Newspaper Editorial Says that: "Snowboarding is not a Sport"

[ike]

This is a part of an article from the Detroit News on p.2 of the Sports Section for Tuesday. Read on...

Sport, not a sport

The resumption of the racing season means the return of one familiar, albeit uneducated, question: Are race-car drivers athletes? Is racing a sport?

Yes! A million times, yes! As long as you think requiring endurance, hand-eye coordination and profound concentration are athletic features, not to mention side-by-side racing at 190 mph competingagainst other drivers, are requirements of sport.

But while we're on the subject let's play, sport, not a sport. Just for fun, of course.

The Winter Olympics offer plenty of fodder.

Snowboarding? Not a sport.

Sorry Shaun White , halfpipe gold medalist, dude. It's athletic, sure, but it's a more skilled form of entertainment, X Games-style.

Ice dancing? Please. So nota sport. And let's not even bring up ballroom dancing.

Downhill skiing? No doubt, this is a sport. These men and women are nuts, absolutely nuts, hurtling down hill at ridiculous speeds on rapidly changing snow/ice surfaces, competing against the clock.

Then there's golf. That's tricky. It is very difficult to defend as a sport when many of the male golfers have a pronounced paunch and probably couldn't run a half-mile if needed. But it requires tremendous skill and the ability to focus for four days, walking 18 holes and encountering all sorts of weather.

On a technicality, golf is included as a sport, which is a good thing, because baseball might have been tough to defend, as well.

Phew.

You can reach Angelique S. Chengelis at angelique.chengelis@detnews.com.

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Click here for the the whole article. (i only included the parts having to do with snowboarding)

[philfell]

I don't get how half pipe is not a sport, but downhill is. The only explaination is that downhillers are crazy. Does not make much sense to me. They go off on the Olympics then they add golf into the same mix. Very poorly written with no real logical thought process.

[trailertrash]

its about as smart as this

[Erik J]

The first article sounded to me like it was written in jest, I certainly don't agree with what's stated but it doesn't seem like it's meant to be taken seriously.

The Bryant Gumbel comments seem to be more of a slap in the face directed to all of the hard working athletes. The ancient Greeks never heard of winter sports so they lack importance? I'll bet they never heard of a car either, or flying, or penicilin.

The Olympics are just a marketing tool to fill time slots in February? Ouch

[skatha]

Sounds like Bryant Gumbel equates sport with the presence of blacks-a BLANTANTLY racist statement.

If the converse had been said by a white guy about a pursuit with a predominantly black participation, the shout of protest would have been deafening

[Kirk]

First article - really DUMB! As Phil said above: "Very poorly written with no real logical thought process" - the epitome of modern journalism IMO.

Though I did get a chucle out of "...walking 18 holes and encountering all sorts of weather" for golf.

Second article - agenda? nah, couldn't be :rolleyes:

BTW - Love the avatar ike!

:lol:

[surfinsmiley]

I`m shocked at how lame both of those articles are:nono:.

Journalists? I think not!

Send them all down the luge track naked and covered in teflon/graphite I reckon! Now that would be sport, would it not?

[skatha]

FYI...I emailed our journalist and she assured me she was poking fun. She also stated she was interested in learning to ride. I told her I was 38 when I started and wished her well in my reply....

Now for Bryant Gumbel-his remarks P/O'd me more.......

[tex1230]

Can't find the article, but a while back I read an article about the difference between a sport and a game.

according to that, sports are competitions that arose from real life activities, and games are competitions that come from entertainment activities...

so, XC skiing, shooting, downhill skiing, snowboard racing(as an extension of downhill skiing), track & field events, speed skating, etc would be classified as sports

figure skating, bobsled, luge, halfpipe, curling, ski jumping, freestyle skiing, and other "style" events would be games...

[Justin A.]

Never mind the fairly distinct lack of White people in the summer game's big events: Marathon, Sprinting, Basketball. The winter games are for the WINTER, and all of the people who have evolved to survive in cold climates are white. No question. Not a racist statement, just cold science. And on another note, WHO cares. I can't stand the whole thing about "minorities" vs. caucasians, we're all just people. Sorry for the threadjack, but that second article was written by a jackass.

