damianThe true history of sport
August 7th 2008 03:21
No matter which part of the world you are in, sport is an obsession. Whether it is Football in Europe or South America, Cricket in India, Aussie Rules/Rugby in Australia, or Sumo in Japan, there is no escaping the passion we all hold for some kind of sport. But how did we come up with this concept and how do we define a ‘sport’? In the past, the answer was fairly simple: a sport was anything that involved a ball, goals and big, boofy blokes in tight shorts. However, if we briefly trace the historical development of sport for a moment, we will see how these pre-requisites have changed significantly over time.
The first challenge to this conventionally accepted wisdom came during the pre-first wave feminist era, in late-Victorian Britain. Many women, discontent with their lot as domestic ornaments, began to rebel against the establishment by participating in organized sport disguised as men. Eventually, this led to the grudging acceptance of women in sport, and now we even see, somewhat ironically, examples of male tennis players competing disguised as females.
No sooner had women been accepted into the sporting arena when another significant challenge arose, regarding the notion that sport must involve a ball. At first, the idea that dwarf-tossing could be considered a sport was laughed off by the establishment, but after a court challenge that went all the way to the Privy council, the International Dwarf-Tossers Association (IDTA) got its way and the sport of dwarf-tossing was officially recognised. As an interesting footnote to this particular story, once usage of the word ‘dwarf’ became politically incorrect, the IDTA was faced with a dilemma as to what they should choose as their new title. As “The International Short-Statured People Tossers Association” was deemed to be a bit of a mouthful, the governing body eventually settled on the shorter “International Tossers Association”. The resultant 94% drop in membership suggests that perhaps in hindsight the former option would have been more sensible.
The acceptance of dwarf-tossing as an official sport had extremely wide-ranging implications for a range of other pastimes. Activities such as archery, fencing, wrestling and rhythmic gymnastics – which in the past were merely ways for men to show off their athletic prowess – now became ‘sports’ eligible for inclusion in the Olympic Games. This forced the IOC to relax their once-strict eligibility criteria and (after a lengthy naming rights battle with the makers of a hit series of porn movies) they adopted the mantra “faster, higher, longer”, which now is the basic criteria for entry into the Olympics.
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Comment by Norm
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aahaaahaaaaaaa
Name names!
As an interesting aside, it was a woman who introduced over-arm bowling to the then under-arm game of cricket. It was, of course, an Australian who took our basically British society back to the old days with the reintroduction of the underarm at the behest of his older, more senior, higher, longer and faster brother in the halcyon daze of the 80s, which created an international incident in the minds of our neighbours, the Kiwis.
Comment by Norm
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Comment by damian
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I wouldn't want to name names, but let me say that I would hate to bump into certain female tennis players in a dark alley at night - with all the rippling muscles sported by many of the women, I can barely concentrate on the tennis!
I miss the graceful players such as Martina Hingis and those who went before her. Good on the modern crop for actually making womens tennis about the game, not just a good perve though!
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Comment by Norm
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