Figure sking is not a sport. No matter how skilled and athletic the participants might be the winner is not determined by true competition. The winner is determined by which former Soviet block countries judges can buy, bribe or coerce the most votes for their own countries participants. Two kids playing a game of H-O-R-S-E at a schoolyard basketball court is more of a true sport than figure skating.
My criteria for classifying a sport. 1) Must require physical exertion or a feat, be it a feat of speed, strength, or endurance. 2) Must have involve strategy or a learned skill to be mastered, as long as the mental element does not become more important than the physical element (example; golf is a sport, chess is not) 3) Must be competitive (ie., score must be kept). Even judged competitions can be sports, because the judges have a criteria they are supposed to score by and are supposed to be objective (in theory, at least). Now, according to the criteria I have just laid out, this is how I would classify some of the items on the bubble here: Golf: Definitely a sport. I have played 18 holes of golf, walking the course, and am physically exhausted every time I've done it. No, you do not have to have the figure of a Greek god to play the game. Neither do you need that for football if you're a lineman. It requires athletic exertion (skillful athletic exertion at that), strategy, concentration, and is a competition. All three criteria are met. Swimming: Definitely a sport. You must be a good athlete and skilled at moving in water to do it. Even the short distances require some thought to how you move and pace yourself. Track and field: Definitely a sport, for many of the same reasons as swimming plus skill is required to be a good runner (or shot thrower). Motorsports: A sport. You have to be in excellent physical condition to be able to do it and physical exertion is required just to control the car/motorcycle, let alone drive it well. Just because the equipment is expensive and mechanical doesn't mean it's not a sport. Horse racing/Equestrian sports: A sport. See motorsports. You have to be in excellent physical condition to be able to do it and physical exertion is required just to control the horse, let alone race it to victory. Just because the equipment is alive doesn't mean it's not a sport. Figure skating: A sport. Figure skaters are definitely athletes because it is physically demanding to do the moves and jumps they do, and they compete against each other in scored competition. It also takes strategy and coordination to put together a winning routine that will impress judges. Boxing: Definitely a sport. Boxing is second only to ice hockey as the most brutal, physically punishing sport in the Olympiad of athletics. You have to be quick, agile, tough, well-conditioned and super strong to be a good boxer. But you also have to be smart about the way you fight. That's where strategy comes in. Definitely a sport. Outdoor sports: I must disqualify hunting and fishing of any kind as a sport, because there is no way to have a true controlled competition of head to head variety with fair scoring and, despite however much you plan and develop strategy, it basically comes down to random chance as to whether or not the fish are biting or a buck walks out in front of your stand. However, shooting, riflery, and archery are sports. Why, you ask? Because you can have head to head competitions that are scored effectively, they do require physical exertion and mastery of skill, and strategy, planning, and adapting to conditions can play a part, especially if time is a factor. Timbersports are also sports. Those are cool to watch, by the way. Ballroom dancing: Not a sport. To me, this is more art and entertainment than sport. While their are competitions in it (the Olympics made it a medal event) to me, it doesn't really have a strategy element or require that much skill or even exertion. Dancing is just fun, and anybody looking to get out on the floor and shake it can pattern a few girations and call it a dance. Doesn't qualify in my mind. Here's some other questionables to think about: fencing, synchronized swimming, modern pentathlon, sailing, curling, bobsled, luge.
