Is backpacking a sport?

[stuthetraveler]

I want everyone's opinion on here about this question? I posted an article to my blog discussing this: http://stuthetraveler.com/stuthetraveler/ Should it or should it not be considered a sport? We've got UL hikers, speed hikers, thru-hikers, etc. Are they athletes?

[BrianLe]

Since a number of motor-driven hobbies are widely asserted to be sports, I would say that backpacking certainly is one too, or rather, it can be.

Of course it depends on who is defining the word 'sport', but at the least one can say that backpacking CAN be competitive, even on occasion in a pretty formalized way.
There can also be philosophical arguments over whether it SHOULD be, but ...
... don't you sometimes feel that a key part of the response to so many such issues here come down to HYOH? !

[Coffee Rules!]

Not trying to be a smarta$$, but who really cares about semantics?

Do you enjoy it? Yes? Do it. No? Don't.

[Odd Man Out]

I think "is backpacking a sport?" and "are backpackers athletes?" are different questions.

According to most dictionary definitions, athletes need to be good at a physical activity requiring strength and endurance, so backpackers are clearly athletes. You can be an athlete without participating in sports.

Sports implies a competition with rules. So backpacking as an activity is not a sport, but that doesn't mean it can't be made into one by people who choose to do it competitively. It's no different than asking if driving a car is a sport. It can be (NASCAR, etc...), but my commute isn't. Anything can be made into a sport - just watch the X-Games (e.g. Jumping a snowmobile over a pile of big screen TV's while wearing snowshoes, into a pool of water while waving your arms and legs with style for points - extra points if while in mid air you can grab a can of beer suspended from a helicopter piloted by your girlfriend).

[Tuckahoe]

Sure, backpacking is a sport, just as any physical activity or entertainment is a sport. But I would never consider a hiker or backpacker an athlete; I'm certainly not an athlete.

[tds1195]

I'm with Odd man....there's not really a competition aspect to it so it makes it kind of hard to be considered a sport. If you want to make a "tough-mudder" type event for backpackers to see who can do the 100 mile wilderness the quickest, be my guest! Haha

[Rasty]

I think "is backpacking a sport?" and "are backpackers athletes?" are different questions.

According to most dictionary definitions, athletes need to be good at a physical activity requiring strength and endurance, so backpackers are clearly athletes. You can be an athlete without participating in sports.

Sports implies a competition with rules. So backpacking as an activity is not a sport, but that doesn't mean it can't be made into one by people who choose to do it competitively. It's no different than asking if driving a car is a sport. It can be (NASCAR, etc...), but my commute isn't. Anything can be made into a sport - just watch the X-Games (e.g. Jumping a snowmobile over a pile of big screen TV's while wearing snowshoes, into a pool of water while waving your arms and legs with style for points - extra points if while in mid air you can grab a can of beer suspended from a helicopter piloted by your girlfriend).

I consider my commute a sport.

[garlic08]

That's a good question to start the day with. I place backpacking in the category "activity" rather than "sport". But I agree it's possible to make a sport out of it. The first thing that comes to mind is the summer (2007) that The Onion and Mr Magoo competed for the first yoyo of the CDT. They were both ultimate sportsmen about it, too, from what I could see (I met both of them on my CDT hike that summer).

[Malto]

Backpacking is NOT a sport but backpackers are athletes.

[nitewalker]

heck ya its a sport and a mighty physical one to boot. it is not the typical recognized type sport but its geting close with all the eco challenges that are poping up around the country and world..there are some that choose backpacking as a mode of sports activity and like any other sport some are good at it and some are great at it. i bring friends that are former school athletes and by the time we are done hiking they always tell me that it was the hardest thing they ever did and that i am nuts for wanting to walk and sleep in the woods. i actually set these guys up on a tuff hike without them actually knowing how tuff, lmao. i love to see em suffer after bragging how easy it would be..

[Spirit Bear]

I think it's a sport, it is competition with you vs yourself. Your body screams at you to quit, fear tells you to quit, your family and friends (non hiker friends) tell you to quit. Regardless of your destiny it is a sport between you and yourself. For me that's how I see it anyway.

I overcame my fear of being alone and the fear of bears in 2012 just from the hikes I did on the AT in Georgia and North Carolina.

[nitewalker]

Backpacking is NOT a sport but backpackers are athletes.

nice one!! that about sums it up..

[Turk6177]

If they don't keep a score and have a winner, then I can't define it as a sport. It is a recreation, a hobby, or an obsession. Weightlifting is a physical activity, but it only becomes a sport when people compete against one another to see how much they can lift.

[Pedaling Fool]

I want everyone's opinion on here about this question? I posted an article to my blog discussing this: http://stuthetraveler.com/stuthetraveler/ Should it or should it not be considered a sport? We've got UL hikers, speed hikers, thru-hikers, etc. Are they athletes?

Is backpacking a sport? It can be, anything can be a sport if the participants make it so. It's like cycling; I'm a very avid cyclist, but It's not a sport to me, despite the fact that many times if I see another cyclist I must prove my prowess on the bike

Are they athletes? I guess by the strict definition, they are athletes. The way I see it, something can be a sport, but not require athletic discipline, such as Archery. However, if an activity (sport or not) requires physical exertion beyond the norms, then its participants are athletes.

However, as I look at some hikers I have a problem with using the term athlete to describe them. I know some will jump on me for that, but there's just a lot of people that spend time on the trails, but in a way to expend the least amount of energy and their gut proves it. You got people that push themselves out there and people that walk a little then stop, so I'll just leave it at that. Suffice it to say, that hiking is an athletic activity, but many don't go to that point. Same can be said for cycling, I see many people on bikes that ride them in such a way as to be far from an athletic endeavor.

[atmilkman]

Possibilities are endless. You could have different weight classes of hikers. Featherweight, lightweight, middleweight, etc. Different weights that they carry from 0 to 10, 20, 30, up to well over 100 lbs. Different length that they hike, different grades such as 6%, 8%, etc. Different lengths of grades, different combinations, 10 miles up, 10 miles level, 10 miles down, with or without water, bronze, silver, and gold medals. The possibilities are endless.

[rocketsocks]

My local book store considers backpacking a sport, as titles on that subject are found in the "Sports Section"
However , I've also found titles in the "Nature section, Travel narrative section, and local interests.

What I find odd, is that titles on Survival are also found in the sports section.

Not sure what the "Library system" classifies backpacking under, but I would think that just might be the final authority......if they be one.

[Lyle]

To me, NO. I've heard it described as such, but never bought in.

Sport implies competition. Winners and losers, record setting. I detest this attitude about hiking.

Hiking/backpacking is an ACTIVITY. Pure and simple.

[Chuckie V]

There are some good answers here, particularly Odd Man Out's. Sport is ultimately defined not solely by competition, but by rules and regulations that all participants must adhere to. The whole 'Hike Your Own Hike' credo promotes precisely the opposite (thankfully).

Sport would demand that you hike within a specific binding set of rules, and HYOH would thus need to be redefined to HWTR...Hike Within The Rules, and few hikers care to do that.

As an ex-professional athlete, and past teammate of that cheater cancer of the peloton, it's easy for me to see that hiking is about stripping away the societal shackles and all the silly rules. If we want rules out there, we need to take a deeper look why we're out there in the first place...not to be first place. The way I see it, when it comes to hiking, the first one done loses!

[Pedaling Fool]

Sports

Speed Hiker Thrives on Natural Rhythms of the Appalachian Trail


Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/sp...anted=all&_r=0

[Coffee Rules!]

I consider my commute a sport.

Having driven in Wilmington, I can vouch for that.