ten Pin Bowling – No
* Chess – No
* Football (soccer) – Yes
* Swimming – Maybe
Cricket – Yes
Golf – Yes
Grand Prix – Yes
Surfing – Yes
Badminton – Yes
Ballroom dancing – Yes
Snooker – Yes
Table Tennis – Yes
Grid Iron – Yes
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – No
Lawn Bowls – Yes
Ten Pin Bowling – Yes
Chess – Yes
Football (soccer) – Yes
Swimming – Yes
Cricket – Yes
Golf – Yes
Grand Prix – Yes
Surfing – No
Badminton – Yes
Ballroom dancing – No
Snooker – Yes
Table Tennis – Yes
Grid Iron – And what is that?
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – No
Lawn Bowls – No
Ten Pin Bowling – No
Chess – No
Football (soccer) – Yes
Swimming – Yes
Cricket – Yes
Golf – Yes
Grand Prix – No
Surfing – No
Badminton – Yes
Ballroom dancing – No
Snooker – No
Table Tennis – Yes
Grid Iron – Yes
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – No
Lawn Bowls – No
Ten Pin Bowling – No
Chess – No
Football (soccer) – Yes
Swimming – Yes
Grid Iron?? I’m off to Wikipedia to find out what your on about.
Grand Prix is definitely a sport. 4G round some corners (think lying on your side and 3 of your mates sitting on you) and losing half a stone of fluid a race makes it a sport.
* Cricket – Yes
* Golf – Yes
* Grand Prix – Yes
* Surfing – Yes
* Badminton – Yes
* Ballroom dancing – No
* Snooker – Yes
* Table Tennis – Yes
* Grid Iron – Yes
* Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – No
* Lawn Bowls – Yes
* Ten Pin Bowling – Yes
* Chess – No
* Football (soccer) – Yes
* Swimming – Yes
That makes astronauts sportsman too then. And America won.
If you had the Russians and Americans starting from the Cape Canaveral starting grid, with limits on amounts of electronics (no computers) and engine sizes (fly to the moon on a V8 engine), with a pit stop on the moon, and Murray Walker commentating, with a Japanese team that had a great engine and chassis but wouldn’t stand a chance because the driver was the son of the president of the company, then maybe it would be a sport like F1….
Woohoo, a way to procrastinate!!
Cricket – Yes
Golf – Yes (ridiculous as it is)
Grand Prix – No
Surfing – Yes
Badminton – Yes
Ballroom dancing – Yes
Snooker – No (why on earth is it even televised in this country?!)
Table Tennis – Yes
Grid Iron – I guess… it’s ridiculous too!
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – No
Lawn Bowls – Yep, sport for the oldies
Ten Pin Bowling – Yes
Chess – No
Football (soccer)- Yes
Swimming – No
You should also be asking about synchronised swimming – it’s controversial!
* Cricket YES
* Golf YES
* Grand Prix YES
* Surfing YES
* Badminton NO
* Ballroom dancing YES
* Snooker NO
* Table Tennis NO
* Grid Iron YES
* Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) NO
* Lawn Bowls NO
* Ten Pin Bowling NO
* Chess NO
* Football (soccer) YES
* Swimming YES
* Cricket – YES
* Golf – YES
* Grand Prix – NO
* Surfing – YES
* Badminton – YES
* Ballroom dancing – NO
* Snooker – NO
* Table Tennis – YES
* Grid Iron – YES
* Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – NO
* Lawn Bowls – YES
* Ten Pin Bowling – YES
* Chess – NO
* Football (soccer) – YES
* Swimming – YES
I like to think of it this way. If someone asks:
“What sport do you play?”
And you reply …
“Ballroom dancing”
Generally you got your answer right there.
Cricket – no – memories of making daisy chains in the outer field – hardly moved all afternoon on sports days of Grade 4
Golf – yes
Grand Prix – yes
Surfing – yes
Badminton – yes
Ballroom dancing – yes – you work up quite a sweat! I hardly see any fat ballroom dancers…
Snooker – no
Table Tennis – yes
Grid Iron – yes
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – no
Lawn Bowls – no
Ten Pin Bowling – no
Chess – no
Football (soccer) – yes
Swimming – yes, if it is training/races. Floating around in a pool is another matter.
Speaking of swimming, today would be the perfect day to be hanging out on Daydream island in that pool there and then swimming over to the in-pool bar and having a cocktail or two. Hmmm. Meanwhile, I am in dusty old Tott Court Road in a building that is listed (the elevators are even heritage listed!) so we can’t get a/c. They brought icecreams around yesterday. I am waiting for that act of kindness again. Bring on the weekend!!
Cricket – Yes
Golf – Yes
Grand Prix – Yes
Surfing – Yes
Badminton – Yes
Ballroom dancing – NO
Snooker – Yes
Table Tennis – Yes
Grid Iron – Yes
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – NO
Lawn Bowls – Yes
Ten Pin Bowling – Yes
Chess – Yes
Football (soccer) – Yes
Swimming – Yes
YES:
Cricket (but just barely)
Golf (as above)
Surfing
Badminton
Snooker
Table Tennis
Grid Iron (but isn’t it “Gridiron” i.e. 1 word?)
Lawn Bowls
Ten Pin Bowling
Football (soccer)
Swimming
NO:
Grand Prix
Ballroom dancing
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging)
Cricket YES
Golf YES
Grand Prix YES
Surfing NO
Badminton YES
Ballroom dancing NO
Snooker YES
Table Tennis YES
Grid Iron YES
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) YES
Lawn Bowls YES
Ten Pin Bowling YES
Chess YES
Football (soccer) YES
Swimming YES
Based on the theory that athletes compete against other athletes, something about the skill is objectively measurable, and a result is determined. Surfing and ballroom dancing don’t make it because they’re subjectively judged on skill by peers.
Cricket – Yes
Golf – No
Grand Prix – No
Surfing – Yes
Badminton – Yes
Ballroom dancing – Yes (I went to a comp once and it was named the Dance Sport Championships)
Snooker – No
Table Tennis – Yes
Grid Iron – Yes
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) -No
Lawn Bowls – Yes
Ten Pin Bowling – Yes
Chess – No
Football (soccer) – yes
Swimming – Yes
I disagree Stace/Wes; I mean, how does one judge the skill in swimming? The result is determined (usually) by who gets to the end of the race the fastest.
So with surfing, the skill comes into how well a surfer can execute certain moves, eg. a floater off the top of the wave, or a big cutback to get back into the prime position of the wave.
I guess you’re right that how well the surfer executes the move is judged by their peers (/the judges in comps), but that’s no different to, say, gymnastics, where the skill with which a gymnast executes a move is judged by a panel.
My 2c
Cricket – Yes
Golf – Yes
Grand Prix – Yes
Surfing – Yes
Badminton – Yes
Ballroom dancing – No
Snooker – Yes
Table Tennis – Yes
Grid Iron – Yes
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) – No
Lawn Bowls – Yes
Ten Pin Bowling – Yes
Chess – No
Football (soccer) – Yes
Swimming – Yes
Cricket – Yes
Golf – Yes
Grand Prix – Yes
Surfing – Yes
Badminton – Yes
Ballroom dancing – No
Snooker – No
Table Tennis – Yes
Grid Iron – Yes
Food eating contests (eg. beer chugging) -No
Lawn Bowls – Yes
Ten Pin Bowling – Yes
Chess – No
Football (soccer) – yes
Swimming – Yes