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The Forum > Article Comments > 'Dad! I did my first specky!' > Comments

'Dad! I did my first specky!' : Comments

By Dennis Hemphill, published 15/7/2010

What defines an activity as a sport? Is playing virtual sport a sport?

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I googled Wikipedia. "Chess is a recognized sport by the International Olympic Committee[3] with FIDE being the recognized International Sports Federation for chess since June 1999." However ... "The prospects of chess becoming an Olympic sporting event at some future date remain unclear. The naming of FIDE's team championship as the "Chess Olympiad" is of historical origin and implies no connection between this event and the Olympic Games." And there's more ... "For the 1924 Olympics an attempt was made to include chess in the Olympic Games but this failed because of problems with distinguishing between amateur and professional players.[1] While the 1924 Summer Olympics was taking place in Paris, the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad also took place in Paris. FIDE was formed on Sunday, July 20, 1924, the closing day of the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad.[2]

FIDE organised the first Official Olympiad in 1927 which took place in London.[1] The Olympiads were occasionally held annually and at irregular intervals until World War II; since 1950 they have been held regularly every two years.[1]

It seems much speck-ulation has already occurred about whether it is or is not a sport, that is to say, should it be included as a sport - as one of the 'real' sports or should it not?
Posted by dotto, Tuesday, 20 July 2010 10:11:33 PM
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Phil M,
What about snooker? Is Melbourne’s own world champion, Neil Robertson, not a sportsman? He well might appear in the motorcade for honoured sportsmen before the Grand Final this year.

What about golf? I saw John Daly near the top of the British Open leader board last week. I believe Tiger Woods is there or thereabouts as the world’s highest paid sportsperson.

Is physical endurance or exertion really a key? Olympians who run the 100 metre sprint or swim the 50 metre freestyle don’t really use of lot of breath to do so. (I think the latter take only about three or four breaths).

Dennis,
I am still not convinced about Playstation football as a true sport. I caught up with a U-Tube video of the interactive World Cup. They looked like they were having a lot of fun. The video spends a fair amount of its time focusing on bikini clad girls of limited ability playing beach soccer on the sands next to the Barcelona event. Are we sure it wasn’t a PR stunt for promoting the real World Cup and the Playstation product? But congrats to the champ. If he was an Aussie, we would probably give him a tickertape parade.

While you’re here, Dennis, can I ask your opinion on fair play? In previous years at the Football World Cup, they used to emphasise something called ‘Fair Play’ (with little kiddies holding up the Fair Play banners). Have they given that up for a joke and replaced it with ‘Win At All Costs’.

In particular, I’m thinking about the deliberate handball that got Uruguay through to the semi-final; another deliberate handball by Thierry Henry that got France into the World Cup finals; and the aggressive tackles on display in the Final with the referee hesitant to send anyone off.
Posted by Dan S de Merengue, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 2:14:15 PM
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Dan S.

There is no shortage of Fair Play campaigns around sport, but they must compete hard against the ever-increasing emphasis on “winning at all costs”. The emphasis on winning sees huge government investment (see my “Fair Go Olympics” http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7783) and dubious business practices (see Brett Hutchins’ “Winning at all - costs” http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10730), both of which raise a number of ethical issues around fairness.

It appears to me that your second point gets to the question of the responsibility for fair play. From an ethical point of view, fair play is a principle for self-regulation. In ideal terms, a sporting contest is fair if there is a level playing field, upon which athletes use acceptable means to determine the outcome of the contest.

Of course, dubious practices abound, which see sport organisations or athletes seek unfair advantages of one type or another. Some club officials and athletes may simply adopt the view that something is wrong “only if you get caught”. As self-regulation breaks down, there are more calls for increased policing, usually through more referees, increased video surveillance and tougher penalties. Fair play thus becomes the responsibility of sport officials, and less a measure of the character of the athletes.

The referee is in the (unenviable) position of interpreting and enforcing rules in concrete circumstances. Awarding a penalty kick, for example, might vary according to the circumstances, even in the same match. The hard tackle that would draw a penalty kick in the first minutes of the match may be let go in the dying moments, especially if the scores are even and a premiership is at stake. Is this fair? Maybe the referee is trading off consistency for an outcome that will be determined by the players and not by his/her decision, which will be contentious in such circumstances?
Posted by DHemphill, Sunday, 25 July 2010 8:53:34 AM
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Here is a follow-up to the previous post.

I would like to return to computer games for a moment to give you an example of self-regulation. During a furious combat sequence, I overheard the cries of my son and several of his on-line comrades to ban a player for being too good! That is, the player in question was achieving non-stop (double-point) head shots, which is seemingly impossible due to the complexity of the battle scenarios and the speed of movement of game characters. Apparently, hackers can re-program the game so that any (single point) body shot will automatically register as a (double point) head shot, thus giving the shooter an unfair advantage. The gaming community in this instance had a clear sense of acceptable behaviour, judged the behaviour (beyond reasonable doubt or balance of probabilities?) as unacceptable, and meted out its justice.

Backyard or schoolyard variants of sports, where there are no referees, teachers or parents, may have the potential to develop the capacity for self-regulation. Children may bicker and squabble, but they can eventually come up with a set of rules to get on with the game and achieve the benefits they expect to get from it. Left to their own devices, children may soon change the rules or abandon a game altogether if it is not inclusive and fun for everyone. Perhaps this is a model for sport ane ethics education.
Posted by DHemphill, Sunday, 25 July 2010 9:08:40 AM
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I refer to the adage, rules are made for people who can’t think for themselves. Maybe this could become, rules are made for people who are not allowed to think for themselves. There is a place for rules and regulations and society ensures this. Self-regulation can become lost within these rules and regulations. In backyard sport when there is no adult regulation, children do generally bicker with other children and with this being both a consequence and an advantage of the power structures being more evenly balanced than in an adult regulated sport setting(rather than adult versus child). This bickering is important to children learning how to manage being part of the context of the backyard sports game as it forms part of their social learning. It is within this type of non adult-regulated sports setting that children learn to self-regulate. Left to their own devices, children do sort it out – they modify the rules to be inclusive and fun for the group of players in the game. They also reject unacceptable behaviours and can be quite harsh in their rejection of it, but also very direct and clear about it. They won’t want to play it if it isn’t fun and inclusive. Yes,what a great model for sport and ethics education.
Posted by dotto, Monday, 26 July 2010 10:43:29 AM
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