What makes someone an athlete? - Bilge

P paranoid123 Tiki Socialite New York City Joined: Dec 13, 2002 Posts: 379	P paranoid123 Posted posted on Wed, Feb 8, 2006 5:00 PM On 2006-02-07 09:39, PapeToaTane wrote: Sorry for the rant. But anybody who includes the skilled "Equestrian" on a list of "non athletes" has obviously never done it. Hunt Seat Equitation on the flat... or, more particularly, over fences, takes great ability, tremendous strength, incredible balance, well-developed and highly- practiced technical skills and, most of all... courage. If those are not the marks of a true "athlete" - I don't know what they are! My apologies to PapeToaTane. I brought up the original quote and listed equestrian as one of the questionable sports. I knew I might end up offending someone with my post, but I also said that I don't agree with the list, but it did come up in our discussion as a "questionable" event. Yes, obviously, I've never done it myself. I've tried riding a horse once in my life and... No, Sir, didn't like it (a little Ren and Stimpy ref there). But then I'd hazard to say that none of us who poked fun at curling has ever done it before, either. I'm sure the Olympic class curlers would come out and destroy us all at it and probably out arm wrestle me to boot. I've also never done individual syncronized swimming, biathalon, hot dog eating, race car driving, nor world class miming. Which goes back to my original question. What makes someone an athlete? All joking aside, let's break down race car driving. All of us have driven a car at some point in our lives. Some of us do it for several hours a day and some of us are very good at it. But that hardly makes us a race car driver. They can take a 1500 lb machine going well over 100 mph through hairpin turns, with no power steering, the interior is well over 100 degrees F, (in the case of 24 Hour Le Mans they're inside the car for HOURS), all the while monitoring vital components on the vehicle, avoiding traffic, and crashes. This takes talent, skill, lots of practice, teamwork, strength, endurance, lightning fast reflexes, and lots of courage. But there are certainly people who wouldn't consider them real athletes (is Auto Racing in the Sport section of LA Times? I'm not certain).

On 2006-02-07 09:39, PapeToaTane wrote:
Sorry for the rant. But anybody who includes the skilled "Equestrian" on a list of "non athletes" has obviously never done it. Hunt Seat Equitation on the flat... or, more particularly, over fences, takes great ability, tremendous strength, incredible balance, well-developed and highly- practiced technical skills and, most of all... courage.

If those are not the marks of a true "athlete" - I don't know what they are!

My apologies to PapeToaTane. I brought up the original quote and listed equestrian as one of the questionable sports. I knew I might end up offending someone with my post, but I also said that I don't agree with the list, but it did come up in our discussion as a "questionable" event.

Yes, obviously, I've never done it myself. I've tried riding a horse once in my life and... No, Sir, didn't like it (a little Ren and Stimpy ref there). But then I'd hazard to say that none of us who poked fun at curling has ever done it before, either. I'm sure the Olympic class curlers would come out and destroy us all at it and probably out arm wrestle me to boot. I've also never done individual syncronized swimming, biathalon, hot dog eating, race car driving, nor world class miming.

Which goes back to my original question. What makes someone an athlete? All joking aside, let's break down race car driving. All of us have driven a car at some point in our lives. Some of us do it for several hours a day and some of us are very good at it. But that hardly makes us a race car driver. They can take a 1500 lb machine going well over 100 mph through hairpin turns, with no power steering, the interior is well over 100 degrees F, (in the case of 24 Hour Le Mans they're inside the car for HOURS), all the while monitoring vital components on the vehicle, avoiding traffic, and crashes. This takes talent, skill, lots of practice, teamwork, strength, endurance, lightning fast reflexes, and lots of courage. But there are certainly people who wouldn't consider them real athletes (is Auto Racing in the Sport section of LA Times? I'm not certain).

Post #213535 by paranoid123 on Wed, Feb 8, 2006 5:00 PM