If fishing is a sport, am I an athlete?
464502
Well, I went to the Doug Miller Outdoors Sportsman's Expo and saw a fly fishing casting contest.  I would consider that a sport.  Also, if I caught a huge fish, it would take my breath away, plus you might get stronger muscles by reeling the thing in.  An Author you should check out if you like anything outdoors and comedy: Patrick F. Mcmanus.  He's hilarious.  My favorite is his first book: a Fine and Pleasant Misery.  Sometimes I get mixed up and call it a Pine and Pheasant Misery.  Anyway, I think you are an athlete of sorts, especially if you spear-fish in the ocean like me.  That's a lot of work.  So is hiking to good streams and trying to get snags loose.
81417
Yes.  Sports don't cease to be sports just b/c they aren't played on a grass field.  It is more of an individual sport, similar to tennis and golf in that respect.  In fact, some argue none of those are "sports" b/c they don't involve teams.  [except ryder cups, doubles, etc...]
461987
Yes, the definition is 1. for sporting activities: relating to or used in physical or recreational activities
612281
umm nope, rather go fishing with YOU and let you show me how to become a MASTERBAITER :P
1086048
It's classified as a sport (a competition between two people or two groups of people). Chess is a sport.\nSumo wrestling is a sport except sumo wrestlers are at least twice the size of a darts player. Besides which there are thin and medium sized darts players. Fishing is classed as a sport but I cannot see the point of sitting on a river bank for hours on end with the company of a plastic tub full of maggots.\nI recommend that you invest in a dictionary, flip through the pages to the letter S (it comes after R) and then look for sp then spo, then spor and finally sport - you may read exactly what it does mean.\nI do see your point though - darts is not a very good sport and most of the professional players are overweight.\nPlease excuse the sarcasm but the last week has been one of those 'why the hell did I bother' weeks.
257231
Yes, ping-pong is a sport.\nIt is actually an Olympic Sport, I think...
964652
OK,that made me laugh out loud, but I hope you are prepared for the backlash of angry yahooligans who are animal lovers. But still, that is making me crack up. In answer to your question, Yes it will be an Olympic sport, right after they add dolphin netting and whaling.
1035430
I would consider that more of a recreation than a sport.
512485
In my opinion, no. If you don't like the sport, you're gonna have the worst time of your life. You should explore other sports and see which one you like. Only pursue the sport you really like because you're gonna have a good time with it.
28914
I consider it a sport because it is physical and requires some amount of skill.\n\nPETA typically over-exaggerates everything.  For instance, throwing maggots on people who buy fur coats and accusing anyone who sells meat of murder.
231734
How old are you, young lady? Do you have your Dad, Mom, or a brother or sister around? Fishing is more or less self learned, or by going with experienced fishermen and women. Are you going in a pond, lake, or stream? The ocean? It's important because these have many different techniques depending on where you fish and what you want to catch. If there is a local fish and game club in your area, maybe you can try that. And like I asked before - if you are a minor, get your parents permission before you try to join any club. Good luck!!
188995
FISHING, also called ANGLING, is the sport of catching fish, freshwater or saltwater, typically with rod, line, and hook. Like hunting, fishing originated as a means of providing food for survival.\n\nFishing as a sport, however, is of considerable antiquity. An Egyptian angling scene of about 2000 BC shows figures fishing with rod and line and with nets. A Chinese account of about the 4th century BC refers to fishing with a silk line, a hook made from a needle, and a bamboo rod, with cooked rice as bait. References to fishing are also found in ancient Greek, Assyrian, Roman, and Jewish writings.\n\nToday, fishing, often called sport fishing to distinguish it from commercial fishing, is, despite the growth of towns and the increase of pollution in many sources, one of man's principal relaxations and is, in many countries, the most popular participant sport.\n\nThe problems of the modern angler are still those of his ancestor: where to find fish, how to approach them, and what sort of bait to use. The angler must understand wind and weather. Fishing remains what it has always been, a problem in applied natural history.\n\nThe history of angling is in large part the history of tackle, as the equipment for fishing is called. One of man's earliest tools was the predecessor of the fishhook, a gorge: a piece of wood, bone, or stone an inch or so in length, pointed at both ends and secured off-center to the line. The gorge was covered with some kind of bait. When a fish swallowed the gorge, a pull on the line wedged it across the gullet of the fish, which could then be pulled in.\n\nWith the coming of the use of metals, a hook was one of the first tools made. This was attached to a handline of animal or vegetable material, a method that is efficient only when used from a boat. The practice of attaching the line in turn to a rod, at first probably a stick or tree branch, made it possible to fish from the bank or shore and even to reach over vegetation bordering the water.\n\nFor thousands of years, the fishing rod remained short, not more than a few feet in length. The earliest reference to a longer, jointed rod is from Roman times, about the 4th century AD. At that time also, Aelian wrote of Macedonians catching trout on artificial flies and described how each fly was dressed (made). The rod they used was only 6 feet (1.8 metres) long and the line the same length, so that the method used was probably dapping, gently laying the bait on the surface of the water.
1037354
Well that narrows it down a bit.\nI could say swimming like most of the others but I'm not going to.\nI think you should do the best sport out there for getting you fit,which is SEX and plenty of it.\nEnjoy your new fitness plan! lol
797013
That sounds about right. Man makes me want to go fishing! Better than what i'm doing now
347110
I FISH EVERY CHANCE I GET AND THATS OFTEN BECAUSE I'M RETIRED. I DON'T EAT FISH, BUT ANY TROUT THAT I CATCH I GIVE TO MY SON.
824602
I find it's a lot easier to do exercise if it's sport that you enjoy. It can be very boring going to the gym or jogging. I also go swimming, but I quite enjoy that so it's easy not to think of it as exercise.
106796
I think because anything classified as a sporting event it requires a certain degree of athleticism, skill, practice, dedication, and (in the case of team sports) team-work; add in an opportunity to test your levels against others to find out who is best and you have a sporting event(you mentioned NASCAR in your question details... driving a car in a big circle for a couple of hours doesn't require much athleticism either, but it is still considered a sport, right?)\n\nNow why it is considered an Olympic event... well, it is a sport with growing popularity in many countries that participate in the Olympics (Canada, many of the northern European countries, and a growing fan-base in the northern United States), and the Olympics have been a fairground for countries to show off new and/or unusual sporting events from around the world (Ice Dancing... the poor-man's figure skating OR "I'm just doing this until Disney-on-Ice calls me in for an interview!").  Some of the events catch on and become world-wide phenomenons, others fizzle and die.\n\n<Added>I added athleticism to the list of skills needed because there is a degree of athleticism to curling that you don't find in other strategy games (chess, for example). I mean, watch the curlers in the Olympics. They are running around on ICE for Pete's sake! Any time I step on ice I fall on my... personality... but these guys are running up and down the ice as if they were walking in the grass! And it isn't just the shoes they wear. I saw a documentary on the U.S. Olympic curling team and they showed people trying to do it and they were falling all over the place.