I was just kind of surfing around and came accross this entry at thefreedictionary.com.
I was kind of taken aback by the first scentence which contains “…MUni, while not a sport, involves…”
The rest of the entry is accurate, and so is the entry about unicycle trials, and it made me wonder if a unicyclist authored it, and if so, why they would explicitly say it is not a sport. Curious!
By their own definition of sport, in their encyclopedia, mountain unicycling is a sport.
I do mountain unicycling for enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of skill, and occasionally for competition. Fits their definition of sport to a tee.
Their entries for unicycle related stuff do need some work. I wonder who wrote them up? It’s neat that the unicycling entries are there, but I’d prefer to have them accurate and more complete.
Mountain unicycling is a slower-paced sport than mountain bicycling
that’s what they said, so it must be a sport.
hey muni has to be a sport!!! I mean if they count table tennis and debating as a sport muni simply has to be!
Poker, Sailing, Golf, and Fishing are all sports where the competitor can smoke big stinky cigars and chug beers during a tournament.
As I passed a hiker on the trails a while back, he said to me: “Way to go sport”.
I appreciate his definition.
At the bottom of this article it states that the article was fully or partially derived from an article in the Wikipedia. The Wikipedia is a publicly editable source (although it is locked now for maintenance). My bet would be that someone edited the Wikipedia entry to state that MUni is not a sport to ruffle a few feathers. In fact, although I will state categorically that it was not me, as I prefer not to mess with public sources of information, I’ll bet that it was someone who is a regular(ish) poster here.
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
My school is making Improv a sport. At least we’re forming a real team.
I just made an edit to that Wikipedia entry.
I’ve always maintained that “if it’s not played in the Olympics, it’s not a sport” Which excludes and includes various and sundry activities including:
Not Played in the Olympics: Football (american), Mountaineering, Unicycling.
Played in the Olympics: Table Tennis, Power Walking, Velodrome racing (on a bicycle)
This makes some people upset that their favorite activities are not considered “sports” but it is a defendable definition.
By their definition of cycling:
Unicycling is a sport.
I think you are right, most of the entry is accurate,
Apart from this bit, which is wrong about unicycling being more difficult (bikes are harder in the real world), and contradicts their own definition of a mountain unicycle being able to coast/glide.
I made that very first entry about MUni in Wikipedia:
See this thread
And I most definitely did NOT say that MUni is not a sport. Grrrr…
Ken
It’s just that easy. 
Thanks, Gilby.
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
this might spark some controversy, but ive compiled a list of activities that are in fact not sports:
first of all, a sport must be athletic (aerobic excercise). this rules out:
fishing
racecar driving
golf
luge
bobsled
curling
pool
dart throwing
next, the winner of a sport must not be determined by judges. this completely skews the whole thing. it is far too easy to cheat, or have biased judges, or anything of that sort. judges are just not definitive and consistent enough. you can’t argue whether a ball goes through a hoop, or whether a person crosses a line. but if they are being graded on a scale from 1-10 on how graceful a random person on a given day thinks they are, then that is not a sport. this rules out:
ice skating
gymnastics (all)
skateboarding
diving
pretty much all the x games sports that are not timed events. (skateboarding, motocross jumping, that sorta judged thing).
trampolining (once an olympic event).
third, a sport must not simply be one continuous action. it must include more thinking than just “i got to beat this guy to the finish line”. there must be more than just “i must go fast”. there must be some mental skill involved. i know a million people will say that there is a lot of skill in running, but im sorry, im adding it to the list:
cross country
running (any distance).
fourth, the participant must do more work than the animal companion they compete with. this rules out:
equestrian
horse racing
fifth, there must be two sides on a sport. alas, as fun as muni is, it remains an athletic aerobic activity involving balance and guts, but it is not a sport:
muni
gymnastics (this could also go under judging, if there is for some reason, heaven forbid, a gymnastics competition).
rock climbing
sixth, a sport must be fair on both sides. this rules out:
hunting (perhaps if it was you against a bear, and you were armed only with a nail file, that would be considered “fair”)
seventh, an activity in which participants get better as they get more and more drunk is not a sport:
bowling
eight, the sport must not allow its participants to use steroids. additionally, you must be able to watch an entire game on t.v. without wanting to shove a fork in your eye because you are so bored. furthermore, the greatest player in the game’s history must not be a 300 lb fat man with zero athleticism who stayed up late drinking and partying.
baseball
ninth, the sport must be real. the participants may not be body building actors who wear spandex and hit each other with metal chairs.
wrestling (the kind you see on t.v.)
tenth, just because you have more muscle mass than you know what to do with, so you decide to have competitions involving rolling cars to finish lines and lifting bolders above your head weighing 400 lbs, doesn’t make it a sport:
strong man competition
eleven, just because you do it outdoors, does not make it a sport.
the outdoor games (lumberjack kind of stuff, chopping down trees, etc)
twelve, just because it is shown on espn, doesn’t make it a sport:
professional jump roping
poker
spelling bees
thirteen, if you can practice your sport with your livestock, then it is not a sport (as did the winner of the greco roman wrestling competition in the 2000 olympics):
greco roman wrestling
thank you for your time, you’ve been a wonderful audience. please feel free to express your anger with my opinions; i look forward to getting eaten up for breakfast by 300 people from this forum. im looking forward to this.
-grant
Come on now, we all know that the true definition is:
"It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. And then it’s a sport.
And by that standard Muni is most definately a sport!
Tim
huh! Well then neither is mountain biking. ha
sport - "Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. "
further proof that muni is not a sport. there are no rules in muni.
-grant
Re: Apparently, MUni is not a sport.
In article <hopeful.173g3s@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com>,
hopeful <hopeful@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote:
)
)I’ve always maintained that “if it’s not played in the Olympics, it’s
)not a sport” Which excludes and includes various and sundry activities
)including:
)
)Not Played in the Olympics: Football (american), Mountaineering,
)Unicycling.
)
)Played in the Olympics: Table Tennis, Power Walking, Velodrome racing
)(on a bicycle)
)
)This makes some people upset that their favorite activities are not
)considered “sports” but it is a defendable definition.
It’s a stupid definition.
-Tom
Re: Apparently, MUni is not a sport.
In article <tennisgh22.175epc@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com>,
tennisgh22 <tennisgh22@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote:
)
)sport - "Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs
)and often engaged in competitively. "
)
)further proof that muni is not a sport. there are no rules in muni.
Depends what you’re doing. Racing in 24 Hours of Adrenaline, for example,
clearly counts as a sport, whether you’re doing it on a bike or a MUni.
-Tom
Problem: Does that mean that the Olympics accepts non-sports into their games? They aren’t sports until the Olympics says they are, so that means that the Olympics is about non-sports that turn into sports. What is it about the Olympics that gives them the power to decide what is a sport and what isn’t? Or is it that the Olympics waits until something is a sport and then lets them become part of the Games? If this is true, then something could be a sport for four years before it is played in the Olympics.
Does something turn from a sport into a non-sport if the Olympics decides not to hold the event any more? The Skeleton was taken out of the Olympics for something like 50 years. During that time, had it turned into a non-sport and then returned into being a sport in 2002?
Just thought I’d poke holes in your theory. Hope you’re not offended 
unicycling isn’t a sport the way i do it, its an art…