What makes someone an athlete?

I was having a discussion with some friends about certain "sports" and we wondered if it made the participants athletes. What is the defining line? For example, we think if you can play it while you're drunk, it's not an athletic sport or if you can play the whole thing without breaking a sweat, it's not athletic. I'm really not sure if these are good definitions.

We came up with some dubious games/sports that we just find it difficult to call the players athletes. Of course, some of these require a skill and/or talent, and I couldn't possibly do any of them well. And undoubtedly, there are some people who really excel at it. But if you're good at this particular sport, does it necessarily make you an athlete? I don't agree with all of these, but we came up with them when we were talking about it. Apologies to anyone who does these and takes offense:

-darts
-bowling
-race car driving
-equestrian (we're talking about the human rider, not the horse)
-baseball (now, there's no denying there are some real world class athletes in baseball, but there are some total lardasses in baseball.)
-golf
-curling

I'm not sure what the point of my post is, but if you have any thoughts I'd like to hear it.

Great topic

The obvious things contribute to being an athlete (Strength, endurance, speed etc) but often it's just a certain build which enables a person to be effective at a sport or game.

Most often though the weirdest involve having a certain quirky skill either by birth or development. Like being able to sink a 40 foot hoop consistently, slide a 100 mph bike around a dirt track, or hit a breaking fastball.

Hand-eye coordination, or balance in addition to above average talent or strengths that enable a person to excel sport in general.

Curling tho..that one is beyond me. I think the Canadians and Scots developed it so people who smoke can be in the Olympic

Or then there are athletics that are neither "games" nor "sports" as we know them but are nevertheless placed in the same category and I call them "fetes of daring and strength":

Caber Toss
Tractor Pull
Indian Leg Wrastlin'
Belly Buckin'
Eating (name yer poison)
Tug O' War
Staring
Cliff Diving
Rock Climbing

I'm gonna use this opportunity to vent about the lamest sport in any Olympiad: biathalon. You know, the x-country skiing/shooting event you only hear about in the winter olympics. Okay, x-country skiing is a real sport with a long sporting and cultural history and requires genuine athletic skills. Shooting? Sure, skill and practice. Aerobic endurance? Not so much. But combining them? What the???

Let's think up some new ridiclous sporting combinations, eh?

On 2006-01-30 23:28, Tiki-bot wrote:
I'm gonna use this opportunity to vent about the lamest sport in any Olympiad: biathalon. You know, the x-country skiing/shooting event you only hear about in the winter olympics. Okay, x-country skiing is a real sport with a long sporting and cultural history and requires genuine athletic skills. Shooting? Sure, skill and practice. Aerobic endurance? Not so much. But combining them? What the???

Let's think up some new ridiclous sporting combinations, eh?

Canoodling and blogging

Cheese rolling, now there's a true sport
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/articles/2005/05/30/cheese_rolling_2005_feature.shtml

The Bi-athlon isn't so irksom to me as some sports, as it clearly has roots it both hunting, and military, so it has uses...somplace. Also at least the winner is clear...he or she hits the target.

The caber toss actually has some logic behind how it's done, and there are now computerized scoring systems which determine the closest angel to vetcle that the caber lands.

The shyte sports for me are the ones which are completley subective to the whims of judges. Not just a blown call or a funky strike zone...but like a bitter old bag of turds scoring lower than everybody.

Races, boxing, and that sort of thing are rather clear.

There are some splendid sports...usually simple in nature where villages, or sections of a town play each other. "Shinty" was like that, and "Ba" still is.

thirsty games

isn't an athlete someone who shoots up drugs, beats up people and gets arrested alot? :P

On 2006-01-30 23:28, Tiki-bot wrote:
I'm gonna use this opportunity to vent about the lamest sport in any Olympiad: biathalon. You know, the x-country skiing/shooting event you only hear about in the winter olympics. Okay, x-country skiing is a real sport with a long sporting and cultural history and requires genuine athletic skills. Shooting? Sure, skill and practice. Aerobic endurance? Not so much. But combining them? What the???

Let's think up some new ridiclous sporting combinations, eh?

I'm not excited about biathlon myself, but Gigantalope is right, biathalon isn't as random as it seems. It finds its roots from hunting and military, especially in Scandinavian countries. Which is why us Americans don't appreciate it very much. But they say it's pretty tough, after skiing a bit, your heartrate is racing, which makes it very difficult to hold and aim a rifle straight. A true biathlete can control their heartrate to the point where they can aim and fire.

Speaking of hunting, that's another nonathletic "sport". C'mon, the dude has camoflague, one or more high powered rifles, spotting scopes, duck whistles, etc. What the heck does a deer or duck have??

Gladiators with swords versus half starved tigers. Now that's a sport!

On 2006-01-31 06:52, Johnny Dollar wrote:
isn't an athlete someone who shoots up drugs, beats up people and gets arrested alot? :P

In Oakland or Philly - yes.

