Olympic Ice Dancing, Essay Example

Over the years sports have become predominantly recognized as public displays of physical achievement. Professional athletes train for years to compete at the highest possible level human physical ability. While the most televised and acclaimed sports in the United States are football, basketball, boxing, golf, tennis, hockey and baseball, the sports industry has expanded to heavily promote sports like the X-games, automobile racing, soccer, and mixed martial arts. Globally televised sports networks have even embraced significantly less physical past times like poker and billiards under the premise that these practices are sports as well. Despite what appears to be a massive diversification and expansion of what is considered a sport in the Western world, dance is still not viewed as a sport. Dance fails to gain recognition as a sport despite being a much more physical activity than many other athletic activities that currently retain sports status. After the broad success of the figure skating competition in the 2014 Winter Olympics, one might assume the world is ready to consider dancing, figure skating or similar activities as a professional sport. The problem is there are still many who argue activities which require a dramatic musical scores as an integral part of their function, fall into the arts category and thus can’t be classified as sports. These same individuals feel degree of difficulty should not be used as the primary criteria for classifying an activity as a sport. The following will take deeper look at dance and the critical aspects preventing the activity from being adopted as a sport. This research seeks to provide certifiable justification for why dancing is a sport and should be recognized respectively among other athletic endeavors.

References

Foss (2014). Olympic ice dancing was amazing, but it isn’t a sport. USAToday.

Richardson, M., & Oslin, J. L. (2003). Creating an authentic dance class using sport education. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 74(7), 49-55.