Open Mic: What Exactly Is a Sport?

As ESPN and other sports network extend their coverage to events that can barely be considered "sport," it is time for a concrete definition as to what exactly a "sport" is.

The question of what a sport is, is a little too broad though, so what I will try to define is "physical sport," which is what this website is dedicated to, and what people are talking about when they say that they're sports fans.

What I will do here is define "sport" and a number of related terms, whittling down certain activities, and finally arriving at what exactly a sport is, and what activities count as sport.

Slightly broader than "sport" is the term "competition," and therefore, it should get a broad definition. Competition is anything where a human being or a group of human beings, perform an activity against another human or group of humans, with the end result of one person of group "winning" over the other person or group.

"Winning" can be defined as the person or group that performs said activity better than the other person or group, and the very nature of sport does not allow it to end until such a distinction can be made.

So right away we will drop dogfighting (sorry Michael Vick), and monkey-crap flinging contests (sorry Elvis) from the mix. 

Now, you may be asking yourself right now, "What is the difference between sport and competition?"

Good question. The difference is, while a competition is concerned with separating the people/groups into winners and losers, a sport does this separation on the basis of mental or physical acumen.

Competition often occurs on a larger scale than sport. For example, the Olympics are a competition, the 100m Freestyle is a sport.

Since sport is a subset of competition, the following rule applies: all sports are competitions, but not all competitions are sport.

Now, when it comes to sports, humans have two tools at their disposal which they can put up against other humans in order to determine who is best. Those tools are mental and physical.

Mental competitions rely on thinking, logic and problem solving in order to win a competition. Poker, chess, Jeopardy, these are all mental sports, but sports nonetheless.

Physical sports are things where physical conditioning and strength come into play, and quite often the best physical competitors are the people that are in the best shape and the best condition, whether it is sprinting speed, jump shooting, or throwing a baseball the fastest or with the best spin.

There are certain exercises that one does to become better in each of these skills. Practice, repetition, the desire to prove that you're better than the next guy, this all comes with becoming the best at your sport.

Now that we've defined what a sport is, it's time to see what is and what isn't a sport, and if it is, what kind of sport.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee: Mental sport, since no degree of physical fitness is required, however, recall and language skills are a must.

World Series of Poker: Mental sport, no physical fitness is required, but the mental capacity to understand things such as odds and bluffing is needed.

Basketball: Physical sport, you don't have to be very bright to play, (see: Anthony, Carmelo or Baker, Vin) but you need to have good mechanics, and some measure of speed and hand-eye coordination.

Most of these are pretty cut and dry, but here's a pickle: auto racing.

At the risk of alienating many readers, I am going to go ahead and say it: by definition, auto racing is not a sport.

Please don't take offense, while I don't watch it very much, I do respect the drivers and teams that participate. There's nothing wrong with it not being a sport.

Here is why auto racing is not a sport. While some degree of it is physical, and a larger part is mental, there is too much dependence on something that is not human: the actual car.

The fact that a car has to be modified to win, and often times the best car will win regardless of who is the best driver.

Here's an analogy: If you gave Tiger Woods a $100 set of clubs from Wal Mart, he would still be the best golfer in the world. If you gave Kobe Bryant a pair of K-Mart sneakers, he would still be able to slash and drain jumpers better than anyone.

If you gave Jeff Gordon a 1988 Ford Aspire, not only would be be in very real danger, but he wouldn't come close to winning anything.

And sure, you can always say, "but a human made the car", but that is flimsy at best. A human makes almost everything. A human made the computer I am typing this on, but I am in no way involved in a sport.

So now we've established what the difference is between a competition and a sport, and between a mental and physical sport.

Does it really make any difference what is what? Nope, it only matters what you enjoy doing/watching, not what the thing is, but I hope this shed some light on the matter.