________

CHALLENGE

[skatha]

Also the demographics will probably change over time. Ten years ago, I hardly ever saw a black person at a bike ride-bicycling is a pricey equipment, low notoriety sport. Now about 30% of the riders are black

I went to a birthday party last week-the dad of the birthday girl and I watched some DH coverage on TV at the ice rink. He said "I just got back from skiing. Boy, I wish I could do that" I told him success at skiing for people our age was NOT tearing up a knee

He's black. I'm sure he considers skiing a sport

[D-Sub]

over here wishing I could smack mr. g.

[Gecko]

he has become more and more bitter, in addition to taking every shot he can at his former network (NBC) or the people he used to work with his views have become rather paranoid. There was a time that I respected him but that was more than a decade ago

[jdgang]

Can't find the article, but a while back I read an article about the difference between a sport and a game.

according to that, sports are competitions that arose from real life activities, and games are competitions that come from entertainment activities...

so, XC skiing, shooting, downhill skiing, snowboard racing(as an extension of downhill skiing), track & field events, speed skating, etc would be classified as sports

figure skating, bobsled, luge, halfpipe, curling, ski jumping, freestyle skiing, and other "style" events would be games...

I just read that article and have to agree with it....anything that is judged is not a sport but a competitions since it judged subjectively by us....Here is the article Link

[Galen]

It's ironic that, while Gumbel may discount the winter olympics because of an absence blacks, there are many blacks who discount Gumbel himself for an absence black. :rolleyes:

[dantheman0177]

In my (rather humble) view, snowboard half pipe is not a sport. It is recreation, transformed into entertainment distilled for the masses and distributed on the coat tails of real sport to enable the widest commercial viewing audience.

On the other hand, boardercross and downhill racing ARE sports.

The difference is that B/C & PGS (for example) use transparent and objective measures to determine the winner of the event. The fastest person down the course within the rules is declared the winner. Halfpipe (again, for example) relies upon the subjective opinions of non-contestants.

You are the best because you clearly, objectively, beat your opponent, not because somebody's opinion is that your trick looked a little better in their eyes than the other guy. That is my definition of a sport.

[gdboytyler]

The winter games are for the WINTER, and all of the people who have evolved to survive in cold climates are white. No question. Not a racist statement, just cold science.

I guess you never heard of Eskimos

[gdboytyler]

I just read that article and have to agree with it....anything that is judged is not a sport but a competitions since it judged subjectively by us....Here is the article Link

Here's a logical reply (not mine) to the Dan Wetzel article on what is and isn't a sport:

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/news?slug=dw-peoplesvoice022506&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

A game is a competitive event done for personal pleasure. In games there are two subcategories: sports and contests.

In order to be a sport, three requirements must be met: 1) athletic conditioning superior to non-athletes, 2) an offense and a defense, and 3) an objective method of scoring.

In order to constitute as a sport, all three requirements must be met. For instance: baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, boxing, lacrosse – all these are sports because all meet the criteria as defined previously. Golf, however, is not a sport. Though golf has an objective method of scoring, golf lacks both an offense and a defense (terrain is no argument in that it applies to all contestants equally, without bias, and without aggressively seeking to interfere), and as a rule golfers on general are no more athletically conditioned than high school athletes – and in many cases are even worse. In true sporting events it is virtually impossible to be at the top of your game and in your 50's.

Then there are contests. The word "con" quite literally means "Together; with; joint; jointly: commingle" whereas the word tests is precisely defined as: "A procedure for critical evaluation; a means of determining the presence, quality, or truth of something; a trial" (www.dictionary.com). Therefore, according to the etymology of the term, a contest is a collective test of a skill.

The requirements of a collective test of skill are 1) multiple contestants, 2) judges of skill. Golf, track and field, swimming and gymnastics are all contests, as is NASCAR, bull-riding, fishing and even pie eating.

