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ZorbaTHut  2yr ago (text post)   5438 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 11, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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Are you one of those people who see athleticism as a fundamental part of sportsmanship? I don't really have a dog in this fight, but what would you call racing (and i assume you mean car racing, rather than all racing) instead? A game? A competition?

Yeah. This is 100% just my curmudgeonly opinion here, based off of nothing, but I define sports as being all of:

  1. A game (defined rules, etc.)

  2. A direct competition (you're competing directly, rather than essentially competing against each other's scores)

  3. Athleticism

Just having

a) 1 and 2 defines chess as a sport. Also racing.

b) Just 2 and 3 defines a drunken brawl as a sport. Also war.

c) Just 1 and 3 defines ballroom dance as a sport. Also bowling and golf.

I feel like we as a culture ascribe a lot of value to the word "sport", which to me should apply only to central examples like football, soccer, basketball, ultimate frisbee, etc.. Sports with teams and tactics and athleticism.

https://external-preview.redd.it/uce3ZttW7MLkTpBov60SFwNmLVJSjQui9uCu3MMA4wc.png?auto=webp&s=4fffcf069daf79147575fdf07eddc1cd55001cc4

In other words I'm a total purist in the above chart. I'd just call car racing a competition, yeah.

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