Fencing is objectively scored by the number of hits a contestent scores to the body of his opponent in a match of skill and strategy and thus is a sport. Syncronized swimming is a joke and is not even an exhibition of good entertainment - Not a sport. How do they decide the winner anyway? The team with the best fake smiles plastered on their faces? I don't know much about modern pentathlon but it involves skiing and shooting and is judged on both the time it takes to ski from one place to another combined with how well contestants shoot a rifle so I think its probably a sport. Sailing is a sport. The winner is the first boat to cross the finish line. I have watched some America's Cup action on TV in the past and the guys who run the sails up and down and do all the other physical stuff are superbly conditioned athletes even if the multi zillionaire boat owner who steers it is not. Curling?? Somehow I can't call any activity that involves the use of a broom a sport. Bobsled & luge are sports even though the participants may be insane. The winner is the one who gets to the bottom of the mountain the fastest. Any competitive activity that requires the use of a ball is a sport. The word ball can also refer to a puck or a shuttlecock. Nobody questions whether hockey is a sport or not but the use of a shuttlecock, net and rackets makes badminton a sport also. Bowling is a sport even if participants spend more time at the bowling alley drinking beer than they actually spend rolling the ball down the lane. An exception to the ball is a sport rule is pinball even though it does require balls of steel. Mountain climbing and rock climbing are not sports because they are not competitive no matter how physically demanding they are. Recreational snow sking is not a sport. It is a recreational activity. Competitive snow skiing is a sport. Downhill, slalom, cross country and ski jumping all have objective criteria to determine the winner. An exception is freestyle skiing. It is more like dancing with skis attached to your feet and is subjectively judged just like figure skating. Football is the greatest sport ever invented. In soccer playing nations they call soccer football. It is probably best that we keep real football out of the hands of European and Latin American soccer playing nations. If they are willing to start riots, kill referees and even go to war over a boring 1-0 soccer game the violence could only escalate if they were exposed to real football. LSU is the NCAA champion of the greatest sport ever invented. New England, the NFL team with the most former LSU players on its roster is the professional champion of the greatest sport ever invented.
Bowling is definitely a sport. It requires the mastery of a physical skill, exertion, a little strategy and planning, and is scored and competitive. Thus, a sport. In terms of hardest sports to play, I'd divide it into three categories: hardest sports skill/ability wise, hardest sports in terms of endurance, and hardest sports in terms of physical brutality/endangerment. In my judgement... Hardest sports, Skill ability 1. Golf 2. Baseball/Softball 3. Gymnastics 4. Archery 5. Basketball Hardest sports, Endurance 1. Cross Country/Marathon 2. Triathlon (Swimming, cycling, and running all in one) 3. Cross country skiing 4. Distance cycling 5. Track and field (longer distance events) Hardest sports, Brutality/punishment/physical danger 1. Boxing 2. Wrestling (Greco-Roman style, not WWE) 3. Rugby 4. Ice hockey 5. American football
I don't consider gymnastics a sport since the scoring is subjective. Circus performers like the Flying Wallendas have equal gymnastic skills and athletic ability and what they do is considered an exhibition of entertaining skills. I would have to put triathlon over cross country/marathon as #1. The Iron Man Triathlon not only includes a marathon but before they even start running the 26 miles contestants have to swim 2 1/2 miles and ride a bicycle 112 miles. The current Ironman record is something a little over 8 hours. I am amazed that anybody could even finish something like that in a week much less in the time it takes to do a typical days work and drive home. Greco-Roman wrestling is a sport but I don't see the Brutality/punishment/physical danger element of it. Greco-Roman wrestlers are in much less danger of being injured than Rick Flair is when Goldberg tosses him out of the ring and onto the concrete floor. In the Hardest sports, Skill ability most of us have played golf, baseball and basketball at sometimes in our lives but very few of us has attempted to aquire a great deal of skill shooting a bow and arrow other than those who are into bow hunting. Golf has basically 4 different elements of skill requirments, Driving, Long Irons, Short Irons and Putting with the less used Fairway Woods as a sub category. Nobody has ever achieved total mastery of all those skills for more than a short period of time, ie. a round or a 4 day tournament. Even Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus have played near perfect golf to win a tournament and then missed the cut the next week. To paraphase Yogi Berra "Golf is 90% mental and the other half is physical." Baseball and Basketball skill have a lot to do with what position you play. The skills to be a good shortstop are a lot different from the skill necessary to be a good first baseman, catcher or pitcher but all hitters have to achieve proficiency at hitting a baseball. A point guard's skills are a lot different from those of a power forward or a center. Shaq doesn't have to try to learn the skills of Kobe Bryant to be a great center and Kobe could practice Shaq's skills until the day he dies but he will never be a great center unless he could somehow grow 6 inches in height and put on an extra 100 pounds of muscle.
