Agenda42

Sorry if I came across agitated, but I completely understand what you mean. I just get pissed off when people try pass soccer off as being some pussy sport, just because they see nothing in it. It's still quite a brutal sport, as you know.

I'm putting my money on Big Wall Rock Climbing (3+ days on the route) being the toughest. Every one of those categories, advanced climbing requires perfect skill in. But I guess since you don't score points it doesn't count...

It also requires a ton of intricate knowledge of anchor building, weight limitations of the saftey gear, and the dynamic nature of force. Where is the soul purifying category anyway?

Arnold_Ziffel, nice CnH reference. Calvinball rules.

soccer is the most demanding sport long term (i.e. season)

For everyone that is complaining about certain sports that were or were not included, please note that ESPN is an US sports network that covers almost exclusively North American sports teams for a strongly North American audience. Therefore, they picked sports that the average North American would be at least fairly familiar with. Thus, they include rodeo sports and curling, but not cricket or jai alai or whatever else.

If al-Jazeeri ranked the most difficult sports, I'm sure they would use a different set.

> That's not analytical reasoning, that's conditioning and instinct. The human mind simply doesn't work that fast my friend.

...Except it has to, to fence at an elite level. Read-react isn't good enough to get you past the mediocre stage in fencing. The elite fencers have to read, innovate, and execute. They do this in a short period of time, and frequently while exhausted from the bout. Admittedly, you can beat a lot of people with just conditioning and instinct. But then again, ESPN's example of the "analytic ability" part was a quarterback reading a defense, which is definitely more read-react than read-innovate... and they are talking about how hard the sports are to perform on an elite level. So, I still maintain fencing should have a 10 in that category.
Not that I'll assert fencing is harder than boxing or anything. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'm just claiming ESPN clearly didn't bother to think hard about their ratings, let alone research them, for some of the sports.

Um, rock climbing? That gets like 10s in most of the catagories...including Strength, Flexability, Power, and Endurance.

Cross country runners take punishment for nothing.

Cyclers have to deal with saddle sores.

All baseball players besides the pitcher don't need endurance. im sorry.

I think it should be obvious to everyone that these assclowns put whatever score they needed to make the list come out the way they wanted.

Case in point: Football (a game where you can, in fact, use your hands to catch the ball) has a lower hand-eye coordination score than soccer (a game where you cannot, in fact, use your hands to catch the ball). Dumbasses.

These are the same morons who said it is harder to hit a fastball than to stop a penalty kick. A simple look at what percentage of the time the two things are accomplished will tell you that stopping a penalty kick is much, much harder. When someone is awarded a penalty, everyone pretty much expects a goal. People don't expect a strike every time a fastball is pitched.

A penalty kick comes from 12 yards away. It can go anywhere in an 8 x 24 foot goal, and you can't come off the goal line until after he kicks the ball. How fast does it go? I can't say that they are all this fast, but Zach Thornton kicks balls at over 80 mph, so in about a third of a second, that ball is already in the net.

Carbonatedpizza

Cross country runners take punishment for nothing.

what exactly do you mean by that?

/seriously doesnt know quite what you mean

Respect.

Hockey should be 2 and Lacrosse should be 1.
Man did you ever saw a Lacrosse match?
Its like hockey but more violent.

What about curling?

Actually, no. Curling? What the fark.

What about oral sex? It's harder than curling ever eas.

To add to this senseless thread,

Soccer certainly is underrated. Any sport which asks its athletes to compete for two 45 minute+ halfs without stoppages is clearly a physical ordeal

And, as a hockey fan i have to say Boxing is a much more demanding sport. Any sport which finds its main draw the physical injury of the opponet can clearly be a gained point or two, but Boxing has repeated punches to the face and body. It takes a special breed to box, and it takes an even more special breed to be a good boxer

BASEBALL!?????? This qualifies as a sport just in front of knitting. On an excitement level it barely rates above watching paint dry.

waterpolo only 11? WTF? It's way more demanding others on the list.

