Which do you consider a professional athlete?
 

Some would say NASCAR drivers are not athletes since thier sport does not involve a "ball". However it seems that drivers and pit crews devote much time to physcial training.

Interesting question.

I voted Pro Golfers.

So we can only think of one of them as professional athletes?

I can't bring myself to call any activity in which you spend the entire time sitting down a sport.

Driving cars fast and bowling are both entertaining, but neither is a sport.

That's laughable man.

http://www.thenewwearsoff.com/wp-con...cleanballs.gif

I don't really think of any of them as "athletes". Not taking anything away from them at all or anything, but I don't think of debate teams or chess players as athletes either. Hell I don't even consider a Cheerleader as an athlete but they at least to physical shit.. or so they say when the bitch saying they are athletes.

None of them are athletes, but Nascar drivers do stand a decent chance of getting hurt every time they race.

Then you're idiot. Rowers (at least the olympic level ones) would be fitter than NFL, MLB or NBA players in about every way

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlete

* Sportsperson, a person who participates regularly in a sport
o Athlete (track and field), a sportsperson who participates in track and field athletics more specifically
* Athlete (band), an English indie rock band
o Athlete (EP), an EP by the band
* ATHLETE (film), a 2009 sports documentary film
* ATHLETE (robot), All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer, a lunar rover under development by NASA
* Athletes (moth), a Saturniinae moth genus


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports (a common name for some card games and board games with little to no element of chance) and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors. Sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. Some view sports as differing from games based on the fact that there are usually higher levels of organization and profit (not always monetary) involved in sports. Accurate records are kept and updated for most sports at the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news.

Sports that are subjectively judged are distinct from other judged activities such as beauty pageants and bodybuilding shows, because in the former the activity performed is the primary focus of evaluation, rather than the physical attributes of the contestant as in the latter (although "presentation" or "presence" may also be judged in both activities).

Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay in good physical condition.

Although they do not always succeed, sports participants are expected to display good sportsmanship, standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and congratulating the winner when losing.

Professional athletes are the ones who get paid.

Not sure I'd call any of them (driving, golfing, bowling) "athletic". They're a skill, to be sure. So is archery. To me, an athlete is someone who deals with a.) muscles and coordination and b.) sweating. And, yeah, it takes muscles and coordination to swing a golf club, but it's still not like playing basketball, football, hockey, baseball, soccer, or even Olympic stuff like swimming and skiing.

I'd have to agree, you're a professional the first time they pay you to play.

However, athlete is the operative word. No one is doubting the paid portion.

bowling must be the most BS "sport". There's a reason bowling isn't big time and that is that it's too damn easy. If I can go down and throw down 4 or 5 strikes in a round, shouldn't guys who do it every week be able to bowl strikes on every frame? It's just you, the lane, the ball and the pins. There are no external influences like wind or anything.

Golf, then bowling, and NASCAR isn't a sport at all. Its racing.

And before I get bashed, I have total respect for racing. It is a competition which requires great conditioning (especially mental), extreme endurance, and precision reflexes, as well as a great deal of knowledge. But its still just a competition, not a sport. More dangerous, more challenging and more enduring than most sports, but still not a sport itself.

I'm not a big fan of NASCAR because its circle track, but I love Formula 1 racing when I can see it (hard to find unless you have Speed Channel). They supposedly race so hard that the entire time their heart rate stays at around 180-200 whenever they're behind the wheel. It ends up working their heart so much (like if they were marathon runners), that their resting rate is somewhere between 40-50.

The biggest problem with the conception against golf being a sport has to do with ****ing caddies.

If guys on the PGA Tour had to lug their own sticks while playing those rounds, you'd find a much fitter breed of players. That said, most golfers today are far, far more athletic than their kin of 20 years ago.

Walk 18 holes on a hilly course in the summer heat. Trust me, you'll sweat your ****ing sac off.

Do you realize what kind of physical condition you have to be in to race in NASCAR? Those guys drop about 10-15 lbs a race. :eek:

I essentially agree, but to play devil's advocate:

The lane is the influence. Not all are the same, and adjusting to the differences is one of the great challenges. That's why in a professional match the bowlers compete on two different lanes.

I think a sport is a sport when physical ability is the primary determinant of the outcome. NASCAR doesn't fit this, but both bowling and golf do.

Golf is the only one.

Nascar uses machines and computers, and bowling is just something you do while you're drinking. Bowling would be ahead of Nascar, and just behind Ice Dancing.

none of the above


they are all games, not sports.

It takes muscles and coordination to drive a car @ 200mph for 3-4 hours straight, and they sweat their asses off.

With that said, I don't consider any of them listed athletes, IMO an athlete is someone with physical gifts that not everyone has, like arm strength, speed, ability to jump, etc.

This is where golf is kind of tricky. Do you think anyone can be as good as Tiger Woods? His accuracy is unparalleled, his drives longer than most on the tour, but why? Do you think its physical ability, or mental?

