Sports of every kind are a part of hundreds of cultures and traditions spanning thousands of years, from the times of Rome and their fights to the death in the Colosseum to Mesoamerica in 2500 BC, to the Mayan game of “spitz,” a ritualistic rubber ball game. Now, most pay attention to mainstream sports such as football, baseball or basketball. While these are almost completely agreed upon in culture as “sports” in recent years, debate has struck on what should be considered a sport and what should not be as more and more activities have arisen, such as competitive cheer, dance, fishing, etc.
The main argument for these activities not being considered “real sports” is their lack of physical contact. Others in said activities strongly disagree.
Long-time dancer and junior Bella Feriozzi, who has danced since a young age, comments, “I’ve been told countless times that my dance competitions aren’t a real sport, when yes, it is just as hard as other mainstream sports, just with different conditions.”
People in these non–mainstream sports put in countless hours perfecting their craft, training late at night and giving up weekends and social events, just for their efforts to go unnoticed and uncredited. Despite injuries, exhaustion and years of commitment, they pour everything into improving their skills. Many people still dismiss what they do as “less than” a real sport. Ignoring the fact it has the same level of hard work, discipline and dedication that is celebrated in more traditional, mainstream athletics. Competitive dance has been an activity for over a century, competitive cheer for 50 years, and fishing for over 150 years.
Feriozzi states, “You need to have stamina and strength to be able to do a lot of the things, like tumbling, for example, takes a lot of upper-body strength and conditioning to perform.”
Altogether, while some sports fanatics may still discredit these activities that have picked up major attention in the last few years, the people showcasing their talents in them still show pride in their hard work and dedication, proving that a lack of traditional physical contact does not make their efforts any less demanding, meaningful or worthy of respect. Their commitment to training, willingness to sacrifice time and energy and passion for constantly improving demonstrate that these activities deserve to stand alongside mainstream sports in both recognition and admiration.
