I know this is supposed to be an opinion piece, but as a good journalist, questions come first and opinions come second, and this one question has been burning in my mind since I was a wee lad.
What constitutes a sport?
Is a sport an athletic competition, or is it simply any competition between two or more competitors? If so, what about competitions against one's self? Can those be sports? Does it have to be a competition at all?
Furthermore, does being regarded as a sport even matter?
Perhaps the term sport is what the great author George Orwell would call a meaningless word – with thousands of disputed meanings.
Some sports you play, some you do. Does that matter?
Maybe I am on to something with the word sport being somewhat meaningless.
Trying to categorize all competitions or activities or hobbies or performances for that matter, under one all-encompassing word – just to feel right about putting it in the sports section, or on the sports channel, or in a sports blog – is never going to work well. You will always have some categoriser or definition whiz jumping at the first chance to point out what ‘sport' does not fit in the category or under the definition of sports.
In fact, I was one of those people.
“How the heck can you have poker and darts on the sports channel?!” I would yell at the TV that was clearly not reciprocating my feelings, as it continued to display what I considered not to be sports on a channel I considered to be only for sports.
But then I thought to myself, if the channel is only for sports, who decides what is considered a sport?
I sure hope it's not Gene Principe – he would just make a weak pun out of whatever he is given (ie: Dancing Gene).
Regardless of who or what it is, I think the point is that the term sports will never encompass every activity we would like it to.
If I could just answer one question from this column, I will be satisfied.
Here we go.
No, being regarded as a sport does not matter. There will always be room for activities, competitions, athletics, performances, routines, games, hobbies and even a few sports in the Nouvelle's Sports Section.
I am satisfied.
Are you? Feel differently about the definition of sports? Let me know: bmacleod@bonnyville.greatwest.ca.