> Are things like horse racing and polo sports? There is no dinking, and real risk of physical injury, but you don't get sweaty. The horse does though. And you can get covered in horse-sweat.
>
> Would the "carrying a grand piano over an obstacle course" race be a sport?
>
> winter"New sports for all"mute

"an indicator" Read that again. I said that the above points are INDICATORS.

So far, all the people who have been arguing against my statements seem to think they are fast and absolute; that my statements are universally accepted as what does define "sport" and are the only things that define what "sport" is.

Not a single one of you has stated what you feel is a difference between a "sport" and a "game".

Almost every reply to this thread has tried to bring up things that try to counter my three statements, none of which accurately does.

From wintermute:

"We all know that that shove ha'penny, snooker, green bowling and, yes, even darts are real sports." I've got no idea what "shove ha'penny" and "green bowling" are, but if you're going to lump them in with other games like snooker and darts, they're most likely just games.

You can't seriously injure yourself playing snooker. You don't sweat playing darts unless you're daft enough to play outside in the middle of a heat wave in August for four hours. (In which case, check the people who were just sitting outside with you for those four hours. I'll bet you they're sweating and haven't been lobbing short pointy sticks for an entire afternoon.)

Carrying a grand piano over an obstacle course a sport? No, that's just stupid. Where's the governing body? What are the set rules?

From Beasty:

It's interesting that the only serious injury you could mention for any pool game was in an article "on bizarre accidents".

When you dodged the flying pool ball, was it one you shot (while you were actually *playing* the game) or one your opponent shot? If it was the former, I'd say that the event of a ball that the player hits rebounding and striking him to cause a serious injury (I don't think a mild bruise counts as one) is very small. If the latter, you're not injuring yourself. At that point, you're a bystander.

From Zarniwoop:

"1). You have failed to warm your throwing shoulder up properly before you begin"

Okay. So you can injure yourself if you're an idiot. I think we all know that.

"2). Due to awful technique/lack of warm-up/both, you tear, rip, pull, or do something else unsavoury to your arm or shoulder muscles."

Once again, how often does this happen? Is there a good chance you could be injured every time you take a shot? Answer: No.

"3). All the players who play in big tournaments always complain of stiffness in the shoulder afterwards"

"Stiffness"? I'm talking something like ice hockey where people slam into each other at forty miles an hour and get hit in the face by pucks travelling around eighty and you talk of having a stiff shoulder? Where's the broken bones? The chance of paralyzation? Getting your teeth knocked out? Criminey! I go for a long hike and the next day my legs are sore. "Stiffness". Bah.

Oh, and from Oreas:

"I think auto racing is a sport. Drivers get pretty darn sweaty. It's fairly dangerous. (Note Dale Earnhardt's recent death.) But, I must concede one point...they don't drink while driving. : )"

Let's see. Sweat. Possibility of death. Not standing around, drinking beer while racing. Smells like a sport to me.

Just to recap with items in ALL CAPS that everyone seems to be missing:

1. Sweat from physical exertion is AN INDICATOR if it is a sport or not,

2. the [GOOD] POSSIBILITY of SERIOUSLY INJURING ONESELF is another INDICATOR if it's a sport or not, and

3. Any game where you can stand around, drinking beer while playing, isn't a sport.

-Faux "odd to see that nobody outside of the UK has any problem with that" Pas