By Matt Phelps

As sports editor of the Mercer Island Reporter, the question of what is and what is not a sport comes up from time to time.

Is an event a sport just because it is held at the Olympics or broadcast on ESPN? If there is simply a winner and loser in a competition, does that qualify it as a sporting event? If there is physical exertion between two competitors, does that qualify an event as a sport? Where is the line drawn? Is there a designation between sport and competition?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines sport as “an activity involving physical exertion and having a set form and a body of rules; game.”

By using that definition a lot of things can be eliminated that many people would consider a sport. Fishing, for example, would not be a sport. There is very little physical exertion and most of the time it is not a competition, unless you consider the person to be competing against the fish.

It is questionable whether golf would be considered a sport. While it does have set rules and it is a game, it requires very little physical exertion during competition if you use a cart and have a caddy. And, even if you carry your own clubs, the exertion is not used on your opponent or in the actual acts that contribute to the game. But, most people would consider golf a sport, as I do.

Some people like to say that any physical activity is sport. While running a marathon or competing in a triathlon is a sport, preparing for them (or just exercising) is not.

Cheerleading is always a hot topic during this debate. It is shown on ESPN, but so is the National Spelling Bee and poker tournaments. Neither the spelling bee nor poker fall under any category of sport to me or within the dictionary definition because there is no physical exertion in any way.

The argument that ESPN only broadcasts sports programming is ludicrous. You have to remember ESPN is trying to fill air time 24 hours a day and is not in the business of defining what is a sport. Monopoly and chess have as much credibility as a sport as the spelling bee and poker.

I will admit that actual cheerleading competitions, by the dictionary definition, are a sport. However if you take the cheerleaders away from the basketball game, the basketball game continues. If you take the basketball game away, the cheerleaders have nothing to do.

Do the stunts that cheerleaders perform take a lot of practice and skill? Yes. But just as poker is not a sport because of the lack of physical exertion, cheerleading on the sidelines of a game does not have the actual game aspect — opponent, rules or point system — that are a part of the equation. The cheerleaders are not a part of the actual game.

The winning and losing aspect of sports is a large part of the experience. Is it really a sport if there is no winner and loser? Hockey and soccer, like many sports, can finish in a tie. Some sports can’t. You never have a tie in tennis, baseball or basketball.

What is the big deal about finishing in a tie, though? So you figured out that the teams were even. From a spectators’ and a competitors’ standpoint, though, the tie is like former baseball player George Brett once said: “It’s like kissing my grandma with her teeth out.”

I think that there are some sports where there are no questions as to whether they are a sport or not. All the track and field events fall under the dictionary definition of sport. Plus, track and field events test physical superiority in those events.

Track and field is a huge part of the Olympics.

But, is every sport at the Olympics a sport? Ballroom dancing, synchronized swimming and trampolining are all Olympic sports. All of these events fit the dictionary definition of sport.

American football, on the other hand, is not included at the Olympics and yet the entire world watches the Super Bowl and agrees that it is one of the biggest sporting events of the year.

The dictionary definition of sport is a game with rules and physical exertion.

In the words of a wise man who lives on the Island, who cares as long as you are doing something you like and are getting exercise.