Sport includes all forms of
competitive physical activity or
games which,
[1] through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants, and in some cases,
entertainment for spectators.
[2] Hundreds of sports exist, from those between single contestants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in
teams or competing as individuals. In certain sports such as
racing, many contestants may compete, simultaneously or consecutively, with one winner; in others, the contest (a
match) is between two sides, each attempting to exceed the other. Some sports allow a "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide
tie-breaking methods to ensure one winner and one loser. A number of contests may be arranged in a
tournament producing a
champion. Many
sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular
sports season, followed in some cases by
playoffs.
Sport is generally recognised as system of activities which are based in physical
athleticism or physical
dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the
Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition,
[3] and other organisations such as the
Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports.
[2]However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as
mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through
ARISF) recognises both
chess and
bridge as
bona fide sports, and
SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports: bridge, chess,
draughts (checkers),
Go and
xiangqi,
[4][5] and limits the number of mind games which can be admitted as sports.
[1]
Sport is usually governed by a set of
rules or
customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, and allow consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring
goals or crossing a line first. It can also be determined by judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression.
Records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in
sport news. Sport is also a major source of entertainment for non-participants, with
spectator sport drawing large crowds to
sport venues, and reaching wider audiences through
broadcasting.
Sport betting is in some cases severely regulated, and in some cases is central to the sport.
According to A.T. Kearney, a consultancy, the global sporting industry is worth up to $620 billion as of 2013.
[6] The world's most accessible and practised sport is
running, while
association football is its most popular spectator sport.
[7]
Meaning and usage
Etymology
The word "sport" comes from the
Old French desport meaning "
leisure", with the oldest definition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans find amusing or entertaining".
[8]
Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.
[9] Roget's defines the noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation.
[10]
Nomenclature
The singular term "sport" is used in most English dialects to describe the overall concept (e.g. "children taking part in sport"), with "sports" used to describe multiple activities (e.g. "football and rugby are the most popular sports in England"). American English uses "sports" for both terms.
Definition
The precise definition of what separates a sport from other leisure activities varies between sources. The closest to an international agreement on a definition is provided by
SportAccord, which is the association for all the largest international sports federations (including
association football,
athletics,
cycling,
tennis,
equestrian sports, and more), and is therefore the
de facto representative of international sport.
SportAccord uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:
[1]
- have an element of competition
- be in no way harmful to any living creature
- not rely on equipment provided by a single supplier (excluding proprietary games such as arena football)
- not rely on any "luck" element specifically designed into the sport.
The inclusion of mind sports within sport definitions has not been universally accepted, leading to legal challenges from governing bodies in regards to being denied funding available to sports.
[11] Whilst SportAccord recognises a small number of mind sports, it is not open to admitting any further mind sports.
There has been an increase in the application of the term "sport" to a wider set of non-physical challenges such as
video games, also called
esports, especially due to the large scale of participation and organised competition, but these are not widely recognised by mainstream sports organisations. According to
Council of Europe, European Sports Charter, article 2.i,
"'Sport' means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels."
[12]
Competition
There are opposing views on the necessity of
competition as a defining element of a sport, with almost all
professional sport involving competition, and governing bodies requiring competition as a prerequisite of recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) or SportAccord.
[1]
Other bodies advocate widening the definition of sport to include all physical activity. For instance, the
Council of Europe include all forms of physical exercise, including those competed just for fun.
In order to widen participation, and reduce the impact of losing on less able participants, there has been an introduction of non-competitive physical activity to traditionally competitive events such as school
sports days, although moves like this are often controversial.
[13][14]
In competitive events, participants are graded or classified based on their "result" and often divided into groups of comparable performance, (e.g. gender, weight and age). The measurement of the result may be objective or subjective, and corrected with "handicaps" or penalties. In a race, for example, the time to complete the course is an objective measurement. In
gymnastics or
diving the result is decided by a panel of judges, and therefore subjective. There are many shades of judging between boxing and mixed martial arts, where victory is assigned by judges if neither competitor has lost at the end of the match time.
History
Artifacts and structures suggest
sport in China as early as 2000 BC.
[15] Gymnastics appears to have been popular in China's ancient past. Monuments to the
Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in
ancient Egypt.
[16] Other Egyptian sports included javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling.
Ancient Persian sports such as the traditional
Iranian martial art of
Zourkhaneh had a close connection to warfare skills.
[17] Among other sports that originated in ancient Persia are
polo and
jousting.
A wide range of sports were already established by the time of
Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sport in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sport became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the
Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the
Peloponnesus called
Olympia.
[18]
Sports have been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of the ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialisation has brought increased
leisure time, letting people attend and follow spectator sports and participate in athletic activities. These trends continued with the advent of
mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans followed the exploits of professional athletes – all while enjoying the exercise and competition associated with amateur participation in sports. Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been increasing debate about whether
transgender sportspersons should be able to participate in sport events that conform with their post-transition
gender identity.
[19]