Is Hiking a Sport? No, Here's Why

By Owen Carr · August 2, 2019 · 9 min read

Group of hikers climbing a rocky trail in the Bavarian Alps under a clear blue sky.

Is hiking a sport? To me, the answer is no, but I can understand why people ask. After all, there are similar pursuits like mountain biking and fishing, so why are those considered sports and hiking not? To answer that, we first need to look at what a sport actually is.

Is hiking considered a sport? No, hiking is not considered a sport. Sports must have rules and regulations by a governing body and have competitive events. Hiking lacks these elements to be considered a sport. Hiking, however, can be competitive and incorporated into races.

Why hiking is not a sport

If you look up what a sport is, you'll get slightly different answers depending on the source. Most of them say something similar to this:

an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.
Definition of "sport" from Dictionary.com

I find this definition a bit generic. It would let in almost anything that makes you breathe hard. To better define a sport, I think it must have two requirements:

Rules and regulations by a governing body
Competitive events

By that measure alone, hiking is not a sport because it lacks competition. That makes hiking more of a hobby or activity than a sport. The broader Wikipedia entry on hiking describes it as a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails, which is a description of an activity rather than a contest.

But wait, there is some competition when it comes to hiking. There are hiking records such as the fastest time hiking the Appalachian Trail and various other records like the fastest time hiking NH's 48. Some may argue that you can even compete against yourself.

I think the difference is that these are simply records. A record needs a start, a finish and a way of timing, but it doesn't need a rulebook, a league or an opponent on the trail beside you. There are records for lots of things that aren't considered sports. Just take a look through the Guinness World Records. You'll find lots of crazy records like farthest distance walking on legos, which definitely isn't a sport.

But what about mountain biking and fishing? I can do those without competing, so why are they considered sports and hiking not? The honest answer is that they mostly aren't, not on their own. If you do them outside a formal competitive event, they wouldn't be considered sports either, but rather hobbies. The sport label attaches to the organised version of an activity, not to the activity itself.

Hiking races and competitions

While hiking isn't a sport, there are similar events that are sports. Trail running, adventure racing, and geocaching can be considered sports. There are many events held around the world for these activities and they are sometimes televised.

I think though, hiking by definition, is not competitive. Hiking is about getting away from the busy city and out into nature's wonders. It's about working the body and resetting the mind. There are many reasons why people hike: the views, the health, and the community. Most of those reasons fall apart the moment someone is racing a clock, because you stop looking around.

Competition in hiking isn't a big priority and the moment it does become one, it would probably turn into something else like trail running or adventure racing. You can see this in how people talk about pace. A hiker who starts counting minutes per mile has usually begun to drift toward running, and the gear and mindset follow. If you're curious how footwear changes along that line, our piece on hiking in running shoes covers the overlap.

I do like the idea of turning hiking into a sport (my About Page explains where that interest comes from). I can imagine some type of multiday race where racers must carry their own food, supplies, and shelters along a specified route. Some events might have already been tried somewhere. The self-sufficiency rule is what would keep it distinct from a plain footrace.

What do you think? Should hiking be a sport or not?

What actually defines a sport?

Most sports governing bodies, including the International Olympic Committee, SportAccord and the Council of Europe, use a roughly similar checklist. A sport needs:

Physical exertion as a primary component.
Defined rules that govern the activity.
Competition between individuals or teams.
Skill that improves with practice and can be measured.
Organisation: a recognised body, standings, events.
Fairness and safety rules enforceable by a referee or judge.

Hiking ticks two of those boxes, physical exertion and skill. It misses the other four, which is why almost every formal definition calls it a recreation or an outdoor activity, not a sport.

The referee point is the one people overlook. In a real sport, someone with authority can stop play, penalise a competitor or disqualify an entry. On a trail, nobody does that. The only enforcement is the land manager's regulations and your own judgement, and those exist for conservation and safety, not to keep a contest fair. The general Wikipedia article on sport makes the same point: organised rules and some form of competition sit at the centre of the idea.

Hiking vs the sporting cousins it's confused with

A lot of the "hiking is a sport" argument comes from lumping it together with activities that genuinely are sports:

Trail running: a real sport. Organised race circuits (UTMB, Western States), official rankings, regulated trails, timed competition.
Orienteering: a real sport. Governed by the International Orienteering Federation, with world championships. You're hiking or running a set course against a clock with map navigation points.
Mountaineering: partially a sport. Competitive climbing is an Olympic event; Himalayan expeditions are not.
Fastpacking and thru-hiking speed records: in the grey area. Records exist (Pacific Crest Trail FKT, Appalachian Trail FKT), there are rules, but no formal governing body, so it's more "competitive recreation" than sport.
Nordic walking: also a sport in Europe. INWA-sanctioned events exist with technique judging.

