What is Sport?

[EddieH]

Not very far at all. I'd go 100 times further because it would take me that many more darts to finish.

Therefore I must be more of a darts athlete than him

[andypat]

Pistol shooting is an Olympic sport, yet darts requires more physical exertion.
How far does Phil Taylor have to walk to retrieve his darts in a typical match ?

About 8ft form the oche to the board.
Say 15 darts a leg (divided by 3 of course (you throw and retrieve 3 at once), then multiplied by two (there and back)), 3 legs a set, maybe 5 sets on average.

400yards. (so nearly the same as Michael Johnson)

[madmike]

only thing wrong with your calculaion is he walks 10 feet to his beer whilst the other athlete throws

[PKJ]

Pistol shooting is an Olympic sport, yet darts requires more physical exertion.

You may not need to be athletic for either shooting or darts, but there is a physical skill. Same for snooker, archery, bowls, ten-pin bowling, curling - all sports for me, maybe even the likes of croquet and kite-fighting. But not chess, or card-games, however many hours of poker there are on Sky Sports.
And Total Wipeout is definitely a sport, and should be in the Olympics.

[andypat]

only thing wrong with your calculaion is he walks 10 feet to his beer whilst the other athlete throws

Ah - youre a bit out of date there Mike - beer went out a while back for the big events. You are still allowed if you are playing in the pub though (although you cant smoke now!)

[cbg]

Pistol shooting is an Olympic sport, yet darts requires more physical exertion.

I can assure you that if you entered any shooting competition, even one that required you to lie down for every shot, you would be completely kn*****ed, physically as well as mentally, at the end. Shots/shooters train for hours per week, and competitions are won and lost by mm - like darts.

Let there be no sport snobbery here!

[SeanC]

I'm sure darts has changed a lot since this 80's classic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHnBppccI0o

[awk]

To me darts is less of a competitive sport than chess, and that's not a sport either, but relies less on chance and requires more dedication to be good at it.

As Gary Player famously said "The more I practice, the luckier I get."

Mrs H: I do agree, golf players are phenomenally skilful - but I still think it's a great walk ruined (just as I have no interest in darts, snooker or any of the judged sports, other than nordic).

Mykind: darts - physical ability? How about the ability to throw a dart consistently to an accuracy of a few millimetres. Like shooting to an accuracy of a few mills, or hitting a ball to a similar accuracy, or shooting an arrow to the same accuracy. All physical ability (ability as in skill), requiring hours of training/practice.

Sportsmen and women come in all shapes and sizes, quite a lot of which don't conform to the general perception of what a sportsman/woman should look look like. So Phil Taylor doesn't fit that template - he's not the only one.

[Gross]

Winding people up on Nopesport is a great sport