A popular debate amongst many sports fans far and wide is about whether or not cheerleading or NASCAR are sports. Many people define a sport as something that has a professional league, or something that can be viewed on ESPN, or if it is in the Olympics, so on and so forth. Debating an individual sport can be difficult, especially when people’s views about a certain sport are different. Many debates amongst fans usually include cheerleading, NASCAR, fishing, and poker.

The definition of a sport is, “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” So it would appear that anything theoretically could become or already be a sport. This definition of a sport is a too broad. How are we going to put something as physically demanding as rugby under the same category as driving and cheerleading?

Let’s take a look at NASCAR. I can undoubtedly say that this is not a sport. I don’t care how much you want to defend that driving a car around a mile track 500 times is most definitely complicated and there is a method to racing around certain tracks; it’s never going to amount as a sport to me. You don’t necessarily have to be in tip top shape to race a car, all you do it take a left turn and every car that races is basically the same. How is anyone going to say that NASCAR is difficult and that the physical exertion for it is the same as any normal sport? Of course, I have no experience driving a car at 200 mph but if you are a professional driving against other professionals, where is the competition?

Now let’s talk about cheerleading.  If you think about it, cheerleaders’ main job is to root on their team and compete later. Don’t get me wrong I am happy that this year’s cheerleading team is doing well in their competition season with an undefeated season but, I never actually sat down and watched one of their competitions. How physically demanding is cheerleading really? Yes, someone could boast that you have to lift girls up and jump around and shout and what not but when you’re lifting a girl with a base of five girls and throwing easy tumbling skills in high school I wouldn’t say that your team is part of a sport. Trust me I would know, I am a gymnast who began tumbling at age 12. Granted I have a definite time advantage over them but it goes to show you that with proper coaching you can accomplish many things especially even if you are still young. Now if we are talking about high level, national championship cheerleading teams it’s a whole different story. Their competition is much more physically demanding through and through. Without a doubt in my mind this kind of cheerleading is a sport.

On the same note as NASCAR and cheerleading, fishing (deep sea or river) will always be a hobby to me. Surely, there are complicated components of fishing like what lure to use, what pole to use and all the calculation based on the water temperature and all that but, seriously you can include as many complicated gizmos as you want, it still won’t change the fact that you are literally trying to get lucky and drag in the biggest fish. If a majority of the competition is luck, then you might as well disregard it as a sport along with poker. Poker, similarly, is a game that tests how well you can take your chances and make money off of those chances. It is not physically demanding and a majority of it is luck, hoping that the right cards will come your way.

So we can see that a sport should be an activity that is both physically and mentally demanding. By challenging both your mind and body we are talking about true competition and question it poses; who can out perform who? Other sports like curling, luge, bobsled, ski jump and every other “sport” that relies on one factor is not a sport. Athletes train to be the best, and if you are training to where a standard has already been set and it looks like no one will get past that bar; you’re not participating in a sport.