Ultra sports as nature sports (proper)

ABSTRACT

The term ‘nature sports’ can be understood in different ways, depending on how the words ‘sport’ and ‘nature’ are explained. Since ‘nature’ is usually understood as ‘ungroomed’, ‘nature sports’ may be interpreted either as non-competitive practices in ungroomed nature (as discussed by Krein), with examples such as backcountry skiing, climbing or surfing; or as competitive sports in ungroomed nature. This paper argues that those ultra sports that take place in ungroomed nature, such as ultra swimming and ultra running, are better candidates for being called ‘nature sports’ than those non-competitive ones suggested by Krein; and that this is also more in line with the contemporary common use of the term ‘sport’. This paper discusses these ‘ultra/nature’ sports, mainly from the point of view of their relationship to nature, the values that they offer to athletes, and their specific temporality.

KEYWORDS:

• Nature sports
• ultra sports
• competition
• environment
• temporality
• immersion

Acknowledgments

This paper was written with institutional support from Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (Cooperatio – Social Sport Sciences).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. See the discussion of what counts as ‘natural’ by Krein (2019, chapter 2), Humphreys (in Krein et al. 2023, 253f.) and Krein (in Krein et al. 2023, 268ff.).

2. The selection of just these three examples of ‘nature sports’ has been pointed out by Breivik as limited (in Krein et al. 2023, 248).

3. However, some ultra cycling races are set in nature that is even further from civilization, for example, Red Bull endurance races such as Cape Epic (the 16th edition in 2023 consisted of '624 km of trails, single track and mountains') or the Silk Road Mountain Race (in which competitors were ‘challenged to ride unsupported for more than 1,600 km on roads where tarmac is a scarcity’) (Allenby 2023).

4. Ultra sports challenge Russell’s (2021) view of the role of struggle in sport, since struggle has an important place in ultra sports.

5. As with Krein’s ‘nature sports’, ‘slow sports’ are not competitive and, in this sense, both are problematic terms.

6. Interestingly, some argue that extreme ultra races are valuable not just for humans, but also for dogs (e.g. Gilbertson and Fischer 2023).

7. See also a discussion of these simple rules by Berg (2015), who calls the skills within these activities ‘literal skills’.

8. For different takes on the idea of a record, see Parry (2006).