Mitt Romney has a quirky way of talking about athletic competition. Like at one recent campaign event, when he described the time he met a very tall man: "Yeah, handsome, great big guy, seven feet tall! Name is Rick Miller – Portland, Oregon. And he started a business. Of course you know it was in basketball. But it wasn't in basketball! I mean, I, figured he had to be in sport, but he wasn't in sport." (Romney talks about "sport" – not to be confused with "sports" – quite a lot. In his 2004 book Turnaround, about the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he talks about 'sport'-related activities approximately 33 times, by Mother Jones's count.)

Stephen Colbert would have you believe that Mitt is just your average horse-ballet-loving blue-collar "sport" fan. But though his wife's dressage horse might be Olympic-bound, Romney himself has a more practical use for "sport" events. Unlike your average blue-collar fan, Romney counts "sport" team owners amongst his friends – and campaign donors.

Pictured here: Romney was President of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, although he once said his favorite of all Olympic "sport" is Women's Beach Volleyball.