tigerswiftly wrote:

The Olympics don't don't decide what is and is not a sport - They just decide what the Olympics recognize as a sport for the purposes of the event. And then elect not to ever include the 'sports' that aren't really sports but they said were sports so they could make money off of their organizing bodies.

Well, they don't include F1 or snooker either.

Also, I don't care in the slightest. But I'm willing to let the olympic committee make the call on this one and forget about it forever.

Nobody decides the definition of sport, which is why I said it was a stupid argument at the beginning. And then argued anyway.

No you didn't.

@Kow

monkey wrote:

igorgetmeabrain wrote:

we are an indivisible whole, every facet of ourselves inextricable from yada yada The ancient games used to include contests of poetry, singing, theatre and so forth, recognising that intellectual endeavour is really no less part of what makes a supreme athlete than how far you can hurl blah blah blah.

Right but things can be categorised by the things that make them unique. Saying everything is the same by finding commonalites is pointless. Sport is a way of categorising the physical aspect of all the qualites youre going on about. Your Kasparov anecdote is weak as well. A medical student I knew used to go to the gym for a couple of hours everyday while he was cramming. Some theory about oxygenating the brain or something. So exams are sport. It's like saying I would only watch Total Wipeout on the condition it introduces a modern interpretive dance element.

You appear to have completely missed my point which is that the ancient Greeks recognised that sport and superhuman endeavour is not purely a physical pursuit and thus included contests of intellectual and artistic prowess in the olympic games.  Naturally, that doesn't mean that every activity that one engages in is a sport.  Sitting an exam is not a sport.  Engaging in a contest of wits over a chessboard however is.  Neither does it mean that there must be an artistic element to every physically-orientated contest.  T hat would be ridiculous.  However, to be an Olympian is to be a superhuman being, physically, intellectually, artistically.  At least that's what it used to mean.

Also, whilst 'oxygenating the brain' will undoubtedly be beneficial to any contest which requires intellectual fortitude, that is not the primary reason why Kasparov used intense physical workouts as preparations for his matches.  Perhaps this explains it a little better.

Lovely?

I'd have thought any event where the world champion has been beaten by a computer would preclude it from being included in the Olympics.

I don't really care if chess is included in the olympics, as it's only slightly more boring than most of what's already there.  Suggesting it's a sport though is monstrously retarded, unless you're a pathetic moron who insists on using a different definition of sport to everybody else.

im only interested in the olympics if team gb fields a soccer/footy team.
footy is the only part that interests me.

i hear beckham, giggs and scholes could be involved.

monkey wrote:

igorgetmeabrain wrote:

You appear to have completely missed my point which is that the ancient Greeks recognised that sport and superhuman endeavour is not purely a physical pursuit and thus included contests of intellectual and artistic prowess

Right but we don't. The opera would be fine if there was hurdles in it because of what some other civilsation thought a couple of millennia ago. Bloody ludicrous point of view.

Hurdling in opera?  No need to go all reductio ad absurdum on my ass.  All I said is that we've taken a noble Greek sporting tradition and through the centuries devolved it into a contest which largely appears to consist of finding new and ever more convoluted ways of cycling around in a circle or canoeing down an artificial river, whilst intellectual contests which were once an integral part of the process have now been consigned to history.  I think that's a bad thing.  You don't.  We done now? Good.

(current, or future) Olympic sports

Football
Ice Dancing
Kiteboarding
Golf
Archery
Modern Pentathlon
Biathlon (skiing / shooting combo)
Triathlon
Ski-cross
Open water swimming
Synchronised Swimming
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Beach volleyball
Titting about on horses
BMX biking
Taekwondo

Not current Olympic sports

Squash
Competitive ballroom dancing
Windsurfing
Kendo
Netball
Line dancing
Capoeira
Rugby Sevens
Proper horse racing
Korfball
Competitive frisbee
Skateboarding
Lawn bowls
Cricket


All pretty random really.

Ive got tickets to the football final and basketball.

You've seriously NEVER done postal Taekwondo?

Womens' Beach Volleyball tix me.  Should be fun.  Suspect it will be a male dominated audience.

Plus footy semi & footy final.  Which gives me reason to support Team GB I guess.

i'll be bringing my brolly, that's for sure

Motor racing. That's racing.

(I'd define sport as anything with its primary focus on physical development. Snooker, darts and chess all fall under competitive games in my almanac.)