"The World's Most Beautiful Sport"
08-15-18, 07:05 PM
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"The World's Most Beautiful Sport"
I enjoy listening to The Cycling Podcast. In the preamble a woman with a wonderfully French accent reads a Rapha ad and calls cycling "the most beautiful sport".
Do you agree? Why? Are there sports you consider more beautiful than bicycling and bike racing?
Do you agree? Why? Are there sports you consider more beautiful than bicycling and bike racing?
08-15-18, 07:20 PM
#2
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“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games”
-Earnest Hemingway
-Earnest Hemingway
08-15-18, 07:59 PM
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For me, cycling is the most beautiful sport.
Visually speaking, what is more beautiful than 200 cyclists ripping across the beauty of France, Italy or even California? The spectacle, the drama, the pageanty, the colors, the crowds, the sheer speed, power and bravery it takes to ride 5 to 6 hrs a day at a 31-35mph avg pace for 21 days while truly risking life and limb is all encompassing. Nothing compares IMHO.
The Super Bowl might pack in more excitement in 2 hrs, but its not beautiful.
Visually speaking, what is more beautiful than 200 cyclists ripping across the beauty of France, Italy or even California? The spectacle, the drama, the pageanty, the colors, the crowds, the sheer speed, power and bravery it takes to ride 5 to 6 hrs a day at a 31-35mph avg pace for 21 days while truly risking life and limb is all encompassing. Nothing compares IMHO.
The Super Bowl might pack in more excitement in 2 hrs, but its not beautiful.
08-15-18, 09:20 PM
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Aesthetically, ballet is hard to top. (I am biased, since ballet lessons have been part of my wife's physical fitness routine for 50 years.)
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"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
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08-15-18, 09:48 PM
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You can't beat the surroundings and serenity of alpine or nordic skiing and sailing and long distance yacht racing.
08-15-18, 10:18 PM
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J Class sailboats are hard to beat for beauty.
08-16-18, 01:39 AM
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+1 for winter sports.
Wilderness backpacking in the dry summer season can't be beat here in Cascadia Land.
Kayaking with the Orcas in Puget Sound. Kayaking Elkhorn Slough, Monterey Bay.
Not much traffic 6 miles in.
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Last edited by Wildwood; 08-16-18 at 01:51 AM.
08-16-18, 02:15 AM
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Cycling has to be the most photogenic sport, beauty I think so. Ballet is an art form, not an exercise ! I had a girlfriend who was a dancer with the Rambert. Backpacking isn't a sport, although I have walked in the Himalaya, the Alps, Vosges & Pyrenees.
A yacht isn't a sport, a yacht might be beautiful if built from wood.
The key word the OP used is sport.
John.
A yacht isn't a sport, a yacht might be beautiful if built from wood.
The key word the OP used is sport.
John.
08-16-18, 02:21 AM
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Cycling has to be the most photogenic sport, beauty I think so. Ballet is an art form, not an exercise ! I had a girlfriend who was a dancer with the Rambert. Backpacking isn't a sport, although I have walked in the Himalaya, the Alps, Vosges & Pyrenees.
A yacht isn't a sport, a yacht might be beautiful if built from wood.
The key word the OP used is sport.
John.
A yacht isn't a sport, a yacht might be beautiful if built from wood.
The key word the OP used is sport.
John.
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Vintage, modern, e-road. It is a big cycling universe.
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08-16-18, 03:54 AM
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Someone's going to have to define "sport."
I'll settle for "physical activity performed for its own enjoyment."
Riding your bike to work is not sport.
Delivering pizza by bike is not sport.
Going for a bike ride, that's sport.
I'm not sure about professional racing.
But no, I don't think cycling is the most beautiful sport. I can think of plenty of superlatives that apply, but most beautiful? I don't think so.
I'm not sure what is, but tossing a frisbee around on the ocean beach is hard to beat, with its long fluid motions and the graceful flight of the disk.
I'll settle for "physical activity performed for its own enjoyment."
Riding your bike to work is not sport.
Delivering pizza by bike is not sport.
Going for a bike ride, that's sport.
I'm not sure about professional racing.
But no, I don't think cycling is the most beautiful sport. I can think of plenty of superlatives that apply, but most beautiful? I don't think so.
I'm not sure what is, but tossing a frisbee around on the ocean beach is hard to beat, with its long fluid motions and the graceful flight of the disk.
08-16-18, 04:20 AM
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Oh, Engineers don't get into what's "most". Too vague, no stated requirements, no valid criteria. Boring, eh?
Last edited by Prowler; 08-16-18 at 04:24 AM.
08-16-18, 04:29 AM
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Devil's Advocate opinion:
Some might say one particular sport occasionally described a beautiful involves dressing in funny clothes and trying to club a small pockmarked ball to death until it escapes into a hole in the ground, then doing it again.
I am not one of them.
Some might say one particular sport occasionally described a beautiful involves dressing in funny clothes and trying to club a small pockmarked ball to death until it escapes into a hole in the ground, then doing it again.
I am not one of them.
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08-16-18, 05:13 AM
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Hey, you forgot to crop the surly govt bureaucrats out of your picture. I suppose that is "his" mountain though, hopefully he didn't follow you around for the entire day. Not a bad-looking fellow for an overpaid park ranger, rather distinguished, I wonder how he looks in Rapha?
08-16-18, 05:30 AM
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It's random but I always thought the biathalon was a beautiful and challenging sport. Cross country skiing and target shooting. Gotta be hard to hit targets with your heart rate sky high!
Can we get this for cycling?
Can we get this for cycling?
08-16-18, 06:01 AM
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I agree, I have wondered that myself. Mountain bikes on a closed course. High tech lightweight target rifle strapped on shoulder, go from target to target, what's not to like?
08-16-18, 06:17 AM
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Curling - it combines the excitement of bowling with the glamour of janitorial work.
08-16-18, 08:52 AM
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08-16-18, 09:04 AM
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The HD shots from the helicopter as the TdF peloton snakes through some village in the Pyrenees are certainly compelling. Heck, the scenery is probably half the reason i tune in every year.
Sailing might come in a close second because sailboats are 'pretty' Like cycle racing, when you get up close to the action,it's pretty chaotic, though.
However, running flat out on a beam reach with your lee rail in the water is a pretty fine feeling.
Sailing might come in a close second because sailboats are 'pretty' Like cycle racing, when you get up close to the action,it's pretty chaotic, though.
However, running flat out on a beam reach with your lee rail in the water is a pretty fine feeling.
08-16-18, 09:11 AM
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No more beautiful sight in sports, IMHO of course!
08-16-18, 09:30 AM
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Probably also makes it the smelliest, bullfighting included.
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08-16-18, 09:34 AM
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Soccer has been referred to as "the beautiful game" for a very long time. I have to agree. The combination of endurance, graceful and complex gymnastic moves, creativity and teamwork in a flowing non-stop game is not duplicated in any other sport I can think of. Even the bane of current pro soccer (excessive diving during international matches) adds some thespian beauty to the field.
08-16-18, 09:42 AM
#25
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I always considered cycling a beautiful sport...then the bikes got ugly.
BTW: I'm surprised no one has mentioned women's beach volleyball. Though, I prefer to watch the women high jumpers. There's just something about them.
BTW: I'm surprised no one has mentioned women's beach volleyball. Though, I prefer to watch the women high jumpers. There's just something about them.
Last edited by gearbasher; 08-16-18 at 09:46 AM.
