Sports, part two

Flaw #2: Flaw #2 is the question, “Is this really a sport?” We’ve all heard about Michael Phelps winning a swimming event by .01 seconds in Beijing this year. To this, I say, “Why bother?” It seems likely that Phelps and his competitors have all hit the same basic ceiling of how fast a man can move himself through the water; maybe such .01 second variations are random, the result of an involuntary twitch or the accidental position of Phelps’ toes during a flip-turn. If this is the case, again, what’s the point? If the results are essentially random, why not just flip coins for sport instead?

Sports, part one

Don’t get me wrong; I like sports. Lately, however, I’ve been pondering some of their flaws, which seem rather serious.

Flaw #1: The first flaw that comes to mind is athletes’ use of steroids. Yes, I can understand that an incredibly competitive environment drives people to cheat, but an athlete using steroids isn’t just cheating the sport, he’s cheating the folks who pay his salary: the sponsors, the fans, etc. The people who pay to see athletes pay to see them demonstrate their skill in hitting/base running/cycling/swimming etc, not to watch an artificial display of “talent” arrived at through performance-enhancing drugs. It’s as though everyone on the Tour de France gave up pedaling forever in favor of Mopeds. What’s the point?

Look for Flaw #2 tomorrow…