The word sport come from

Sport pertains to any form of physical activity or game,^[1] often competitive and organised, that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators.^[2] Sports can, through casual or organised participation, improve participants’ physical health. 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 based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition.^[3] Other organisations, such as the Council of Europe, preclude 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 the 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 differentiates a sport from other leisure activities varies between sources. The closest to an international agreement on a definition is provided by the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), 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.

GAISF 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 animal-supported (such as equestrian sport).^[1]

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 GAISF 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 (from «electronic sports»), 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 sports involving competition, and governing bodies requiring competition as a prerequisite of recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) or GAISF. ^[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 Zoorkhaneh had a close connection to warfare skills.^[17] Among other sports that originated in ancient Persia are polo and jousting. The traditional South Asian sport of kabaddi has been played for thousands of years, potentially as a preparation for hunting.^[18]

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.^[19]

Sports have been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of the ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialisation has brought motorised transportation and 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 sports people should be able to participate in sport events that conform with their post-transition gender identity.^[20]

Fair play

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.^[21][22][23]

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 is «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

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 fair play, but participants can break these rules in order to gain advantage.

Participants may cheat in order to unfairly increase their chance of winning, or in order to achieve other advantages such as financial gains. The widespread existence of gambling on the results of sports events creates a motivation for match fixing, where a participant or participants deliberately work to ensure a given outcome rather than simply playing to win.

Doping and drugs

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 by fans in particular is a problem at some national and international sporting contests.^{[citation needed]}

Participation

Gender participation

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2012)

Female participation in sports continues to rise alongside the opportunity for involvement and the value of sports for child development and physical fitness. Despite increases in female participation during the last three decades, a gap persists in the enrolment figures between male and female players in sports-related teams. Female players account for 39% of the total participation in US interscholastic athletics.

Certain sports are mixed-gender, allowing (or even requiring) men and women to play on the same team. One example of this is Baseball5, which is the first mixed-gender sport to have been admitted into an Olympic event.^[24]

Youth participation

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2012)

Youth sport presents children with opportunities for fun, socialisation, forming peer relationships, physical fitness, and athletic scholarships. Activists for education and the war on drugs encourage youth sport as a means to increase educational participation and to fight the illegal drug trade. According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the biggest risk for youth sport is death or serious injury including concussion. These risks come from running, basketball, association football, volleyball, gridiron, gymnastics, and ice hockey.^[25] Youth sport in the US is a $15 billion industry including equipment up to private coaching.^[26]

Disabled participation

Disabled sports also adaptive sports or parasports, are sports played by people with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. As many of these are based on existing sports modified to meet the needs of people with a disability, they are sometimes referred to as adapted sports. However, not all disabled sports are adapted; several sports that have been specifically created for people with a disability have no equivalent in able-bodied sports.

Spectator involvement

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 specific phenomenon of spectator sport.

Both amateur and professional sports attract spectators, both in person at the sport venue, and through broadcast media 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. Sports league and tournament are two common arrangements to organise sport teams or individual athletes into competing against each other continuously or periodically.

It is common for popular sports to attract large broadcast audiences, leading to rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the rights to show certain events. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million and the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final attracted an estimated audience of 135 million in India alone.^[27]

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.^[28][29]
Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America;^[30][31] the viewership being so great that in 2015, advertising space was reported as being sold at $4.5m for a 30-second slot.^[28]

Amateur and professional

Sport can be undertaken on an amateur, professional or semi-professional basis, depending on whether participants are incentivised for participation (usually through payment of a wage or salary). Amateur participation in sport at lower levels is often called «grassroots sport».^[2][32]

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 into millions of dollars.^[33]

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 practised a sport professionally considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practised it merely as a hobby.^[34] From 1971, Olympic athletes were allowed to receive compensation and sponsorship,^[35] and from 1986, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes eligible for the Olympics,^[35][36] with the exceptions of boxing,^[37][38] and wrestling.^[39][40]

Technology

Technology plays an important part in modern sport. It is a necessary part of some sports (such as motorsport), and it is used in others to improve performance. Some sports also use it to allow off-field decision making.

