How do you define sport

Based on what you've learned from the readings and lectures, how do you define "sport"? Are chess boxing, bog snorkeling, and competitive eating sports? How do you know?

Sports, as defined by The Oxford English Dictionary, is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill, especially one regulated by set rules or customs in which an individual or team competes against another or others” (Class Lectures, Lesson 1.1, Slide 6). Chess boxing, bog snorkeling, and competitive eating are not like the traditional sports that we are accustomed to, but nevertheless, they still fall under the broad category of sports. These sports can be classified as Modern Sports. All three of them have characteristics of Modern Sport: secularism, equality, specialization, bureaucratization, rationalization, quantification, and obsession with records (Class Lectures, Lesson 1.3, Slide 10).

In “Chess Boxing: By Hook or By Rook,” it is stated that chess boxing has rules, and it also involves mental and physical strength. Therefore, as mentioned before, it is categorized as a sport. Bog snorkeling falls under the umbrella term sports because according to the article “Bog Snorkeling in Wales Is a Wacky Extreme Adventure,” it is a contest. Like bog snorkeling, competitive eating is also a contest, as mentioned in “A Brief History of Competitive Eating.” In agreement with Guttmann’s definition, “an autotelic, physical contest” is a sport (Class Lectures, Lesson 1.1, Slide 20). Therefore, both bog snorkeling and competitive eating are considered sports.