The fact that any of these events require skill is no argument for them being a sport. Chess requires more skill than any of these games combined, but is nevertheless not a sport. Simultaneously, so does working for customer service in retail and solving a Rubix Cube.

But ultimately, what about activities that fail to meet the criteria of either – activities like pool, poker, chess and so on? To be succinct they're simply games – nothing more, nothing less.

Of course, there will be those who will get offended by my remarks and attempt to refute my argument based purely on emotional reasons alone. But the truth exists independent of our wants and needs. Logic is logic. It doesn't matter if one likes the fact that the number two is not the number four, or if golf is not a sport. A thing is what it is whether we like it or not. In logic, that's called the Law of Identity.

M.A. Carrano

North Haven, Conn.

[skatha]

That's interesting...I'm supposing offense and defense can be played by the same contestant (ala basketball). If so, short course speed skating is a sport but long course speed skating is not.....

I used to swim competitively, so, although I was a contestant as per this article(which I'm not disputing), my def of sport is an athletic activity that has contests where the outcome can be judged objectively. Athletic activity is defined as a skill mastered by the participant that employs some aspect of physical exertion

[ike]

The media has gotten better about snowboarding though. In last weeks (or 2 weeks ago i dont remember cause we just got them yesterday cause we were out of town) NEWSWEEK there is a 2 page picture of boardercross, with a hardbooter in it:1luvu:

[Neil Gendzwill]

All these definitions of sport are just personal biases. There's no requirement for a defence - Carrano pulled that out of his butt just because that's the way he feels about it. Of the three major online dictionaries, two define sport as requiring physical exertion, and only one defines it as needing an opponent. An opponent doesn't necessarily have to put up a defence. According to Merriam-Webster near as I can make out there's a possibility of an Olympic blowjob competition in the future.

Merriam-Webster

1 a : a source of diversion : RECREATION b : sexual play c (1) : physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2) : a particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in

Oxford

1 an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.

Cambridge

1 [C] a game, competition or activity needing physical effort and skill that is played or done according to rules, for enjoyment and/or as a job:

[ncermak]

According to Merriam-Webster near as I can make out there's a possibility of an Olympic blowjob competition in the future.

I volunteer to be a judge...(Of course I have to ask ask...are we juding subjectively or objectively)

[dantheman0177]

I volunteer to be a judge...(Of course I have to ask ask...are we juding subjectively or objectively)

Well the question is how would you define the judging criteria? Would it be based on speed or technique? And how would you ensure a level playing field for all competitors?

Just some food for thought....

[ncermak]

I think it would have to be like mogul skiing. a combined formula of speed and tecnique. of course it begs the question...what is the target time. personally I want it to last, but not too long....of course I don't want it be too quick either...unless that is the result of totally mindblowing technique...perhaps a target time: 10 minutes. points deducted based on how far from target.

and to keep the playing field level...it is a multi day event, two a day...one at wake up. and one before bed.

[Dr D]

I gotta go with halfpipe not being sport per say. In point of fact I have trouble looking at baseball as a sport too. my definition would come down to having to make on the spot decisions that may or may not be attainable depending on skill and conditioning. strategy not withstanding. baseball is more like chess lots of strategy and such, but not a lot of balls out exertion, thus its a game as is golf. some things don't fit well in either category and halfpipe is one of those. I would say for the most part its done for the sole pleasure of doing. No score just the rider the board and the pipe. self satisfaction being the main goal. the best example is the attitudes of some of the olympians. the gal who won fourth place sisn't medal but she put up some air that looked to rival shaun white, a first in womens halfpipe. I would bet she is not unhappy about losing a medal position over it. This attitude bleeds in to the other board sports as well. Our darling silver medalist boarderxr pulls a method for the sheer joy of it and loses gold. She didn't seem to care until the media jumped down her throat over it.

If getting to be called sport means having the media and the spectators take all the fun out of it then who needs to be called a sport. The girl who won boardercross gold has a tin trophy. She knows she got beat.