The Sports Widow Asks: Hot Dog Eating, Poker, Cheerleading, Fishing...Sports or Not?
August 7, 2007 10:30 AM | 0 Comments
How do you determine what activities are sports and which are non-sports? As a Sports Widow, this haunts me. Seriously, are fishing, poker, cheerleading and hotdog eating sports or not? Nathan’s Famous International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island, NY got full play-by-play commentary/coverage on ESPN, Fox Sports, CNN and NBC's Today Show as a major sports event. When, at age 8, my brother Scott devoured 42 ears of corn in East Troy, Wisconsin, where were the cameras?
Let’s start with the definition of a sport from Wikipedia: Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Used by itself, sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determiner of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as “mind sports” and “motor sports” where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors.
So does that mean that darts and billiards are sports? What about poker, Xbox, bull riding, fishing, synchronized swimming, dancing, cheerleading or competitive eating?
Clearly, poker and competitive eating have become sports with skyrocketing popularity since they started showing up on every cable and network television channel. Poker can be seen regularly on NBC, ESPN, Travel Channel, and Bravo. The World Series of Poker was recently held on ESPN and the Texas-hold-em winner, Jerry Yang, walked away with a whopping $8,250,000 take. And, the IFCE (International Federation of Competitive Eating) has just signed a long-term deal with Spike TV and Fox Sports to cover everything from meatball to hard-boiled egg eating competitions.
What about cheerleading? The skills involved in cheerleading leave no doubt about the athleticism of cheerleaders. However, with the definition of sport in mind; is the primary purpose of cheerleading to compete? The majority of cheerleading squads do not compete (check out the Allstar Cheer and Dance Championship). Their sole purpose is to entertain, motivate and unite sports fans of athletic teams at sports events. Cheerleaders are athletes without a sport.
Fishing is not a sport (despite having a cable network dedicated to the activity). Again, with the definition of sport in mind; most fishermen don’t participate in competitions.
In case you actually care about hot dog eating, Joey Chestnut set a new world record, eating 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, defeating six-time champ Takeru Kobayashi who placed second. You can see highlights on the competition at MajorLeageEating.com.
I don't know about you, but this all makes me a little bit hungry. I think I'll see if Bryan or my progeny are interested in a little dessert competition: We'll line up some pints of Ben & Jerry's or Haagen-Dazs and see who can consume the most without getting a brain freeze.
What's your definition of a sport? Where do you draw the line??? If you had to eat an astonishing amount of one food item, what would it be and why?
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