Perhaps its a special kind of physical ability, an ability not of strength but of pure precision. Surely there's some sort of physical gift with being able to swing a golf club at 130mph while still hitting the ball with a club on the same exact spot consistently. I can understand anyone saying golf isn't a real sport cause it is kind of sketchy, but to me, that talent is a physical talent, and its one not everyone has or can achieve.

e) None of the above

Sport has too many meanings that cross over.

For instance, I know which one of these is a turn off, but which one represents "sporting guns"?

http://www.realweighttraining.com/wp...8/09/greg7.jpg

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.luxist.co...purdeygold.jpg

All you need to do is take a look at John Daly to know you don't need any type of physical gifts to play golf, hell the dude smokes for crissakes. Golf, much like racing, is about focus and concentration. And I think anyone can be as good at Tiger as long as they are as driven as him, but very few people are wired the way he is.

They are all sports, but not technically Athletic Sports. Someone out of shape can be just as good as a more athletic counterpart in every sport mentioned. Some racers, bowlers, and golfers are extremely athletic, but its arguable that being an athlete does little to the competitive advantage.

The only think athletic about Nascar is their pit crews. They try to go as fast as possible, they sometimes hire former NFL players, or undrafted guys in their primes etc because they can carry tires and move heavy shit and are fats and explosive.

The skills needed for golf and bowling are very very similar. All those pro bowlers are scratch golfers.

I see the point in saying they are both athletes or none of them are but when you give different answers to this question for golfers and bowlers you dont get it.

None of them, but if I had to vote, I'd vote golfing.

That guy is fake. His name is Greg Valentino, and all he did is inject a type of oil they created called Synthol, which your body has no ability to get rid of. It stores underneath your muscles and builds up. After repeated doses your body looks like this, like there is a snake slithering around inside each of your arms.

Here's a better photo of a bodybuilder. His muscles, although only achieved with insane levels of steroids, are real.

http://www.culturismowebs.es/picture...leman-foto.jpg

It's kind funny people give all these baseball players flack for doing a few cycles here and there, but pro bodybuilders take it to a whole new level. A lifestyle of roids. And nobody cares.

I know. You can even see the striations on his pecs from a complete and total lack of body fat (amphetamines). Its amazing to see, even though its fake. I don't like it, nor would I do it, but when I see a photo of this I am just amazed a person can get to be that large, even with hormones. It just seems impossible.

Yeah. I think its either everyone should be doing them, or no one should. Its the uniformity people desire.

And since there's such tradition in sports of there being no drugs, they want to keep it that way. But who's to say Babe didn't do drugs? Its possible for him to have taken some sort of "energy elixir" which contained amphetamine. And you don't think some of those baseball players in the 70s weren't coked out of their heads?

We just want to turn our heads to it. We're fine with them doing drugs as long as we don't know about it; in fact we enjoy it cause it gives us great things like hitting streaks and home run records. But as soon as we know, we get upset.

re: OP

Sure, call them athletes if you want but none of those things are sports in my opinion.

Sport:

1. objective score from "goals" - none of this judging crap like gymnastics or diving
2. has an offense and defense on the field at the same time

Bowling, swimming, car racing are all highly entertaining activities I'm sure - but a true sport they do not make. This is strictly my opinion.

I can't believe more people are voting for pro golfers than for NASCAR. I'm not really a NASCAR fan, but those drivers undergo intense physical strain.

Golf - absolutely. The things that make a golfer competitive are the same qualities we admire in other sports. Power, finesse, accuracy, hand-eye coordination. Golfers never play the same shot twice, and they have to compete on a radically different course each week.

Bowling - yes. The power, finesse, and accuracy argument applies here.

NASCAR - maybe. I primarily look at race car drivers as competitive stuntmen. Now, if you want to talk about motocross, there's more of an argument due to the way the body has to control the vehicle. In a car, a driver doesn't use his body mass to control the vehicle.

I am not one to say bowlers are Usan bolt or anything, but they bowl 50 games or so in a short span making adjustments all the way though for various things.

Poll is flawed, where is the "all of the above" option?

I would consider Nascar, golf, and bowling all athletic sports. I believe they all take some type of athletic ability and the competitive outcome is determined by the participants.

I do not consider any activity with a "Judge" to be a "sport". Examples being figure skating, diving, cheerleading nationals, etc. All determined by some "judge" which I think is BS.

Bowling is as much a game as golf. Only difference is golf is filled with elitist, self important douchebags and bowling is a blue collar activity
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Yeah bitches...............

http://www.prosportswrap.com/images/...less-image.jpg

Has anybody ever raced here before? I don't think people realize what kind of shape you have to be in to be able to drive a race car effectively.

I pretty much guarantee 90% of posters here wouldn't be able to go 10 laps in any kind of serious race because their arms, necks and backs would start giving in.