Should Pro Gamers be considered Athletes?

[Mystyrion]

Noone is denying that it takes a strategic mind and effort to become excellent in a game , whether it be starcraft, C&C, warcraft etc. I just dont agree that they should be recognized as athletes. Theres nothing athletic about it. Should they be competing in Olympic games? Only athletes compete in olympic games. If this is your train of thought, you must want chess as an olympic sport. To say that chess is a sport is to say that using your brain is enough physical exertion to justify the title of athletic endeavor. by drawing such conclusions, what wouldn't be sport?

Okay, so we came to the conclusion that you believe the separation of the titles is a good thing.

Say we don't separate the title of athlete and professional gamer.
Why couldn't we include Gaming as an event into the Olympics, even with the separation. Nothing states that only Athletes compete in the Olympics, its just always been that way.

If a large enough community was pushing for the addition of lets say Starcraft II, why couldn't it be included?

We don't have to draw the conclusion that anything could be a sport. Like I said Sewing isn't exactly competitive. So no large enough community would be willing to push for it as an Olympics event. Nor would I even know how to judge something like that. Same goes for cooking. Not everyone has the same taste for things. How could you possibly judge something built on opinions.

But again, that's just tactics too and I'm not sure if you can claim that as worthy of a professional athlete. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think that athletes and gaming are really that comparable - the nature of the rewards gained, and the dedication required to maintain your shape and physicality is much more difficult than firing up an Xbox and playing CoD for a few hours.

I agree, there are some sports out there though that don't require as much physicality as others though. Bobsledding for example features running and leaning. I'm sure its a little more complicated than that, but that isn't exactly something that you'd have to spend your life doing like Basketball or Gymnastics.

Also the average professional gamer puts 6-10 hours into their game a day.

But I'm off to bed, I'll be back tomorrow!

[Martin]

I agree, there are some sports out there though that don't require as much physicality as others though. Bobsledding for example features running and leaning. I'm sure its a little more complicated than that, but that isn't exactly something that you'd have to spend your life doing like Basketball or Gymnastics.

Also the average professional gamer puts 6-10 hours into their game a day.

But I'm off to bed, I'll be back tomorrow!

Then a very good night to you sir

In regards to your point, the sports that require less in the means of physical prowess (and I'd argue that bob-sledding does require a lot of strength, in your back two runners for sprinting with the sled, and your driver to turn the sled and find the right lines with four peoples' weight and on ice) those that don't are inherently more technical - which requires the same lengths of time to master.

This might be slightly off-topic but I think the Olympics are also about celebrating sports that wouldn't normally receive good media attention and corporate sponsorship, another reason why basketball and tennis for example shouldn't be there.