Have you ever heard of underwater hockey? Me neither.
But, next month at the Southeast Asian Olympic games, underwater hockey will be played as an Olympic sport.
This variation of hockey requires much skill and talent in order to perform, and it should be recognized for its merit.
Other unknown sports are starting to be recognized as sanctioned sports, such as water polo. Recently, the University Interscholastic Committee approved water polo as a sanctioned sport that will begin competition in the 2021-2022 academic year.
This is great for representation of lesser known sports.
However, I recently discovered cornhole is classified as a professional sport. In fact, there are three professional leagues in the United States.
This seems a little excessive to me, because cornhole is not a sport — it’s a game. It’s just a fact.
But those who participate in these leagues see the sport classification for cornhole as a victory and recognition for what they view as a sport.
A sport is defined as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”
A game is defined as “a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules decided by skill, strength or luck.”
The key difference is physical exertion. Playing cornhole doesn’t require physical exertion.
Equal representation of sports is important. For instance, many people don’t think sports such as cheerleading are real sports. But they’re wrong, because cheerleading requires much physical ability in order to participate.
Water polo and underwater hockey, as strange as they may seem, require a great amount of physical exertion which makes them sports as well.
Sports like these should be recognized, because they fit the criteria of a sport and have a demand for people to both watch and play.
However, games like cornhole should not receive the status of a sport, because that’s not what they are.
Just because someone possesses a skill for a game and there is a professional league does not automatically warrant sport status. There are plenty of professional chess players out there, but no one would call them athletes.
Not everyone possesses the talent to play sports and that’s OK. What’s not OK is demanding sport recognition for a game that does not fit the criteria of a sport.
Sports hold their status for a reason and classifying games like cornhole as sports takes away some of the status sports have.
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @HindbergNicole