fox | sport/not a sport

musesfool made the point i was going to make about how to determine if something is a sport or not, so i don't have to do it myself (short version: objective scoring. the end.), but as a public service, i have helpfully divided all current olympic events into a handy checklist of what, according to that definition (which is of course absolutely correct) is and is not a sport. this list does not include events like golf (sport) and ballroom dancing (not a sport, despite calling itself DanceSport) and water skiing (not a sport) and rodeo (sport), because these are not and don't look likely to be olympic medal events. short discussion at the end about poker.

olympic events that are, in fact, sports
summer
Aquatics:
   swimming
   water polo
Archery
Athletics:
   all track, field, and road events, including race-walking
Badminton
Baseball
Basketball
Boxing
Canoe/kayak
Cycling
Equestrian:
   jumping
Fencing
Soccer
Handball
Field hockey
Judo
Modern pentathlon (shoot, fence, jump on horseback, run, swim)
olympic events that are, sadly, not sports
summer
Aquatics:
   diving (solo and synchronized)
   synchronized swimming
Equestrian:
   dressage
   eventing*
Gymnastics:
   artistic (i.e. "real" gymnastics)
   rhythmic
   trampoline

winter
Skating:
   figure skating and ice dancing
Skiing:
   freestyle aerials
   freestyle moguls
   nordic combined (race and jump)**
   ski jumping**
   snowboard half-pipe

Rowing
Sailing
Shooting
Softball
Table tennis
Tae kwon do
Tennis
Triathlon (swim, cycle, run)
Volleyball:
   beach and indoor
Weightlifting
Wrestling

winter
Biathlon (ski, shoot)
Bobsleigh:
   bobsled and skeleton
Curling
Hockey
Luge
Skating:
   speed skating and short-track
Skiing:
   all alpine events (downhill, various slaloms, combined)
   all cross-country events
   ~~freestyle moguls~~
   ~~nordic combined (race and jump)~~
   ~~ski jumping~~
   snowboard slalom

*eventing is in the not-a-sport column because it has a dressage component. if the cross-country course were an event by itself, i'd put it over on the left.
**ski jumping is mainly scored on distance, but there are judges who give them (or, i suppose, more like take away) points for style, as well. damn shame, really.

if these things qualify, why not poker?

well -- because poker doesn't involve any athleticism of any kind, for a start. i suppose it could be argued that the equestrian events don't require the humans to exhibit any particular athleticism (but i bet the horses are happier when they do), and archery and shooting are more about skill than anything else. so on that basis, should poker get in because there is skill involved as well as luck? frankly, if an event is going to be admitted that involves literally sitting on your ass until you win, it should be chess. and if a card game is going to get in, it should probably be duplicate bridge.

sport/not a sport

no subject