Do sports played a thousand years ago still count as sports?
By Rebecca Peterson, Staff Writer
Sports of centuries long past generally served an important purpose in feudalistic society: namely, to show off one’s talent at killing people. Tournaments focused on events such as archery, swordplay, and jousting—sports that begged bruises and broken bones and often left the losing side with a permanent case of being dead. These days, however, killing one’s opponent is generally frowned upon. With that in mind, do these “sports” still count as sports, or are they nothing more than theatrics?
- Jousting
The rules of jousting have changed over the course of the millennium, as battered corpses now tend to put a damper on sporting events rather than bring a round of good cheer. Most often what you’ll see re-enacted at Renaissance Fairs is “Theatrical Jousting,” a pre-choreographed event with a loser and a winner already decided. Given that this is the case, does this really count as a sport anymore?
One might argue that the designation of “sport” doesn’t necessarily lie in the presence or absence of winners and losers, but in the physical skill necessary to partake in it. Especially in pre-choreographed events, enormous amounts of skill as an equestrian, a lancer, and a performer are necessary to not only avoid murdering your opponent, but to put on a good show while not murdering your opponent. It’s theatrics, yes, but it’s also stunt work, a grueling vocation already without bringing horses into play.
As well, there are still jousters who prefer to compete the old fashioned way: in full armour, with real lances, and a true intent to unseat one’s opponents. The appeal behind bashing other people with large weapons hasn’t entirely been worked out of our species’ system, it would appear.
Verdict: Still a sport.
- Swordplay
Like with jousting, injuries and fatalities were far from uncommon during tournament sword events. Medieval swordplay was not the carefully regulated fencing we see at the Olympic Games today. Longswords are not foils, and your best chance of winning against an opponent in combat lies less in fine skill and more in blunt force.
That being said, it is far harder to kill someone by accident during swordplay than it is jousting, as far fewer horses are involved (generally). This means, of course, that combatants can try that much harder to murder each other with far less dire consequences.
As previously stated, in a real fight, blunt force would likely win out over fancy tricks and fine manoeuvring; however, getting ahead in tournament combat does require hours of training and dedication to the craft, even today. Longswords are extremely heavy—combine weightlifting with cardio, and throw in the ability to do this in full armour often under hot, sunny conditions. Certainly not for the faint of heart, nor the noodly-armed.
Verdict: Still a sport.
- Archery
If ye had the chance te change yer fate… would you be able to propel a sharpened stick about a hundred yards into a bullseye using nothing but another stick and a string?
Archery these days looks quite a bit different from how it was practiced by those in medieval tournaments long ago. Recreational recurve bows seem far more complicated than the longbows of Robin Hood’s time, and reloadable crossbows are certainly more popular for hunting game. However, much of the skill set involved is the same: the ability to fully draw a bow, to aim true, and to not strike any spectators with a wild shot.
If professional dart tournaments exist under the “sports” umbrella, then archery is absolutely worthy as well. It also helps that archery is considered an Olympic level sport.
Verdict: Still a sport.