Sport (or sports) is all forms of usually competitive physical activity which,[1] through

casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and
skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators.
[2]

Hundreds of sports exist, from those requiring only two participants, through to those

with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals.

Sport is generally recognised as 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, [4]
[5]

although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports. [1]

Sports are 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.
In organised sport, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this
information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. In addition, sport is a
major source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sport drawing large
crowds to venues, and reaching wider audiences through broadcasting.
According to A.T. Kearney, a consultancy, the global sporting industry is worth up to $620
billion as of 2013.[6]

Meaning and usage

Etymology
"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". [7]
Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling;
hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise. [8] Roget's

defines the noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with
synonyms including diversion and recreation.[9]

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
See also: Game Definitions

Show Jumping, an equestriansport

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

They also recognise that sport can be primarily physical (such as rugby or athletics),
primarily mind (such as chess or go), predominantly motorised (such as Formula
1 or powerboating), primarily co-ordination (such as billiard sports), or primarily animalsupported (such as equestrian sport).[1]
There has been an increase in the application of the term "sport" to a wider set of nonphysical challenges such as electronic sports, especially due to the large scale of
participation and organised competition, but these are not widely recognised by
mainstream sports organisations.

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
completed 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.[10][11]
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
Main article: History of sport

Roman bronze reduction of Myron'sDiscobolos, 2nd century AD.

Electronic sports are a recent development.

There are artifacts and structures that suggest that the Chinese engaged in sporting
activities as early as 2000 BC.[12] Gymnastics appears to have been a popular sport 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.[13] 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 the warfare skills.[14] Among other sports that
originate in ancient Persia are polo and jousting.

Motorized sports have appeared since the advent of the modern age

A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the
military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another
considerably. Sports 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 thePeloponnesus called Olympia.[15]
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
to the citizens of developed and developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to
attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and
increased accessibility. 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 began following the exploits of professional athletes
through radio, television, and the internet all while enjoying the exercise and
competition associated with amateur participation in sports.

Fair play
Sportsmanship
Main article: Sportsmanship
See also: Gamesmanship and Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing

Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and
opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat. [16][17][18]
Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its
own sake. The well-known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice, that it's "not that
you won or lost but how you played the game", and the modern Olympic creed
expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing... is not winning
but taking part" are typical expressions of this sentiment.

Cheating
See also: Match fixing and cheating
Key principles of sport include that the result should not be predetermined, and that both
sides should have equal opportunity to win. Rules are in place to ensure that fair play to
occur, but participants can break these rules in order to gain advantage.
Participants may choose to cheat in order to satisfy their desire to win, or in order to
achieve an ulterior motive. The widespread existence of gambling on the results of sports
fixtures creates the motivation for match fixing, where a participant or participants
deliberately work to ensure a given outcome.

Doping and drugs

Main article: Use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport
The competitive nature of sport encourages some participants to attempt to enhance
their performance through the use of medicines, or through other means such as
increasing the volume of blood in their bodies through artificial means.
All sports recognised by the IOC or SportAccord are required to implement a testing
programme, looking for a list of banned drugs, with suspensions or bans being placed on
participants who test positive for banned substances.

Violence
Violence in sports involves crossing the line between fair competition and intentional
aggressive violence. Athletes, coaches, fans, and parents sometimes unleash violent
behaviour on people or property, in misguided shows of loyalty, dominance, anger, or
celebration. Rioting or hooliganism are common and ongoing problems at national and
international sporting contests.