Sports science is a widespread academic discipline, and can be applied to areas including athlete performance, such as the use of video analysis to fine-tune technique, or to equipment, such as improved running shoes or competitive swimwear. Sports engineering emerged as a discipline in 1998 with an increasing focus not just on materials design but also the use of technology in sport, from analytics and big data to wearable technology.^[41] In order to control the impact of technology on fair play, governing bodies frequently have specific rules that are set to control the impact of technical advantage between participants. For example, in 2010, full-body, non-textile swimsuits were banned by FINA, as they were enhancing swimmers’ performances.^[42][43]

The increase in technology has also allowed many decisions in sports matches to be taken, or reviewed, off-field, with another official using instant replays to make decisions. In some sports, players can now challenge decisions made by officials. In Association football, goal-line technology makes decisions on whether a ball has crossed the goal line or not.^[44] The technology is not compulsory,^[45] but was used in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil,^[46] and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada,^[47] as well as in the Premier League from 2013–14,^[48] and the Bundesliga from 2015–16.^[49] In the NFL, a referee can ask for a review from the replay booth, or a head coach can issue a challenge to review the play using replays. The final decision rests with the referee.^[50] A video referee (commonly known as a Television Match Official or TMO) can also use replays to help decision-making in rugby (both league and union).^[51][52] In international cricket, an umpire can ask the Third umpire for a decision, and the third umpire makes the final decision.^[53][54] Since 2008, a decision review system for players to review decisions has been introduced and used in ICC-run tournaments, and optionally in other matches.^[53][55] Depending on the host broadcaster, a number of different technologies are used during an umpire or player review, including instant replays, Hawk-Eye, Hot Spot and Real Time Snickometer.^[56][57] Hawk-Eye is also used in tennis to challenge umpiring decisions.^[58][59]

Sports and education

Research suggests that sports have the capacity to connect youth to positive adult role models and provide positive development opportunities, as well as promote the learning and application of life skills.^[60][61] In recent years the use of sport to reduce crime, as well as to prevent violent extremism and radicalization, has become more widespread, especially as a tool to improve self-esteem, enhance social bonds and provide participants with a feeling of purpose.^[61]

There is no high-quality evidence that shows the effectiveness of interventions to increase sports participation of the community in sports such as mass media campaigns, educational sessions, and policy changes.^[62] There is also no high-quality studies that investigate the effect of such interventions in promoting healthy behaviour change in the community.^[63]

Politics

Benito Mussolini used the 1934 FIFA World Cup, which was held in Italy, to showcase Fascist Italy.^[64][65] Adolf Hitler also used the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, and the 1936 Winter Olympics held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, to promote the Nazi ideology of the superiority of the Aryan race, and inferiority of the Jews and other «undesirables».^[65][66] Germany used the Olympics to give off a peaceful image while secretly preparing for war.^[67]

When apartheid was the official 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.^[68]

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 Association 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, also known as Rule 42,^[69] is still enforced, but was modified 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.

Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sport, 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 sport being carried on for its own sake and for the enjoyment of its participants.

Sport and politics collided in 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.

A study of US elections has shown that the result of sports events can affect the results. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that when the home team wins the game before the election, the incumbent candidates can increase their share of the vote by 1.5 percent. A loss had the opposite effect, and the effect is greater for higher-profile teams or unexpected wins and losses.^[70] Also, when Washington Redskins win their final game before an election, then the incumbent President is more likely to win, and if the Redskins lose, then the opposition candidate is more likely to win; this has become known as the Redskins Rule.^[71][72]

As a means of controlling and subduing populations

Étienne de La Boétie, in his essay Discourse on Voluntary Servitude describes athletic spectacles as means for tyrants to control their subjects by distracting them.

