The Limits of the Definition of a Sport
One third of all the people in the world regularly play a sport, but what does it actually mean? What counts as one and what doesn’t? By Google’s definition, it is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.“ If this is counted as the official definition, then for something to count as a sport, it must reach these requirements. 1- It is a physical activity, as in a person must move and be exercising while playing the sport. 2- It is competitive, so there must be a way to win or lose. Skill levels affect how likely a person will win. Someone can be “better” at it than another person. Also sports often have rules so the matches are fair and don’t turn into a free-for-all. 3- The “for entertainment” part means that it must be done for fun. People’s definition of “fun” often is different, but basically you have to be happy with it.
There are the common sports, like basketball and soccer, but then there are less common but still accepted sports, like swimming and running. Then there are random physical activities that are normally done recreationally, but can be labeled as a sport. One example is yoga. Many people enjoy it, and it stretches your physical limits. However, there is also a competitive side to it because there are official competitions called Yoga Asana to measure how good someone is at it. Since it fulfills the rules, it counts. But what about skydiving? Obviously it is a physical activity and some people enjoy it, but how can it be a competition? You can’t really fall faster than someone to call it a win. There are also limits to how high a plane can drop a free-faller from because of oxygen problems. The answer is that parachuters are ranked by how accurately they can land and how gracefully they can move while falling in the air.
My personal opinion on this is that basically anything can be called a sport because technically any action can follow the definition that Google provided. It can be just an action, not a full activity, and still be a sport. First of all, people’s personal opinions cause the third rule to be completely useless. If one person doesn’t think something is enjoyable, there is at least someone who exists (or existed or will exist) who thinks (or thought or will think) it is fun. Secondly, as long as something counts as “doing something”, it is physical. Gaming, playing instruments, reading, etc are physical because you move your fingers. They are not very exerting but can be intensive over a long period of time. Just existing is physical because even though you do not have to be moving, there is a physical strain on your body to stay alive. There is also an instinctive skill that you know to keep yourself at homeostasis and safe. Therefore even if an action is mental, technically at some point you will physically get tired while doing it, so everything will count for rule one. The last one is the easiest. You can call anything competitive. It can always be longer/shorter, faster/slower, more complex, graceful, efficient, etc, so someone doing anything can always be called better or worse than someone else. Anything can be a competition. So anything can be a sport.
(TLDR: Definitions are indefinite unless they give a definite limit. Which most don’t. So the definitions don’t matter. So according to me and Google, anything is a sport. Sorry for going past the character limit.)
