Fishing Narrative Essay Sample
Fishing has been a part of society for centuries, yet it has only been an Olympic sport one time in history. Today, master anglers travel the globe and dedicate funds towards their passion for fishing. Many people believe that angling is not practical as an Olympic sport. On the contrary, angling requires skill and effort, it could provide multiple new events, and many Olympic sports have lost the luster that sportfishing could provide. In order to pay tribute to dedicated anglers and create exciting, unprecedented events for the Olympics, it is imperative that angling joins the list of Olympic sports.
Sportfishing needs to be added to the Olympics because it requires as much effort, training, and pressure as several current Olympic events. Kobe Bryant was once an Olympian for men’s basketball; his workout schedule was a six-month program with games and practices. Greg Bohannan, a professional angler, works nine out of twelve months practicing his craft, competing in tournaments, and trying to impress his sponsors. Bohannan tells an interviewer, “...there’s no substitute for time on the water. Experience is a huge thing. So I would spend as much time in the outdoors as you can.” It does take lots of effort for the track, swimming, gymnastics, and other sports, and it should not be degraded. Nevertheless, it takes some time to become a professional in fishing, and not everybody makes it. Moreover, According to Mountain Trails Fishing, “The Webster Dictionary defines athletes as people who participate in activities that are matters of skill, speed, physical strength, and stamina. Fishing, as anyone can tell you, takes a lot of stamina.” Some of the big-game fish caught on the coasts take a lot of strength, stamina, and skill to fight with and eventually catch. To conclude, fishing includes just as much skill, effort, time, and practice as most sports on the Olympic roster.
Furthermore, there are a multitude of angling events that could be added to the Olympics and the world would participate. Categories such as gymnastics, track, and swimming all entail over 16 events on their own. There are eight major types of fishing that are recognized. The list includes bait fishing, fly fishing, freshwater fishing, saltwater fishing, big game fishing, drone fishing, and spearfishing. The Winter Olympics could also take on ice fishing. Any man or woman can fish; also, anybody from any country can learn to fish. Not all nations have to participate, but many would. Sports Destination and Wide Open Spaces report that “According to stats, there are as many as 50 million active anglers in the US. Unsurprisingly then, the number of worldwide anglers would be well into the hundreds of millions. For that reason, the fishing world is hoping there will be enough attraction to convince the Olympic committee to bite.” To summarize, there are more than enough events and participants to make Olympic angling a possibility.
In addition, many Olympic sports have lost their excitement or never had any that sportfishing could bring to the games. Several websites that discuss unpopular Olympic sports have regarded sports like race walking, equestrian dressage, and sailing as “too silly to be an Olympic sport”. Ray Scott, the founder of the Bassmaster Classic, said that he came up with the fishing competition based on a basketball game. He wondered why fishing couldn’t be just as exciting as football or basketball. Front Office Sports proclaims that “ The sport had already seen an increased interest in February, with stages one and two of its second-annual Bass Pro Tour reporting a 72% increase in unique tune-ins year-over-year. The league’s in-house live stream, MLFNOW!, attracted over 886,000 unique viewers over the two events for a total of 30 million watched minutes – an 89% over 2019’s total averages.” Sailing, dressage, and race walking aren't televised, are rarely televised, or are poorly advertised. On the whole, angling must be added to the Olympics to replace some of the least popular sports and bring fresh charisma to the games.
Conversely, a large proportion of people believe that angling is too impractical to become an official Olympic sport. A great concern is that fishing relies mostly on luck. There is some luck and chance to fishing, but most anglers will say that you can greatly increase your chance based upon the lure and bait. Visual, auditory, and scent appeal can also improve an angler’s chance. Knowing what weather and temperature the specific species prefer also increases the chance. Likewise, numbers of questioned individuals say it isn’t practical because not all countries fish. On the other hand, the MFL says that there are teams from Russia, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the USA, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mexico. The Confederation Internationale de la Peche Sportive (the International Confederation of Sport Fishing) tried to make fishing an Olympic sport for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and represented fifty million anglers in more than seventy countries. Angling, in many ways, is very practical.
In summary, angling needs to join the Olympic’s sports list immediately to provide entertaining events and allow anglers to experience a well-deserved chance at the Olympics. Fishing takes just about as much skill, stamina, and effort as many other sports. It could replace the foolish, non-mainstream sports and bring forth several new events for men and women of all countries. If sportfishing is not added to the Olympics, it will cause great injustice to occur on this fine planet. All sports, as long as they are still relevant, deserve an equal chance to be displayed to the world. This can all be prevented if enough people listen, take a stand, and help angling reach one of the highest levels a sport can achieve.
