Sport, Who’s Game Is It Anyway?

For its excitement and possible moments of illusion, sport is loved and revered by many for the drama it can produce. When acted out, its existence can engross us at some stage in our lifetime, probably all be it at varying levels of ties and interest. That aside, it is hard to completely ignore, and safe to say we all feel that we can instantly recognise it when it is occurring. But with that said, what is sport, and more tellingly how do we define what constitutes as a sport? The Oxford Dictionary defines sport as:

“an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment:”

With this description, it largely promotes sport with key components, physicality and competition. But is this an accurate description of what sport is? Reviewing the increasingly popular online information form known as Wikipedia, it provides a more expansive description of sport as:

“an organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. It is governed by a set of rules or customs. In sports the key factors are the physical capabilities and skills of the competitor when determining the outcome (winning or losing). The physical activity involves the movement of people, animals and/or a variety of objects such as balls and machines or equipment. In contrast, games such as card games and board games, though these could be called mind sports and some are recognized as Olympic sports, require primarily mental skills and only mental physical involvement. Non-competitive activities, for example as jogging or playing catch, are usually classified as forms of recreation.”

Despite both explanations holding altering assessments and quantity amounts, what both definitions have shown is that to be a sport the disciple must be organised, with physical attributes, and skill elements shown under the guise of competition with regulations. So by this meaning where does much thought of recreational practises such as surfing, wall climbing, and simply throwing a pebble fit into sports' criteria if framed in competition? Do ballet, body-building and martial-arts qualify comfortably? Does this not open up the theorem that anything to be can be interpreted as a sport, as long as a human-being can perform it or arrange it, with mental or physical skill exhibited if staged within a contest? With that said, let me pose to you the question can competition quizzes, staged shopping contests, and even reality television shows that pit competitors for prizes of singing and modelling contracts be counted? Do international versions of shows like Pop Idol, X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, and Britain Next Top Model tally? As we live in a more interactive world with social media and technology becoming more of a staple feature in our lives, can on-line and interactive computer games in tournament play threaten the existence of what one could currently define as a sports event?

These are a lot of questions I have thrown up but from a personal standpoint, I have always understood sport to be an organised exercise where unrelenting physicality is shown and displayed, regardless of a winner or winners being declared. However on reflection, by my own thought process this could exclude activities like snooker, which I have never once contemplated could be disregarded as a sport. With this, I have come to re-define my definition of what classifies as a sport. Physical elements do not necessarily have to be shown in tremendous droves and witnessed to fall into what we are discovering is a tenuous category. In its own right, mental agility in a discipline can also be associated within sport’s definition, and with this I have come to consider darts as a sport.

With the 15 times World PDC Champion Phil Taylor sweeping all before him and performances one can admire in awe, I realised it holds the same technical skill, training, and practise needed to achieve the desired purpose of consistently making the intended targets and activity objective. It may not be on a billiards table, but likewise to snooker, dart and its operations work within the confides of small spaces and margins but on a dartboard. In addition, the swift mathematics needed by the players when calculating scoring to win a leg, and ultimately the match as a whole can not be overlooked. With darts similar union to the social public house as snooker, by comparison there is not a strong vocal discussion to discount snooker as a sport so why is darts any different? After all is it not a smaller version of archery, and that is seen not just as a sport but a fixture in the world biggest sporting event, the Olympics.
Or have I fallen foul of a combination of one man’s dominance, and the activity’s progressive television exposure and popularity to deem darts as a sport? Especially when considering its stereotype perception of large overweight men (women play also) with ties of excessive alcoholic drinking, when in the main most attach sport to be health, fitness, and the peak of human form. Or perhaps is sport a question of image? If your activity fits into an imaginary classification that no-one can conclusively depict but feel it is apparent, your event is keenly welcomed to the umbrella that is sport.

We all have our initial thoughts about what sport is, ranging from how much variation of skill and movement is required to execute the event, to a definitive victor being highlighted when pit against a system of numbers either by score or clock. To some quantifying sport as a checklist with aspects that needs to be ticked before we can even acknowledge the occurrence as a sporting occasion. Or is simply a case that it is a sequence of events, where we can take such a criteria list and recognise all points mentioned to also include how popular it is, how much crossover media attention it garnishes and can generate, and does it fit into an image society asserts or what we are told as a society? However let me present this thought, do we merely summarise it as an undefined entity that is bigger than any straightforward meaning and just celebrate its mere essence, form, and existence.