Pole dancing IS a sport - here's the proof

In recent years, the line which divides sport and non-sport has become increasingly blurred. Pretenders to the sporting panatheon are numerous and growing by the day - disc golf, paintball, competitive eating, dodgeball, the list gets ever longer.

But I would never have considered the noble art of pole dancing to be a sport - until now. It seems my belief that pole dancing spectators end up hotter and sweatier than the participants (so I'm told) is perhaps a little archaic.

Because pole dancing has its own national championships. So there - it must be a sport.

My favourite part of that tale has to be the superb detail that no g-strings or thongs are allowed. Aside from the fact that I thought they were the same thing - if not, what's the difference? - it conjures up an image of the participants all preparing backstage as a referee (??) barks: "Remember ladies, this is serious - big pants only." A g-string would, of course, reduce the whole thing to folly.

As you would surely expect of me, being the inquisitive sporting scribe that I am, I decided that you the reader deserved to see some high-quality competitive pole dancing action. And thus I endeavoured to track some down.....

This is what I found, from the European Championships of pole dancing - I wonder if England managed to qualify for that? No matter, the clip is both hilarious and enlightening. Note please the big pants on show - clearly a serious competition -and the impressive gymnastic skills performed once the unfortunate comnpetitor returns to the stage.

All of this put me in mind of a column I wrote a few weeks back asking how one defines a sport. In the end, I concluded that a sport must require a combination of physical fitness, strength, skill and competition.

The one discipline which I believe to be a sport which I failed to bend to those rules was golf. Still can't make it fit. Yet pole-dancing does - it's basically high-level gymnastics on a pole with more interesting costumes. Does that make Jenyne Butterfly, for example, more of a sportsman than the great Tiger Woods?

Of course not, but an interesting debate to be had. So what do you think - is pole dancing a sport? Should we include it in the Olympics? Could the BBC actually afford to show it, thus bolstering their lame sporting offerings? Let me know.

And, as always, keep sending me any clips, links or stories that you think merit a greater audience.

One more thing - after weeks of resistance, I've finally succumbed to the lure of twitter. I'm right here, should you want to tweep me. They definitely need to change that term though, as it sounds like something you'd hear in court - "the defendant was caught tweeping the victim" etc.... 

Cheers!