What Makes Me Cross-Country A Sport?

unning is not hard," "cross-country is not even a sport." As a cross-country runner, I have heard these statements echoed to me my entire life. Whether it be from another athlete or regular person, there seems to be a misunderstanding in the definition of sport. A sport is any physical activity that requires skills for success, has rules for fairness, and is a competition. Therefore, by this definition, one can clearly see why cross-country is a sport.
So much of our entertainment today comes from sports, but when we think of them the first ones that come to mind are football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. However, these are clearly not the only sports that exist. If I was watching the Olympics, I would see multiple sports that I
What is more physically demanding than running nearly as hard as possible for numerous miles? Each race has officials who watch to make sure no one is cheating by cutting the course or shoving. Runners get drug tested like all other sports as well. As a runner, I must be prepared to run on all terrains uphill and downhill using many different race techniques such as tangents, pacing, and drafting (de Swaedt 9). In Addition, the races are insane to watch let alone be in. The athletes are basically in pain start to finish and who knows what the weather is doing. Runners can win and lose races and so can their teams. In fact, there is even a postseason in cross-country. Typically, there are conference championships followed by races to qualify teams and/or individuals to the state or national championships depending on the level of competition. Therefore, cross-country is not just an individual sport it is also a team sport. If an individual has a poor race but his/her team steps up, the individual could still move on.
Most of the arguments against cross-country as a sport are that there is no skill required, or that there is no team aspect. People will say that it is just running, “there is nothing hard about jogging in the woods with a crowd of strangers.” Also, athletes from other sports go as far as to say that they could easily run as fast as the runners do. Now, the issue with this is that
Another athlete saying the distance needs to be shorter just knows that he/she does not have the muscular and respiratory endurance to run the full race. Distance running has a few major areas that need to be trained: endurance, strength, speed-endurance, and skill tactics (de Swaedt 9). Should I go out and lead the race from the start or let the pack dictate the pace for the first two miles? Should I have one of my teammates go out and tire the runner that is supposed to win so that it gives me a better chance? In high-school, most of the football team did not like the cross-country team. I say it was because we were more successful than them and they say cross-country is not a sport. Do not get me wrong, I love football and respect the hard work they put in, but a successful cross-country runner must go to the weight room, have two-a-days, and bond with a team just like football players (de Swaedt