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What exactly does the word ‘sport’ mean? Nowadays as sports become more varied or specialized agreeing upon a definition is becoming increasingly difficult. Most of us would agree that football or rugby is a sport; but what about pool or darts? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others. However this is a general definition not really stating how much physical exertion or skill is required. Consequently this definition still leaves plenty of scope for activities such as ballroom dancing, synchronised swimming or even bell ringing to be classed as sports, as they all require skill and physical exertion. Therefore if we find it difficult to determine what a sport is, what are we to make of the definition for a sports person? Certainly the ideal image is one of a young, lean, athlete in top physical condition, akin to Cristiano Ronaldo or Roger Federer, achieving sporting success through excellent physical fitness and training. Despite this image, there are still many sporting activities where the typical image of a sports person isn’t necessarily ideal or even desirable.
Obviously in the field of pure physical strength or physical contact, certain sports would seem more suitable than others for ‘larger’ people to excel. Sumo wrestling is a good example. Could you imagine David Beckham in a loincloth, lining up against your average sumo? No, we couldn’t, unless ‘Becks’ was doing something for charity or a ridiculous publicity stunt! Another example is weightlifting. Although this sport does require hours of training and development, sheer size and mass are greater attributes than stamina and speed. Boxing too has also attracted overweight people who have taken to the ring to howls of laughter, only to silence the crowd with an emphatic victory over a much more nimble and lean opponent. One particular example was the American boxer Eric Esch known as ‘Butterbean’. He topped the scales at a colossal 25 stone. Prior to his visit to the UK, many in Britain thought he was debasing the art of boxing and merely turning the sport into a farce. In fact one British newspaper labelled him The Raging Blancmange. Yet despite such criticism the 34-year-old drew a considerable cult following in the US, at one point claiming 67 victories from his 70 contests, with 49 stoppages, one defeat and two draws.
Britain has had its share of weighty heroes. Most noticeably in the late seventies and early eighties when Saturday afternoon wrestling and darts became popular. The British television company ITV sports had decided that wrestling needed a makeover as its television audiences were down due to a belief that most wrestling matches were fixed. It also had a lack of entertaining characters. Then along came Shirley Crabtree, known as ‘Big Daddy’ who was certainly an entertaining character, who also happened to be 300 pounds plus! Big Daddy splatted, squashed and bounced his slimmer opponents around the room to an adoring, hysterical crowd who chanted ‘easy easy’ while Big Daddy himself joined in with both fists raised. His popularity in Britain soared and he was regularly on chat shows and in advertisements. At one point his battles with the equally obese ‘Giant Haystacks’, Big Daddy’s enemy, had a television audience of 18 million, a record for day time viewing. Even Queen Elizabeth said she was a fan!
Darts had always attracted larger than life characters due to its pub and alcohol origins. During their televised matches most darts players consumed large amounts of beer and proudly sported their ‘beer bellies’. In fact, it seemed that darts players improved as they drank, as it calmed their nerves and steadied their aim. What’s more, the alcohol often added to the tension of the contests. The players seemed to be battling against sobriety as well as their opponents. For many in Britain, the titanic duels between Jocky Wilson and Eric Bristow were memorable in that they nearly always ended up shouting or swearing at each other after their contests. The television companies loved it, they finally had their characters.
So, what is the future for weighty heroes in sport? There is obviously a more acceptable image for large sport stars in certain sports that will continue, such as sumo wrestling and boxing. However attitudes and television cultures have changed over time and the popularity of fat stars is slight. Sport stars are now more likely to look like male models or boy band members, as the revenues from sponsorships and marketing are enormous. Sports where large people have excelled are not as popular as a television spectacle as before, with more time now devoted to football, rugby and cricket. Finally, as the chances of 300 pound plus striker scoring the winning goal for Liverpool against Chelsea are slender, the publicity once surrounding weighty heroes seems to be slimming down.
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