Monday, October 26, 2015

Define sport

What is sport? The English dictionary defines it as an “athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess”; it then mentions that this is often yet not exclusively competitive. A perfect example is the current rugby world cup - it certainly ticks the box for physicality and you only need to watch a game to witness the skill demonstrated by the players.
Almost all activities I partake in, watch or write about come under the umbrella of sport. When you consider that the description also includes “recreation or pleasant pastime” the umbrella doubles in size and opens up the question of when can an activity call itself a sport? This age old question was recently revisited when the card game Bridge claimed to be a sport.
Last week the English Bridge Union lost a high court battle against Sport England who had decided not to class Bridge a sport. To those outside of the sporting network it might seem confusing as to why a card game would so desperately want to class itself as a sport but it should be no surprise that a large part of it comes down to money. As a sport Bridge would be eligible to apply for funding as well as allowing schools and universities to offer it as a sporting option. Even after a high court ruling the case is not closed as the judge focused purely on the case in hand, ruling that Sport England had acted lawfully. He refused to comment on whether Bridge is actually sport.
There are the obvious benefits to being classed as a sport and as mentioned funding is a significant factor. I would like to think that sport must have a physiological benefit to the participant and therefore the heart rate must be raised at some point. Everyone is likely to have an opinion but who should get to have the final say?