Sport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sport (or, in the United States, sports) is all forms of competitive physical activity which,[1] through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical tness and provide entertainment to participants.[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.Olivier Hon Sport is generally recognised as activities which above, is a team sport which also provides are based in physical athleticism or physical opportunities to nurture physical tness and social dexterity, with the largest major competitions interaction skills. such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this denition,[3] and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using denitions precluding activities without a physical element from classication 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 de sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises ve non-physical sports,[4][5] although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.[1]Olivier Hon 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 by determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line rst, or by the determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression.Olivier Hon 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 sports drawing large crowds to venues, and reaching wider audiences through sports broadcasting.Olivier Hon
Sport in childhood. Association football, shown

Contents
1 Meaning and usage 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Nomenclature 1.3 Denition 1.4 Competition 2 History 3 Fair play

3.1 Sportsmanship 3.2 Cheating 3.3 Doping and drugs 3.4 Violence 4 Participation 4.1 Gender participation 4.2 Youth participation 4.3 Spectator involvement 5 Issues and considerations 5.1 Amateur and professional 5.2 Technology 5.3 Politics 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading

Meaning and usage

Etymology
"Sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning "leisure", with the oldest denition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans nd amusing or entertaining".[6]Olivier Hon The French word for sport is based on the Persian word bord, meaning "winning" or "win". [citation needed] The Chinese term for sport, tiyu (; ) connotes physical training. The modern Greek term for sport is (athlitismos), directly cognate with the English terms "athlete" and "athleticism".Olivier Hon Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.[7] Roget's denes the noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation.[8]Olivier Hon

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.Olivier Hon

Denition
The precise denition of what separates a sport from other leisure activities varies between sources, with no universally agreed denition. The closest to an international agreement on a denition is provided by SportAccord, which is the association for all the largest international sports federations (including association football, american football, cycling, equestrian sports, baseball and more), and

is therefore the de facto representative of international sport.Olivier Hon SportAccord uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:[1]Olivier Hon 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 specically designed in to the sport

Show Jumping, an equestrian 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 animal supported (such as equestrian sport). [1] Olivier Hon There has been an increase in the application of the term 'sport' to a wider set of non-physical 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.Olivier Hon

Competition
There are opposing views on the necessity of competition as a dening element of a sport, with almost all professional sport involving competition, and governing bodies requiring competition as a prerequisite of recognition by the IOC or SportAccord.[1]Olivier Hon Other bodies advocate widening the denition 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.Olivier Hon 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.[9][10]Olivier Hon

History
Main article: History of sport There are artifacts and structures that suggest that the Chinese engaged in sporting activities as early as 2000 BC.[11] 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 shing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt.[12] 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.[13] Among other sports that originate in ancient Persia are polo and jousting.Olivier Hon 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 inuenced 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 the Peloponnesus called Olympia. [14] Olivier Hon

Motorized sports have appeared since the advent of the modern age

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 Roman bronze reduction developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to attend and of Myron's Discobolos, follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and 2nd century AD. 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 internetall while enjoying the exercise and competition associated with amateur participation in sports.Olivier Hon

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.[15][16][17]Olivier Hon 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.Olivier Hon

Cheating
See also: Match xing and cheating Key tenets 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.Olivier Hon 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 xtures creates the motivation for match xing, where a participant or participants deliberately work to ensure a given

outcome.Olivier Hon

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 articial means.Olivier Hon 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.Olivier Hon

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.Olivier Hon

Participation
Gender participation
See also: Women's sports Female participation continues to rise alongside the opportunity for involvement and the value of sports for child development and physical tness. Despite gains during the last three decades, a gap persists in the enrollment gures between male and female players. Female players account for 39% of the total participation in US interscholastic athletics. Gender balance has been accelerating from a 32% increase in 197374 to a 63% increase in 199495. Hessel (2000).Olivier Hon

Youth participation
Youth sports present children with opportunities for fun, socialization, forming peer relationships, physical tness, and athletic scholarships. Activists for education and the war on drugs encourage youth sports as a means to increase educational participation and to ght the illegal drug trade. According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Childrens Hospital, the biggest risk for youth sports is death or serious injury including concussion, with the highest risk coming from running, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer, and gymnastics.[18]Olivier Hon

Spectator involvement
Main article: Spectator sport The competition element of sport, along with the aesthetic appeal of some sports, result in the popularity of people attending to watch sport being played. This has led to the specic phenomenon of spectator sport.Olivier Hon

