Diving is Not a Sport???!!!

[Scared Silly]

"There are only three sports - bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."

Attributed to Ernest Hemingway

 

[plot]

"Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games."

- Ernest Hemmingway

"There are only three sports - bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."

Attributed to Ernest Hemingway

For some reason this thread is the first time I've ever heard this apparently quite popular qoute... or at least, variations of it.

 

[aubie85]

I am a beginning diver, and that may bias my opinion, but I think it is a sport to some people(not me though). For example, as unsafe as it is, I have noticed people who make it a race to the bottom(which I 'lose' because I have issues equalizing) Also, I have noticed people seeing who can surface the fastest(totally not me BTW). I being a future nurse am more considered with the health and safety of myself and everyone around me. I do not consider it wise to be 'competitive' 60 ft ot so under the water, that's just asking for trouble!!!

 

[dive_lover88]

I say it's an extreme sport. Sports are normally played in controlled environment where everything is prepped and controlled...eg referees, medics etc...

Whereas diving, it's in an uncontrolled environment where we are up against nature, the biggest and fiercest oppoent....and ppl do get killed doing this.

So does the stats show the number of ppl dying on the pitch compared to dying in the realm of mother nature.

my 0.02...
cheers

 

[Parysa]

You are not envolved in a sport until you are envolved in a competition.

Sport:

• an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition
• the occupation of athletes who compete for pay

Actually, according to dictionary.com,

1. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.
2. An active pastime; recreation.

It doesn't say it is REQUIRED TO BE undertaken competitively. Btw, that button that says "M-QUOTE" lets you quote several posts at once instead of having a separate post per quote you're replying to. Cleans things up a bit.

If I want it to be a sport then by golly it's a sport.

LOL, Tommy, I adore you! :blinking:



Diving is a sport. NASCAR IS NOT.

 

[String]

I dont class diving as a sport - its a hobby.

To me a sport is something i compete in, against others with the sole intention of winning.

Rugby is a sport, Scuba is a hobby.

You can enjoy both but for me the ultimate goal is different.

 

[lmorin]

I dont class diving as a sport - its a hobby.

To me a sport is something i compete in, against others with the sole intention of winning.

Rugby is a sport, Scuba is a hobby.

You can enjoy both but for me the ultimate goal is different.

Sorry, but you are mis-using terms. I play soccer, a well known sport, but for me it's a hobby and an extracurricular activity. Diving is a sport because it fits the definition of being a sport. It's also a hobby for some, an activity for others, a lifestyle for still others. It may also be competitive for some, but not others. Who cares? Football, basketball, Little League, wrestling are all competitive sports, but they are also included in a broader list of activities such as tiddlywinks and toenail clipping. Personally, I like several of the definitions of "sport" as a noun from Merriam-Webster Online (enter 'sport', then click on the second option, 'sport[2,noun]')

Main Entry:
2sport
Function:
noun
Date:
15th century
1 a: a source of diversion : recreation b: sexual play c (1): physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2): a particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in

#1a is pretty standard an good for diving, but #1b also has its merits.

 

[The Anchor]

I have to go with sport.

For starters; wind surfing, sky diving, hang gliding, water skiing, mountain climbing and kyaking are considered sports by many, and they dont have the required "competition" that has been mentioned in many posts.

If we assume that sports are only outdoor activities, that would eliminate; hockey, sumo wrestling, wrestling, diving, swimming, water polo, and fencing (all I could think of at the moment).

If we agree a sport can be played inside and only requires compition and activity, then air hockey, doing shots, playing poker, chess, checkers, and Monopoly are all sports.

even if we assume it requires outdoos, compition, and activity the shots on the patio is still a sport .

The cincer for me is figure skating. If that is a sport, and I think we can clasify it as one as it is an olympic event, then diving has to be a sport. If a pannel of judges assigning an arbitray score to a single or pair of skaters makes it a sport, then so is diving. All you have to do is stop a stranger on your way to your entry point and ask him to give you a number between 0 and 10 when you surface.

Problem solved sport.

 

[String]

My view is simple, if im not playing it to win its just a hobby.

I dont play diving to win.

 

[tceylan]

In the sport of mountain/rock climbing... best time or first to the top wins the sporting event.

I was a member of a prominent mountaineering club back in the days. I can tell you that you can get yourself in serious trouble in that sport if you have the ideas you wrote above.

In fact, to break this behavior, in one of the trainings, we used to take the students very close to the peak and then make them turn back without making the summit. In the same training, there would be other teams actually making the summit.

I find mountaineering and scuba/free diving similar in this sense. (The fact that nature accepts you as a guest, that you should be humble enough to bow your head and call off the dive at any time, and that under no circumstances, buddies/team should separate, etc.)