The award for the most ridiculous, self-absorbed, overzealous all sports entertainment network in the world goes to...
ESPN, for the 10th year running.
They have once again proven that outside the 4 major sports, Tiger Woods, and the Williams sisters, you're really not much of an athlete. Unless you count token consideration of Cael Sanderson and -ahem- Sarah Hughes (don't even get me started on figure skating).
No offense to college athlete of the year Sue Bird (UConn BB) but a certain swimmer from Cal who set at least 6 AR and 1 WR over the short course season would have had my vote.
Anyone else? Natalie Coughlin, female college athlete of the year as awarded by the USMS discussion crew?
-RM
Parents
Former Member
I give a generic answer, since I fell behind in individual replies about what is sport, with examples of swimming, baseball and golf.
My generic answer should address points made by aquageek, though.
Every day, newspaper coverage gives me ammunition for what I claim, namely that golf is a game, baseball is a marginal sport and swimming is a sport.
TV is even a non-presence in my spare time, after watching TV a few times and decided that it has almost nothing to say, unless is an event I am chasing in advance, like the 2000 Olympics.
I take today's newspaper, The San Diego Union Tribune.
In page D6, I see an article about one player, and it goes on for three full pages of numerous other such examples.
A picture shows an overweight man in his late 20s or early 30s, corresponding to the image I saw a few times on TV of grandpas-like players with overflowing waistlines patheteically trying to run.
The article says that he played for a World Series championship team, and that he has a "...market value - perhaps $10 million annually or more.".
Because it is reported pitchers and hitters take steroids for power, I can grant them some weightlifting power, pitching and hitting techniques, but on body fat proof they are aerobically disabled, and swimming fast is all aerobic fitness.
Today's The San Diego Union Tribune doesn't have golf in it, but yesterday it had, and I didn't keep it since I didn't know about this discussion yet.
However, almost every day I see in the paper, top golf players grossly unfit physically.
Golf is almost entirely a technical game, with walking being its only physical requirement, and that kind of walking is no better than me going to the grocery store.
A mocking cartoon once in the paper by Willey, did show two golfers, physically unfit, but taking pride in the 'sportsy' wheels of their carts.
In the San Diego Union Tribune of March 4, 2002, I read:
the "...aerobic capacity, as measured by maximal oxygen uptake tests..." is greatest among all sports in descending order in "...cross-country skiers, swimmers and marathoners.".
The books 'Four Champions, One Gold Medal' by Chuck Warner and 'Gold in the Water' by P. H. Mullen, describe respectively the cardiovascular of Bobby Hackett and Thomas Wilkins:
Bobby Hackett swam 15:03.xx in 1500 meters freestyle at age 16 in 1976 Montreal Olympics, for a silver medal, a time worth 4th. place in 1996 Atlanta Olympics whith competitors much older and further developed than the age of 16;
Tom Wilkens won bronze in 200 meter I.M. in the 2000 Sydney Olympics;
the resting heart rate is 36 beats per minute, the heart rate in full swimming effort is over 200 beats per minute and maintained there for more than five minutes, the heart rate descends from over 200 beats per minute to less than 100 beats per minute in one minute rest.
Such trained heart rate effort by swimmers, similarly forced onto top notch golfers, top notch baseball players and couch potatoes, is going to give golfers, baseball players and couch potatoes a heart attack.
Getting lower than the Olympic swimmers, but still staying in the league of succesfull swimmers, this link:
www.usswim.org/swimkids/template.pl?opt=bios
provides insight into the fitness of US Swimming qualifiers, each having developed the physique to be a player in the sport of swimming, and each being athletically and aerobically fit: look in it for the men's height to weight ratio, that swimming has at this level.
It is this that mainstream US media is uneducated about, and like I wrote yesterday, it reports wrongly that: "Thorpe set a new record in 200 free in 45 seconds.", has entertainment like golf and baseball mixed in the sports pages, and doesn't pay recognition to the most athletically fit people.
I give a generic answer, since I fell behind in individual replies about what is sport, with examples of swimming, baseball and golf.
My generic answer should address points made by aquageek, though.
Every day, newspaper coverage gives me ammunition for what I claim, namely that golf is a game, baseball is a marginal sport and swimming is a sport.
TV is even a non-presence in my spare time, after watching TV a few times and decided that it has almost nothing to say, unless is an event I am chasing in advance, like the 2000 Olympics.
I take today's newspaper, The San Diego Union Tribune.
In page D6, I see an article about one player, and it goes on for three full pages of numerous other such examples.
A picture shows an overweight man in his late 20s or early 30s, corresponding to the image I saw a few times on TV of grandpas-like players with overflowing waistlines patheteically trying to run.
The article says that he played for a World Series championship team, and that he has a "...market value - perhaps $10 million annually or more.".
Because it is reported pitchers and hitters take steroids for power, I can grant them some weightlifting power, pitching and hitting techniques, but on body fat proof they are aerobically disabled, and swimming fast is all aerobic fitness.
Today's The San Diego Union Tribune doesn't have golf in it, but yesterday it had, and I didn't keep it since I didn't know about this discussion yet.
However, almost every day I see in the paper, top golf players grossly unfit physically.
Golf is almost entirely a technical game, with walking being its only physical requirement, and that kind of walking is no better than me going to the grocery store.
A mocking cartoon once in the paper by Willey, did show two golfers, physically unfit, but taking pride in the 'sportsy' wheels of their carts.
In the San Diego Union Tribune of March 4, 2002, I read:
the "...aerobic capacity, as measured by maximal oxygen uptake tests..." is greatest among all sports in descending order in "...cross-country skiers, swimmers and marathoners.".
The books 'Four Champions, One Gold Medal' by Chuck Warner and 'Gold in the Water' by P. H. Mullen, describe respectively the cardiovascular of Bobby Hackett and Thomas Wilkins:
Bobby Hackett swam 15:03.xx in 1500 meters freestyle at age 16 in 1976 Montreal Olympics, for a silver medal, a time worth 4th. place in 1996 Atlanta Olympics whith competitors much older and further developed than the age of 16;
Tom Wilkens won bronze in 200 meter I.M. in the 2000 Sydney Olympics;
the resting heart rate is 36 beats per minute, the heart rate in full swimming effort is over 200 beats per minute and maintained there for more than five minutes, the heart rate descends from over 200 beats per minute to less than 100 beats per minute in one minute rest.
Such trained heart rate effort by swimmers, similarly forced onto top notch golfers, top notch baseball players and couch potatoes, is going to give golfers, baseball players and couch potatoes a heart attack.
Getting lower than the Olympic swimmers, but still staying in the league of succesfull swimmers, this link:
www.usswim.org/swimkids/template.pl?opt=bios
provides insight into the fitness of US Swimming qualifiers, each having developed the physique to be a player in the sport of swimming, and each being athletically and aerobically fit: look in it for the men's height to weight ratio, that swimming has at this level.
It is this that mainstream US media is uneducated about, and like I wrote yesterday, it reports wrongly that: "Thorpe set a new record in 200 free in 45 seconds.", has entertainment like golf and baseball mixed in the sports pages, and doesn't pay recognition to the most athletically fit people.