New York is hosting the National Yoga Asana Championships sponsored by USA Yoga, an organization that wants to see yoga become an Olympic Sport. Rajashree Choudhury, cousin of the creator of Bikram Yoga and founder of the yoga pose competition, said the poses to be judged show “how someone can have perfect strength, balance, flexibility in the body.”
Aside from raising eyebrows as another unconventional “sport” pursuing induction into the Olympic games, the thought of performing yoga poses for competitive reasons is creating quite a stir among spiritual purists. Many believe the roots of yoga steer clear of the need to judge and the purpose of practicing is about acceptance, inclusion and non-dualism.
USA Yoga believes that an increased awareness of the sport on an Olympic level will encourage more people to want to practice yoga, and enable a larger population of people to be happier and healthier as a result. Not everyone agrees with this concept, however. Roseanne Harvey, a blog writer and avid yoga practitioner from Canada says that in most yoga classes, “what we’re trying to do is encourage students not to compete.”
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