Would you watch yoga if it were an Olympic sport? Would you try out for the team? USA Yoga, (not currently affiliated with the United States Olympic Committee), says it will lobby to be considered an Olympic sport for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Yoga and competition don’t seem to go together, do they? Isn’t yoga supposed to be peaceful and relaxing? Practitioners of yoga see it differently. Some use yoga for therapeutic and wellness reasons, others use yoga for more spiritual reasons and a means to enlightenment. Some use yoga for both.
The recent National Yoga Asana Championships in New York focused on posture. Participants were required to do a series of seven yoga poses in three minutes – five poses were required and the last two were the participant’s choice. Poses were supposed to show strength, flexibility and balance.
Yoga competitions have been held in India for years. The founder of USA Yoga, Rajashree Choudhury, said she used to compete as a child. She entered her first competition at the age of 11 and became a national champion at age 18. Her husband is Bikram Choudhury, founder of the Bikram Yoga.
I’ve done yoga several times and it’s not as easy as everyone thinks! There are many different types of yoga and I’m not exactly sure which type this class was, but it was difficult to hold the poses and at several times I thought my leg was going to cramp and I was going to fall. But I held strong because I was not going to let my classmates out yoga me! I obviously wasn’t there for peace and oneness with myself.
Do you practice yoga? What kind? What do you think of yoga as an Olympic sport? Weigh in on the issue and let me know your thoughts!