I understand that each biathalon activity/sport is valid in it's own way - it's the seemingly incongruous combination of the two that's bizzare. If it's a common thing in snowy countries, then why not have wood-chopping and beer-chugging as a combination sport?

Or swearing and ice fishing.

Spelunking & knitting

pancake eating and pipe smoking?

practice, practice, practice

http://www.bikehotrod.com/images/lab.mov

you'll need to be able to play quicktime

I recall an interview that former Phillies player John Kruk had several years ago in which a female reporter asked him why he smoked since he was a professional athelete. His reply was:

"I ain't an athlete, lady, I'm a baseball player."

On 2006-01-30 23:28, Tiki-bot wrote:
I'm gonna use this opportunity to vent about the lamest sport in any Olympiad: biathalon. You know, the x-country skiing/shooting event you only hear about in the winter olympics. Okay, x-country skiing is a real sport with a long sporting and cultural history and requires genuine athletic skills. Shooting? Sure, skill and practice. Aerobic endurance? Not so much. But combining them? What the???

Let's think up some new ridiclous sporting combinations, eh?

Ok...now what about "Curling"....Oh my...EXCITMENT!

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!

Fr. Tiki // husband of current p.c.h.a. medal finals winner and a.o. hunter hi-point leader at this year's h.i.t.s. series of shows in indio

http://www.hitsshows.com/

Adding to PapeToaTane's equestrian points, one cannot imagine the balance and strength and flexibility needed to guide a 1000+ lb. horse over jumps, or even through dressage moves. This is also an animal that can go from 35 mph to a dead stop in seconds if it thinks it cannot make the turn or jump, so if the rider's spacial awareness is off, they will not be successful.

If it appears that it's easy for the horse to just "carry" the rider through a course, try putting a kid on your shoulders and go out running and jump over at least five hurdles... you'd have to work hard to keep the kid balanced on your shoulders even if the kid has good balance.

In any sport, a true athlete makes all their combined skills look seamless and sometimes perhaps a little too easy with spectacular results.

Have y'all heard that there's a group trying to get ballroom dancing accepted as an Olympic sport? That really confounds me!

On 2006-02-08 00:29, ZebraTiki wrote:
Have y'all heard that there's a group trying to get ballroom dancing accepted as an Olympic sport? That really confounds me!

Why not? It's just ice dancing without the ice.

(For those of you keeping score, my favorite Olympic event is SKELETON.)

I have a few more "activities" that some call sports, but which are not.

Individual synchronized swimming. Its bad enough that there is synchronized swimming in the olympics, but INDIVIDUAL synchronized swimming?!?! How is that SYNCHRONIZED? I thought the whole idea was to compare how well the two swimmer/dancers moved in SYNCRONIZATION with each other. If there is just one, where is the synchronization???

Moveover, any "activity" that is done to music is NOT A SPORT! This brings to mind the next activity that is not a sport...

Cheerleading. Ok, cheerleading is activity peformed by people who are cheering along others who are actually engaged in a sporting event. If cheerleading was actually a sport, there would be cheerleaders leading cheers on the sidelines to cheer on the competing cheerleaders.

Some people seem to have the opinion that if there is physical activity that someone can judge whether a person/team does better than another, it is a sport. I disagree. That would make miming a sport. That, of course, would be ridiculous.

My overall rule of thumb for sport / not a sport is the level of objectivity. The more an activity is a pure sport is if it does not need to be judged. For example, in track and field the winner is determined by how fast he/she runs, how high he/she jumps, etc. There is nothing left for judges to determine. The first person to cross the finish line is the winner, plain and simple. Even boxing is less of a sport when it is left to judges to determine the winner. The only way boxing would be pure sport is if the winner was determined only by knockout.

To me, activities such as gymnastics, ice skating, diving etc. are at the other end of the spectrum and are less of a sport because the winner is determined solely by judges. Of course, sports such as Football, Hockey, Basketball, Baseball, Soccer all include some aspect of judging (refereeing) because the calls made by the refs can affect the outcome of the game. And because of this, are not as much of a pure sport like, say the 100 meter dash, etc.

[ Edited by: joefla70 2006-02-08 12:20 ]

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).

Hmmm. Old thread worthy of being a Resurected Thread.

Immediate thought is kind of cosmic-charitable. In this loose opinion, an artist is someone who regularly / consistently does what they can to create art. A musician is someone who same way does what they can to create music. A writer is someone who does same way what they can to create "literature."

'Guessing that makes the person who does what they can, regularly / often, to do something athletic, a legitimae form of athlete.

Therefore, a tip of the umbrella drink and smile of encouragement to the senior citizens "power walking" on the park trail. By the above criteria, they...and those who give athletic activity an honest, personal go rate the "title" of "athlete" from this e-writer.