posted
There seems to be some consensus that there is a difference between "athlete" and "athletic," but the is no clear consensus on what is "sport."
Posts: 514 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sport is anything that pits someone directly against someone else in a competition. Ping Pong is a sport. Anything that pits someone's achievement against someone else's achievement is a game. Golf is a game.
To make golf a sport, there needs to be a well-padded person at the cup with a baseball bat, ready to defend.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
"Athletic" merely denotes someone who has trained physically for a competitive purpose. "Athelete" is a subjective description.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Chris Bridges: Sport is anything that pits someone directly against someone else in a competition. Ping Pong is a sport. Anything that pits someone's achievement against someone else's achievement is a game. Golf is a game.
To make golf a sport, there needs to be a well-padded person at the cup with a baseball bat, ready to defend.
But by that definition many video games are "sports", especially in this era of online play. Does that mean that chess counts as a sport as well?
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Video games became a sport in the late 90s when Quake champions started getting paid for product endorsements. There! That's my new definition of athletes: You compete in something (sport, race, game, whatever you want to call it) and you get paid for product endorsements because of said competition. Nascar drivers are atheletes by this definition.
Oh, I suppose that should be "you or your peers can get paid for product endorsements." We can still count the less-popular competitors as athletes even if they haven't done their own endorsements yet.
posted
According to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary an athlete is "a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina".
Posts: 1794 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
According to dictionary.com a sport is "an organism that shows a marked change from the normal type or parent stock, typically as a result of mutation". Normally in Nascar, if you want to find mutations, you have to look in the stands.
Posts: 1794 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I was going to stay out of this because most perspectives on whether someone is an athlete and what is a sport are subjective. I think that people are free to believe that NASCAR is boring, even though I find it exciting. It doesn't bother me (until I am berated for being a hick, which I'm not, or something else just as stupid). But I will get into this because I think they are athletes. Certainly not to the level of football, soccer, hockey, baseball, or basketball, but they are athletes, in my opinion. I agree with Chris Bridges:
quote:They require endurance: they're in the car for hours, in 100+ degree heat, fighting their car every moment. They have to be hyper alert to everything going on around them and be ready at less than a second's notice, at all times, to react to changes in traffic at 180 mph speeds. I don't even want to know how they handle the 24-hour race.
It certainly requires years of finely tuned training, both mental and physical. I drove 46 miles in heavy traffic on the freeway today, in an automatic, without reaching 70 MPH. I felt drained, probably because of the mental focus I needed. Drivers go much faster, for much longer, in much hotter cars, and in manuals that can't be too easy to shift, especially when they do it 1000+ times a race. I can't do this. Athletes or not, drivers are real, tough professionals.
Jay, drop your insults and actually try racing something (I suggest Magic Mountain). There is a big difference between driving competitively and driving on the street. You might understand this if you try it.
Posts: 684 | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I suppose the reason I don't like to consider NASCAR a sport is the huge impact their car makes. The greatest athlete will still be great regardless of the bat, cleats, ball, whatever he uses. Put a race car driver in a slightly substandard car and not only is he no longer the best, odds are he can no longer even compete.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
So...horseman are considered athletes in horsemanship competitions. They're even given medals for it, in the Olympics...so, why shouldn't competition drivers (not only NASCAR. F1 and other leagues too)?
Posts: 1785 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ok, so my first minor argument was weak. So what? However, as tired as I am of this argument, I stand by my drivers. Dodge Team One: Jeremy Mayfield and Kasey Kahne. I still wear my old Bill Elliott jacket. I support the event as a sport and do maintain that the drivers are athletes, although I will willingly let others disagree. Why? Because it is like a Harley Davidson. If I have to explain, you will never understand.
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Driving of any competetive kind is a sport and the drivers are incredible athletes. That being said, I am not a NASCAR fan, rather I prefer Rally driving. But I have driven in races, I golf, I played competetive baseball and ice hockey too. Hockey was by far the most physically demanding, but golf is by far the toughest since it requires such precision. I have worked up a sweat playing all of these and have found myslef physically challenged by all of these.
I dare anyone to come out with me and play 18 holes and tell me that golfers are not athletes and that golf is not a sport. You walk 4-5 miles carrying 25 extra pounds on your back which is something many people couldn't do alone. But then to play a number of different shots under all kinds of circumstances, it is a challenge.
And the best part is, ALL OF THESE ARE FUN! Posts: 117 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Ok, so my first minor argument was weak. So what? However, as tired as I am of this argument, I stand by my drivers. Dodge Team One: Jeremy Mayfield and Kasey Kahne. I still wear my old Bill Elliott jacket. I support the event as a sport and do maintain that the drivers are athletes, although I will willingly let others disagree. Why? Because it is like a Harley Davidson. If I have to explain, you will never understand.
That's how I see it. Posts: 684 | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
