I know that wasn't your point with the quote, but I did feel like it needed to be mentioned.

Trying to define sports is rather tricky, some of them are competitive and some of them aren't. For the most part, rock climbers aren't very competitive, but then there are some that are. Hiking is likewise generally considered a sport, but it's not generally a competitive sport.

Personally, I don't really understand why gaming needs to be a sport in order to be a valid pass time. It kind of feels like efforts to make it a sport are a bit of a slap to people that enjoy gaming for the sake of gaming. And even those that are competitive as if somehow it's only legitimate if it's a "sport."

I always wanted to play water polo. My school wanted to have a team but they couldn't afford to train the horses how to swim.

Technically is sport, chess is officially considered one. in my opinion I see no difference between Chess and Heroes 3.
Chess may be old but it is still a game

A sport is a game played professionally. Seeing as some video games are played professionally, that makes it a sport.

As I started to read this, I was already queueing up a horse in the pool joke - you stole my thunder! I do like sense of humor though!

Let me rephrase that, it came off as pissy. XD Sorry.

What I meant to say was there are a lot of sports not played by professionals, most notably Olympic and youth, but I think they definitely qualify as sports.

My informal in-no-way-means-anything-in-the-real-world definition requires 'sport' to involve an element of danger - either death or serious physical harm - in regular competition. And now that I think about it, this definition isn't so far-fetched since many sports derived from military / martial competition to gauge one's prowess in fighting skills outside of conflict.

So swimming isn't a sport? People can't usually swim professionally, they have to have some sort of a job to pay for the pool access and whatnot. Same goes for running, people don't generally get paid to run, even at elite levels. I don't think those are any less sports than things like soccer and hockey where people do get paid to play.

And even when people are being paid to play, it's a tiny portion of the people engaging in the sport that see actual monetary reward.
By whom though? Chess has basically nothing in common with any other sport other than the fact that it takes a great deal of time and effort to get good at. It's a game, a hobby or possibly a life choice, but definitely not a sport as generally defined.

I hope not. The less gaming is associated to "competitions" and e-sports the better (IMO).

All I see is some dudes playing some PC videogames in some sort of organized competition. For me playing PC videogames is not a sport, no matter how organized the competition is or isn't.
And since I laugh at the idea of PC videogaming being considered a sport (I even consider the idea ridiculous) then probably I have no clue what this term even means.

Which is kind of what the quote says - there is no de jure definition of what "sport" is, but SportAccord, being a "de facto representative of international sport", has set those criteria as their definition, so that is likely the most commonly agreed-upon definition.
SportAccord?

(To be clear, I don't really give a damn about whether or not any given activity is included in an organisation's or person's own definition of "sport", or even whether there is an "official" definition for the word - I personally engage in games (physical, mental, and electronic) because I enjoy them. That a relatively few people get famous for dedicating a substantial pat of their life to said activity and/or are paid various amounts of money for winning competitions or whatever matters none to me. I do enjoy taking part in the discussion nonetheless.)

No. I don't think it can be considered a sport.
It's hilarious when they compare the fitness of the gamer to the fitness of a tennis player on that article.
Call it an esport as much as you want, but just because you work out once a week it doesn't make you an athlete when you're you're playing games.

That argument doesn't make much sense. By that logic if you sit in a chair from 11am to 1am just reading and you get exhausted by the end of the day then reading should be considered a sport?

Hell yeah it's a sport.Since I've had a P.C. I've put on 38 stone and I can tell it's a hell of an effort standing up;

For those that do not understand it's Aussie Humor. (No Offence)

Carpal tunnel, vision problems and diabetes are not typical sports related injuries. So no, it is not a sport. When someone actually physically tears an ACL while playing Far Cry, then we can discuss video gaming being a sport.

*I know that response will demand someone post a link to a youtube video of that fat kid playing Dance Dance Revolution. Feel free to be the first to do so*