Both amateur and professional sports attract spectators, both in person at the sport venue, and through broadcast mediums including radio, television and internet broadcast. Both attendance in person and viewing remotely can incur a sometimes substantial charge, such as an entrance ticket, or pay-per-view television broadcast.Olivier Hon It is common for popular sports to attract large broadcast audiences, leading to rival broadcasters bidding large Spectators at the 1906 unofcial amounts of money for the rights to show certain xtures. The Olympic Games football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 nal alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million and the 2007 Cricket World Cup attracted about 2.3 Billion worldwide viewers.[citation needed]Olivier Hon In the United States, the championship game of the NFL, the Super Bowl, has become one of the most watched television broadcasts of the year.[citation needed] Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America; the viewership being so great that in 2007 advertising space was reported as being sold at $2.6m for a 30 second slot.[citation needed]Olivier Hon

Issues and considerations

Amateur and professional
See also: professional sport and amateur sport Sport can be undertaken on an amateur, professional or semi-professional basis, depending on whether particpants are incentivised for participation (usually through payment of a wage or salary).Olivier Hon The popularity of spectator sport as a recreation for non-participants has led to sport becoming a major business in its own right, and this has incentivised a high paying professional sport culture, where high performing participants are rewarded with pay far in excess of average wages, which can run in to millions of dollars.[19]Olivier Hon

Modern sports have complex rules and are highly organized.

Some sports, or individual competitions within a sport, retain a policy of allowing only amateur sport. The Olympic Games started with a principle of amateur competition with those who practiced a sport professionally considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practiced it merely as a hobby.[20] Following the 1988 games, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes elgible for the Olympics, with only boxing and wrestling still competed on an "amateur" basis, although this revolves around rules, and not payment.Olivier Hon Grassroots sport is a popular phrase which covers the amateur participation in sport at lower levels, normally without pretension towards higher achievement, and is in line with the "sport for all" mentality, where enjoyment is the primary reason for participation.[2][21]Olivier Hon

Technology
Technology plays an important part in modern sport, with it being a necessary part of some sports (such as motorsport), and used in others to improve performance.Olivier Hon Sports science is a widespread academic discipline, and can be applied to areas including athlete performance, such as the use of video analysis to ne tune technique, or to equipment, such as improved running shoes or competitive swimwear.Olivier Hon In order to control the impact of technology on fair play, governing bodies frequently have specic rules designed to control the impact of technical advantage between participants.Olivier Hon

Politics
Main article: Politics and sports Sports and politics can inuence each other greatly.Olivier Hon When apartheid was the ofcial policy in South Africa, many sports people, particularly in rugby union, adopted the conscientious approach that they should not appear in competitive sports there. Some feel this was an effective contribution to the eventual demolition of the policy of apartheid, others feel that it may have prolonged and reinforced its worst effects.[22]Olivier Hon The 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin was an illustration, perhaps best recognised in retrospect, where an ideology was developing which used the event to strengthen its spread through propaganda.Olivier Hon In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were connected with cultural nationalism. Until the mid 20th century a person could have been banned from playing Gaelic football, hurling, or other sports administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) if she/he played or supported football, or other games seen to be of British origin. Until recently the GAA continued to ban the playing of football and rugby union at Gaelic venues. This ban is still enforced, but was modied to allow football and rugby to be played in Croke Park while Lansdowne Road was redeveloped into Aviva Stadium. Until recently, under Rule 21, the GAA also banned members of the British security forces and members of the RUC from playing Gaelic games, but the advent of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the eventual removal of the ban.Olivier Hon Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sports, or in its reporting: people compete in national teams, or commentators and audiences can adopt a partisan view. On occasion, such tensions can lead to violent confrontation among players or spectators within and beyond the sporting venue, as in the Football War. These trends are seen by many as contrary to the fundamental ethos of sports being carried on for its own sake and for the enjoyment of its participants.Olivier Hon A very famous case when sports and politics colided was the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Masked men entered the hotel of the Israeli olympic team and killed many of their men. This was known as the Munich massacre.Olivier Hon

See also
Outline of sports

List of sportspeople List of sports attendance gures List of professional sports leagues Related topics Athletic sports Combat sport Disabled sports Electronic sports Handedness#Advantage in sports Mind sport Most popular sport by country Motor sports Multi-sport events National sport Nationalism and sports Olympic Games Paralympic Games Sponsorship Sport in lm Sport governing bodies Sport Psychology Sports club Sports coaching Sports commentator Sports equipment Sports fan Sports injuries Sports league attendances Sports marketing Sports terms named after people Sports trainer Sportsperson Women's sports Water sports

