Anybody who has seen the end of a Ninja Gaiden game, or survived the 'Dante Must Die' mode in Devil May Cry, will tell you that finishing some games requires enormous amounts of skill, dexterity and perseverance, as well as incredible hand-eye coordination and a bucket-load of hard work. The world's finest athletes have all of these attributes in abundance and are rewarded with medals, money and Spice Girls, but what about gamers? If gamers possess these attributes can they be considered athletes? Furthermore, can gaming be considered a sport?

The traditional view of a gamer is of an overweight nerd, sans social skills and girlfriend, living with their parents and 'fragging' opponents from their bedrooms. However, with the advent of gaming leagues and financially-backed tournaments, a new type of gamer is emerging. The 'frags' are still there, but there is now a real work ethic and a degree of mainstream recognition to go with it.

Perhaps the closest person gaming has to a recognised athlete is the self professed 'E-Sportsman', Johnathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel. Wendel, under the pseudonym Fatal1ty, has won hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money by winning tournaments in PC games such as Doom 3, Quake III & IV and Counter-Strike. Wendel's success from gaming is so great that he even owns his own company, Fatal1ty Brand, which sells game-related merchandise such as mouse pads, sound cards and headphones. Now the spokesman for the televised Championship Gaming Series, Wendel proudly champions the cause for the E-Sportsman and tells us what similarities gaming shares with sports.

"Playing a first person shooter (FPS) involves everything a sport requires besides physical exertion. Everything, including hand-eye coordination, timing, strategy, prediction, quick thinking, lightning reflexes, split second decision making, stamina and endurance. People don't realise how much it takes to play a one-on-one FPS game and how much skill can be learned from using a mouse and keyboard."

Wendel considers the FPS to be the pinnacle of gaming in terms of skill needed, but just like a recognised sport he says there is more to it than just being good at a game. It takes years to make an impact, and a lot of hard work to boot: "You have to be able to train like no other to make it to the top in FPS gaming. No kid can come in after one year training and be a world champ. You need three to six years of hardcore, eight-hours-a-day training to make it to the top."

Training regimes are important in any sport. Following a successful summer for British Olympians, stories of intense training sessions were often cited as the reason for the sometime split second victories. Wendel's own training is just as rigorous and is accompanied by an almost obsessive attitude to be better than everyone else out there: "I practice six to eight hours a day, everyday. You have to be disciplined enough to be your own coach and never give up. I'm one of those insane guys making sure that no one is practicing more than me. That's my motto. My dad always told me that somebody out there is better and somebody out there is training more. I made sure to prove him wrong by sacrificing everything to make it to the top."

Any sport worth its salt needs exposure and gaming is no different. In 2007 the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) made its on-screen debut. Airing on DirecTV in America, Star TV in Asia and Sky in the UK, the CGS became a platform for gamers to gain media attention.

Set out like an US sports league, the CGS has given gaming competition some structure and stability. It has also expanded on the PC-heavy competitive gaming format by adding console favourites into the mix. With popular console games such as Forza Motorsport 2, Fifa and Dead Or Alive being played, the CGS will attract and inspire more gamers, who will now begin to feel that competitive gaming is as accessible as playing a game of football in the park.

Wendel, who is a spokesman for the CGS, believes that recognition for gamers as sportsmen won't stop with the CGS, especially as gaming continues to grow. "Mainstream exposure is out there for gamers. I've been on pretty much every on every sporting show or magazine you can think of. Sportscentre is the biggest show I've been on."

With his optimism, self belief and work ethic, Wendel has clearly started to gain the recognition as an athlete he deserves. Many people would scoff at the idea of gaming as a sport, but gaming has always been competitive and required great degrees of skill to master. High-score tables have been replaced by online leaderboards, and two player split screen with broadband gaming. These innovations have helped gaming go global, gain more popularity and become more accessible. With televised gaming leagues, increased prize money and 'E-Sport' ambassadors like Johnathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel, gaming may one day be recognised as a fully-fledged sport. However, despite all of this, gamers will probably be waiting a long time before they represent their countries at the Olympics and even longer before they bag a Spice Girl.

Three Olympic sports gamers could master

1. Table Tennis - Every gamer knows where it all began and that was with Pong. Gamers have long since mastered the two paddles and dot game and would make perfect Table Tennis competitors. OK, so a bit more physical energy would be needed, but a medal of some sorts would be a guarantee, surely?

2. Snowboarding - Anybody with a copy of Wii Fit would be a cert for gold in this event. Not only are gamers used to the balance it takes to succeed in this sport, but years of SSX games would make sure that the crowd remain entertained by all those additional tricks.

3. Shooting - The perfect event for practically every gamer out there. Anybody who has played Duck Hunt or completed the sniper missions on Call Of Duty knows what is needed for this event, just don't train by playing Gears Of War, or else you'll probably end up getting disqualified by the bullet-ridden judges.