Jeez Bronze

in Mens Gymnastics. Well done.

Make that silver.

 

Silver!!

 

Make that silver

.

 

I o.

 

Back to bronze...

A bit "look at what you could have won"...

 

Re: Make that silver

Feckin Gymnastics bit farcical that ending.

Bronze it is.

 

GB Medals:
Sports: 1 silver, 1 bronze
Arts: 1 bronze

 

Here we go again. I remember your comments on some of the events at the Winter Olympics. While some of these events are certainly more "artistic" than others, you can't tell me that gymnasts, figure skaters etc are not supremely fit and talented too? Far more worthy of the "sports" tag than snooker, darts and even golf, IMO. Bloody well done by the British gymnasts today.

 

I thought you'd remember that.

I've actually never claimed that they aren't fit and talented, they most certainly are. Purely on the fitness alone I could never even hope to come anywhere near their level of fitness and on talent, well I'm even further behind than on the fitness.

My opinion is quite simple really. If the winner is decided by hard and fast, yes or no rules then it is a sport. If it is decided on opinion and who the judge thought looked best then it is an art. That isn't taking anything at all away from the athletes or the disciplines that they compete in, I just don't consider them true sports.

Diving for example is decided by who a group of judges think looked better. How is that any different than a drawing competition, sculpture competition or singing or dancing competition? They are all arts in my opinion.

Darts on the other hand, whilst I don't particularly like it or find the competitors to be very athletic, is a sport (again in my opinion) because the result is governed by yes or no rules. Was it in 20? yes or no.

I love Diving and the gymnastics, theyre some of my favourite parts of the olympics but I still dont consider them sports in the truest sense.

 

Where was I arguing?

 

I take it you have not played snooker, darts or golf at any level other than fun? They may not be super fit but all require high levels of skill, particularly golf.

 

Golf is utter w@nk and darts is a pub game. Sithi.

 

And you are **** at both. Can't deny there is a high level of skill involved.

 

I play golf (for fun) fairly regularly and play it quite well and people who play with me hate it when I say "that was a lovely walk". The argument about what is and what isn't a sport can go on and on (ask Supertyke - see above he recalls our debate 2 years ago at the Winter Olympics) but surely "sport" has to have some degree of athleticism about it (which therefore precludes snooker and darts). Otherwise, you may as well include playing Subbuteo, Monopoly and Scrabble for that matter - all require high levels of skill in order to beat your opponent.

Taking this one step further.......... I think I'll petition for Wii Bowling and Wii Dance to be officially declared as sports - I'm pretty skilled at those. And it's much more effort than throwing an arrow or hitting a ball with a cue.

 

Darts always interests me (the debate over sport or not that is, not the actual game/sport). If archery is a sport then surely Darts must be.

In archery you are essentially throwing an arrow at a board and aiming at specific areas of said board.
In darts you are throwing an arrow at a board and aiming at specific areas of said board.

The difference? In archery you actually have a mechanical aid to help you. In darts you don't.

I know that is simplifying things a little bit and twisting them slightly to make a point but in all honesty it's actually true, playing darts is achieved purely through physical exertion with no mechanical aids and is governed by hard and fast, yes or no rules. The very definition of sport surely? At least in my mind it is anyway.

Still can't stand it though.

 

I prefer to think that sports have a level of physical exertion or dexterity rather than athleticism. It is up to the participants what state they play the sport in, look at John Parkin for instance. There are many physically fit players of golf, I am sure there are snooker and darts players who look after themselves. On your definition we should exclude shooting and archery too. The games you mention are just that, games. They all have a high level of chance in them that have more control over the outcome of the game than the competitors (Subbuteo is a bit different because it is essentially sport in a plastic world).

Like you say it could be debated all day (I did once at uni in a lecture).

 

I used to beat you at 'round the board' every time we played and that takes immense skill and concentration. All them holes in the wall next to the dartboard were your fault.

 

Yes, shooting and archery are akin to darts as far as I am concerned. Was going to mention them before as I don't think they should be Olympic Sports - there was an 8-months pregnant Malaysian women competing a couple of days ago wasn't there, so what does that say about the "sport" ? Presumably shooting and archery have been in there since the start of the modern Olympics and no-one has dared take them out?

Anyway, no-one will ever agree on what should / should not be classed as sports - some countries seem to think that ****-fighting is a sport for heaven's sake. I'll have to let it lie (per Reeves and Mortimer).