Competitive Pogo Sticking

It's hard to believe that the winter Olympics have come and gone. But cheer up! We're just 2 short years away from the 2012 summer games. Actually, there are only 870 days to go until the opening ceremony. And that's plenty of time to convince the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add a new competition to the line-up.

Competitive pogo sticking.

But before a sport gets added to the Olympic games, it must be "recognized" as a sport. The IOC has recognized 34 sports that are currently part of the summer games. They include bridge, chess and orienteering. I submit to you that if bridge, chess and orienteering are sports, so is pogo sticking. (And don't get me going about ribbon dancing!)

You may be wondering why an Olympic Committee would consider a card game, a board game and a map quest as sports. According to Wikpedia, a sport is an organized, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play.

Let's start with bridge. Organized? I guess. Competitive? Oh yes- those seniors take their bridge very seriously. Skillful? I can't play so it must be. But physical? How many calories do you burn refilling your drink and going to the bathroom every 30 minutes?

Then there's chess. Again, it's organized, definitely competitive and requires skill. But chess players burn one calorie every 4 hours.

As for orienteering, if you bring along your GPS it's no more physical than taking a walk.

But pogo sticking? Now that's a sport! And the opportunities are endless: endurance hopping, relay hopping, downhill hopping, ribbon hopping. In fact, one could legitimize those non-sport sports like bridge, chess and orienteering by playing them while on a pogo stick.

The games are just 870 days away.

If I'm going to get this done I'd better get hopping.