Jockeys are athletes, not horses
What constitutes a sport? Answering that question is growing increasingly more difficult.
Walk along the sideline of any high school football game and ask if cheerleading is a sport. Or ask a cheerleader's parent.
It won't take long to learn how passionate cheerleaders are about their stunts.
Today's young people – the so-called Generation X and Generation Y – continue to change our view of sport.
The X Games and Gravity Games – all of which seem to include a bizarre move known as the "720" – have become a force in the sports world.
Are skateboarding, motorcycle jumping and wakeboarding really sports?
And what about rhythmic gymnastics and roller derby?
Are these activities as legitimate as baseball or football?
Heck, there's even a grass-skirt – sorry, grassroots – movement to have ballroom dancing made an Olympic sport.
In my humble opinion, at least two components are needed to constitute a sport, athleticism and a uniform set of rules.
That brings me to one of my pet peeves: the notion that horse racing is a sport.
OK, I realize that horse racing has been part of the American sports landscape longer than even baseball or boxing.
But let's be honest here – it's the same bag of oats for a horse whether it wins or loses.
Thoroughbred horses are given human characteristics, implying that the horse understands the complex concepts of competition and sportsmanship.
Jockeys are athletes.
Horses are not.
Athletes must be human.
Horse racing became popular for one reason – greed. Americans found they could wager on horse racing, which could be a way to make money.
Just because one can bet on it doesn't necessarily make it a sport.
Americans have taken notice of horse racing again during the past month as Funny Cide – which the Associated Press describes as a "chestnut gelding" ad nauseum – captured the first two races of the Triple Crown.
I know nothing about horse racing, but I'm sure it takes skill to train a thoroughbred.
It must take equal parts courage and fearlessness for a 120-pound jockey to strap himself to two-ton horse and race at 40 mph.
But horses are not athletes. They're animals, albeit incredibly strong and intelligent ones.
For a moment, let's entertain the thought that Funny Cide will win the Triple Crown.
Yes, it would be interesting to have a Triple Crown winner for the first time in a quarter-century.
But Funny Cide won't know the difference between the Triple Crown and a triple cheeseburger.
It's a horse, not an athlete.
http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030601/NEWS/306010344/1019
What constitutes a sport? Answering that question is growing increasingly more difficult.
Walk along the sideline of any high school football game and ask if cheerleading is a sport. Or ask a cheerleader's parent.
It won't take long to learn how passionate cheerleaders are about their stunts.
Today's young people – the so-called Generation X and Generation Y – continue to change our view of sport.
The X Games and Gravity Games – all of which seem to include a bizarre move known as the "720" – have become a force in the sports world.
Are skateboarding, motorcycle jumping and wakeboarding really sports?
And what about rhythmic gymnastics and roller derby?
Are these activities as legitimate as baseball or football?
Heck, there's even a grass-skirt – sorry, grassroots – movement to have ballroom dancing made an Olympic sport.
In my humble opinion, at least two components are needed to constitute a sport, athleticism and a uniform set of rules.
That brings me to one of my pet peeves: the notion that horse racing is a sport.
OK, I realize that horse racing has been part of the American sports landscape longer than even baseball or boxing.
But let's be honest here – it's the same bag of oats for a horse whether it wins or loses.
Thoroughbred horses are given human characteristics, implying that the horse understands the complex concepts of competition and sportsmanship.
Jockeys are athletes.
Horses are not.
Athletes must be human.
Horse racing became popular for one reason – greed. Americans found they could wager on horse racing, which could be a way to make money.
Just because one can bet on it doesn't necessarily make it a sport.
Americans have taken notice of horse racing again during the past month as Funny Cide – which the Associated Press describes as a "chestnut gelding" ad nauseum – captured the first two races of the Triple Crown.
I know nothing about horse racing, but I'm sure it takes skill to train a thoroughbred.
It must take equal parts courage and fearlessness for a 120-pound jockey to strap himself to two-ton horse and race at 40 mph.
But horses are not athletes. They're animals, albeit incredibly strong and intelligent ones.
For a moment, let's entertain the thought that Funny Cide will win the Triple Crown.
Yes, it would be interesting to have a Triple Crown winner for the first time in a quarter-century.
But Funny Cide won't know the difference between the Triple Crown and a triple cheeseburger.
It's a horse, not an athlete.
http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030601/NEWS/306010344/1019