References
1. ^ a b c d e "Denition of sport" (http://www.sportaccord.com/en/members/index.php?idIndex=32& idContent=14881) . SportAccord. http://www.sportaccord.com/en/members/index.php?idIndex=32& idContent=14881. 2. ^ a b c Council of Europe. "The Europien sport charter" (https://wcd.coe.int /wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=206451) . https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=206451. Retrieved 2012-03-05. 3. ^ "List of Summer and Winter Olympic Sports and Events" (http://www.olympic.org/sports) . The Olympic Movement. http://www.olympic.org/sports. 4. ^ "World Mind Games" (http://www.sportaccord.com/en/multi-sports-games/index.php?idIndex=35& idContent=658) . SportAccord. http://www.sportaccord.com/en/multi-sportsgames/index.php?idIndex=35&idContent=658. 5. ^ "Members" (http://www.sportaccord.com/en/members/index.php?idContent=644&idIndex=32) . SportAccord. http://www.sportaccord.com/en/members/index.php?idContent=644&idIndex=32. 6. ^ Harper, Douglas. "sport (n.)" (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=sport& searchmode=none) . Online Etymological Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com /index.php?search=sport&searchmode=none. Retrieved 20 April 2008. 7. ^ Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. Springeld, MA: G&C Merriam Company. 1967. p. 2206. 8. ^ Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition (http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/sport) . Houghton Mifin Harcourt. 1995. ISBN 0-618-25414-5. http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/sport. 9. ^ front, Rebecca (2011-07-17). "A little competition" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree /2011/jul/17/school-sport-competitive-children-achievement-ambition) . The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/17/school-sport-competitive-children-achievementambition. 10. ^ Scrimgeour, Heidi (2011-06-17). "Why parents hate school sports day" (http://www.parentdish.co.uk /2011/06/17/why-parents-hate-school-sports-day/) . ParentDish. http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2011/06 /17/why-parents-hate-school-sports-day/. 11. ^ "Sports (http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa032301a.htm) History in China". http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa032301a.htm. 12. ^ "Mr Ahmed D. Touny (EGY), IOC Member" (http://www.ioa.leeds.ac.uk/1980s/84085.htm) .

http://www.ioa.leeds.ac.uk/1980s/84085.htm. 13. ^ "Persian warriors" (http://www.kuwait-info.com/newsnew/NewsDetails1.asp?id=78319&dt=10/13 /2006&ntype=World) . http://www.kuwait-info.com/newsnew/NewsDetails1.asp?id=78319&dt=10/13 /2006&ntype=World. 14. ^ "Ancient Olympic Games" (http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/ancient/index_uk.asp) . http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/ancient/index_uk.asp. 15. ^ "Sportsmanship" (http://www.merriam.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=sportsmanship) . Merriam-Webster. http://www.merriam.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=sportsmanship. 16. ^ Fish, Joel; Magee, Susan (2003). 101 Ways to Be a Terric Sports Parent. Fireside. p. 168. 17. ^ Lacey, David (2007-11-10). "It takes a bad loser to become a good winner" (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk /sport/2007/11/10/it_takes_a_bad_loser_to_become.html) . The Guardian. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk /sport/2007/11/10/it_takes_a_bad_loser_to_become.html. 18. ^ "Gym class injuries up 150% between 1997 and 2007" (http://healthland.time.com/2009/08/04/whyare-more-kids-getting-hurt-in-gym-class/) , Time, 4 August 2009 19. ^ Freedman, Jonah. "Fortunate 50 2011" (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/specials/fortunate50-2011 /index.html) . Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/specials/fortunate50-2011/index.html. 20. ^ Eassom, Simon (1994). Critical Reections on Olympic Ideology. Ontario: The Centre for Olympic Studies. pp. 120123. ISBN 0-7714-1697-0. 21. ^ European Commission. "The White Paper on Sport" (http://ec.europa.eu/sport/whitepaper/index_en.htm) . http://ec.europa.eu/sport/white-paper/index_en.htm. Retrieved 11.7.2007. 22. ^ "Sport and apartheid" (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2005.00165.x) . http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2005.00165.x.

European Commission (2007), The White Paper on Sport. Council of Europe (2001), The Europien sport charter.

Further reading
The Meaning of Sports by Michael Mandel (PublicAffairs, ISBN 1-58648-252-1). Journal of the Philosophy of Sport (http://journals.humankinetics.com/jps) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sport&oldid=499714292" Categories: Sports This page was last modied on 28 June 2012 at 06:33. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-prot organization.