I tend to be in the position of saying that UFC type events are much harder than boxing, and I know quite well that those guys could destroy a boxer in most situations, and it is indeed more difficult... but as far as "tough" goes.. UFC takes a bit more class, smooth moves, defending your self while attacking... while boxing may be considered tougher due to the fact that there's very limited defense going on, and it's just two huge guys hitting each other back and forth till one falls over, more a show of power than a show of skill.
neither sport I'd want to do personally.. but love to watch the UFC.. ok done rambling, sleep time!

Potterbro - sorry, but i'm pretty set on my definition of a sport. if you don't like it, that's fine. i'm not saying wrestling isn't a challenging physical activity - it certainly is. however, it's not a sport. my earlier post was not my full definition of a sport. for an activity to be a sport, 2 opposing sides must compete against each other for mastery of shared equipment, use said equipment to score points in a proscribed manner, play for a proscribed duration, and exit the playing field at the same time with a clear winner. wrestling isn't a sport because it has no shared equipment (like a ball or puck or birdie). like i said earlier, wrestling is in the "acts of war" category. tough as hell, not a sport. and if you don't like it, well then just make up your own definition. but i worked on mine for a long time, and i'm keeping it.
and Agenda42, the olympics is about athletic competition, not "sports". therefore, my definition of sports has nothing to do with what should or shouldn't be included in the olympics.

wonder why competitive swimming was so low on the list...

and why none of you farkers even mentioned it in this here comments section!

/cheers for the unloved varsity swimmers everywhere

How about mountain climbing?



A memorial to climbers killed on K2.

Sport - noun: an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition.

A 'sport' consists of an everyday activity carried out with a purpose and in an environment different from everyday: for competition, enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of skill, or some combination of these.

Wrestling seems to fit under that definition.


/Mixed Martial Arts

Points_For_Effort
and if you don't like it, well then just make up your own definition. but i worked on mine for a long time, and i'm keeping it.

You can't just make up a definition and then use that as a debate...

Long Distance track is the easiest sport out of all the track and field events!! Cause when you were in high school and coach said you had to do distance you weren't depressed and pissed cause you had to work hard. No, you were happy cause God knows Long Jump is "tougher"! God also knows that Points_For_Effort invented the dictionary.

/Hello Webster!

Sadly, hating Duke doesn't make it onto the list.

so it's late...

http://www.climbing.com/news/ntwinagain/

ok, so this wall gets once a decade (except the 1990's).

now, is it a sport if you do it solo (alone) in January? and WTF is harder- anything???

What does ESPN stand for?

. for an activity to be a sport, 2 opposing sides must compete against each other for mastery of shared equipment, use said equipment to score points in a proscribed manner, play for a proscribed duration, and exit the playing field at the same time with a clear winner

I can woop your ass in the sport of Goldeneye.

crackhamster What does ESPN stand for?

European Sports Programming Network

/or perhaps not

wtf? why the hell is canoe/kayak so friggin far back on the list? canoers and kayakers are some of the strongest people i know...i know girls that kayak that bench 165+ and guys that dont kayak that dont bench that much...youre saying kayaking doesnt have strength? kayakers and canoers have to have a helluva lot of upper body endurance too...who gives a fark if baseball has to pitch 5/6 games...the pitcher is the only one who has to! kayakers and canoers race 25K, i dont think baseball or any other sport for that matter does that much continuously. and soccer...soccer is one of teh most roughest sports. youre playing continuously for 90 minutes w/ like a 10 minute break. the clock never stops except if someone gets hurt. and if you think soccer isnt that hard or anything, it involves a helluva lot of skill and endurance. it aint that easy to head a bomb of a ball punted at your head or kicked at your head. o yeah and farking badminton is not harder than canoe/kayak.

by canoe/kayak i mean sprint canoe/kayaking