If you want the sport version of hiking, those five activities are where it lives.

Notice the pattern. Each of the true sports on that list has a governing body, a standard format and a way of deciding a winner that everyone has agreed on in advance. The grey-area entries have only one or two of those. I'd argue that's the cleanest test you can apply to any outdoor activity: ask who writes the rules, and who decides the result. If the answer is nobody, you're looking at recreation, however hard it is. The Wikipedia page on orienteering is a good example of how a navigation-and-travel activity becomes a sport once it gets structure.

Is hiking exercise? Yes, and here's how much

The fact that hiking isn't a sport doesn't mean it isn't serious exercise. Average calorie burn on a moderate hike:

Flat trail, no pack: ~300 kcal/hour for a 150 lb person (similar to a brisk walk).
Rolling trail, day pack (15 lbs): ~430 kcal/hour.
Steep hills, day pack: ~530 kcal/hour.
Backpacking with a 35 lb pack on steep terrain: ~650-750 kcal/hour. Matches a slow jog.

Those figures are averages, and they shift with body weight, pace, terrain and how much weight you carry, so treat them as a rough guide rather than a promise. The pattern is what matters: add slope and load, and a walk starts to look like training.

Hiking also builds leg and core strength, improves cardiovascular health, and has documented benefits for stress and sleep quality. There's a reason hospitals in Japan prescribe "forest bathing" (shinrin-yoku) hikes as formal therapy. See our hiking vs walking breakdown for a deeper look at the calorie and cardiovascular math. And if mobility is a barrier, the idea isn't off limits: our explainer on adaptive hiking shows how the activity can be adjusted for more people.

Is hiking a hobby, a pastime, or a lifestyle?

All three, depending on the person. Most people fall into one of these buckets:

Casual hikers (maybe 2-3 times a year): hiking is a pastime.
Regular hikers (once a week to once a month): hiking is a hobby.
Thru-hikers, peak-baggers, fastpackers: hiking is a lifestyle, a serious physical discipline, and arguably a semi-professional pursuit for the small number of sponsored ultrarunners and trail athletes.

None of those definitions require calling it a sport to take it seriously. The same trail can be a Sunday stroll for one person and a months-long commitment for another, and both are legitimate. That flexibility is part of why the activity resists a single label.

Why the distinction actually matters

This isn't just semantics. The "sport vs recreation" label affects real things:

Liability and insurance. Organised sports carry different liability frameworks than unorganised recreation. Ski areas, rock gyms and sanctioned events use the sport framework; trails and backcountry do not.
School funding. Sports get varsity budgets. Outdoor clubs run on shoestring funds because hiking isn't classified as a sport.
Public perception. People underestimate the physical demands of a big hike because it's "just walking."
Injury statistics. Hiking injuries are tracked as recreation injuries, not sports injuries. This affects research funding and public health messaging.

The perception issue is the one I'd worry about most. When people think of hiking as casual, they skimp on preparation: they skip training, carry too little water, or pick a route far beyond their fitness. Treating a big hike with the seriousness you'd give a race, even though it isn't one, is just sensible. Even small decisions, like whether a single trekking pole or two suits your knees on a long descent, add up over a full day on your feet.

Is hiking a sport: your questions answered

Is hiking an Olympic sport?

No. Race-walking, marathon, trail running (introduced as an IAAF-sanctioned discipline but not yet Olympic), and sport climbing are all Olympic. Hiking as recreational walking on trails is not.

Is mountaineering a sport?

Parts of it. Competitive lead, bouldering and speed climbing are sports (and Olympic since Tokyo 2020). Expedition mountaineering on 8,000m peaks is technically an extreme sport but lacks a governing body or standard course.

Can hiking be competitive?

Yes: peak-bagging challenges (all 58 Colorado 14ers, all 46 Adirondack High Peaks), trail FKTs, and thru-hiking speed records make it competitive at the serious end. But there's no shared rulebook, so it's competitive against yourself or a record, not against other players in real time.

So what IS hiking, officially?

The cleanest label is outdoor recreation or physical activity. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks it as a leisure activity; the CDC tracks it as moderate-intensity physical activity. Neither calls it a sport.

Does calling hiking a hobby make it less legitimate?

Not at all. Hobbies just don't have referees. A six-month Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike is a bigger physical achievement than most professional sports seasons. The label doesn't determine the difficulty.