Do not imagine that there is any bird more easily caught by decoy, nor any fish sooner fixed on the hook by wormy bait, than are all these poor fools neatly tricked into servitude by the slightest feather passed, so to speak, before their mouths. Truly it is a marvellous thing that they let themselves be caught so quickly at the slightest tickling of their fancy. Plays, farces, spectacles, gladiators, strange beasts, medals, pictures, and other such opiates, these were for ancient peoples the bait toward slavery, the price of their liberty, the instruments of tyranny. By these practices and enticements the ancient dictators so successfully lulled their subjects under the yoke, that the stupefied peoples, fascinated by the pastimes and vain pleasures flashed before their eyes, learned subservience as naïvely, but not so creditably, as little children learn to read by looking at bright picture books.^[73]

During the British rule of Bengal, British and European sports began to supplant traditional Bengali sports, resulting in a loss of native culture.^[74]

Religious views

Sport was an important form of worship in Ancient Greek religion. The ancient Olympic Games were held in honour of the head deity, Zeus, and featured various forms of religious dedication to him and other gods.^[75] As many Greeks travelled to see the games, this combination of religion and sport also served as a way of uniting them.

The practice of athletic competitions has been criticised by some Christian thinkers as a form of idolatry, in which «human beings extol themselves, adore themselves, sacrifice themselves and reward themselves.»^[76] Sports are seen by these critics as a manifestation of «collective pride» and «national self-deification» in which feats of human power are idolised at the expense of divine worship.^[76]

Tertullian condemns the athletic performances of his day, insisting «the entire apparatus of the shows is based upon idolatry.»^[77] The shows, says Tertullian, excite passions foreign to the calm temperament cultivated by the Christian:

God has enjoined us to deal calmly, gently, quietly, and peacefully with the Holy Spirit, because these things are alone in keeping with the goodness of His nature, with His tenderness and sensitiveness. … Well, how shall this be made to accord with the shows? For the show always leads to spiritual agitation, since where there is pleasure, there is keenness of feeling giving pleasure its zest; and where there is keenness of feeling, there is rivalry giving in turn its zest to that. Then, too, where you have rivalry, you have rage, bitterness, wrath and grief, with all bad things which flow from them – the whole entirely out of keeping with the religion of Christ.^[78]

Christian clerics in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement oppose the viewing of or participation in professional sports, believing that professional sports leagues profane the Sabbath as in the modern era, certain associations hold games on the Lord’s Day.^[79] They also criticise professional sports for its fostering of a commitment that competes with a Christian’s primary commitment to God in opposition to 1 Corinthians 7:35, what they perceive to be a lack of modesty in the players’ and cheerleaders’ uniforms (which are not in conformity with the Methodistic doctrine of outward holiness), its association with violence in opposition to Hebrews 7:26, what they perceive to be the extensive use of profanity among many players that contravenes Colossians 3:8–10, and the frequent presence of gambling, as well as alcohol and other drugs at sporting events, which go against a commitment to teetotalism.^[79]

Popularity

Popularity in 2018 of major sports by size of fan base:^[7]

Rank	Sport	Estimated Global Following	Sphere of Influence
1	Association football (Soccer)	4 billion	Globally
2	Cricket	2.5 billion	primarily UK and Commonwealth, South Asia (Indian subcontinent)
3	Hockey (Ice and Field)	2 billion	Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia
4	Tennis	1 billion	Globally
5	Volleyball (along with Beach Volleyball)	900 million	Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania
6	Table tennis	875 million	Mainly East Asia
7	Basketball	825 million	Globally
8	Baseball	500 million	primarily United States, Caribbean and East Asia
9	Rugby (League and Union)	475 million	primarily UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Oceania, South Africa, Argentina, and Japan.
10	Golf	450 million	primarily Western Europe, East Asia and North America

See also

Related topics

Sources

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Text taken from Strengthening the rule of law through education: a guide for policymakers​, UNESCO, UNESCO. UNESCO. To learn how to add open license text to Wikipedia articles, please see this how-to page. For information on reusing text from Wikipedia, please see the terms of use.

References

Sources

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

Further reading

• The Meaning of Sports by Michael Mandel (PublicAffairs, ISBN 1-58648-252-1).
• Journal of the Philosophy of Sport
• Sullivan, George. The Complete Sports Dictionary. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1979. 199 p. ISBN 0-590-05731-6

The word “sport” itself has been around in the English language since the mid-15th century, when it was derived from the Old French desporter, meaning “to amuse, please, or play.” As a noun denoting a physical game or activity, the word grew in popularity in the late-15th century, also acquiring, in the 18th century.

What does sport mean in Latin?

ludus

What is the meaning of the word sport?

sport noun (GAME) a game, competition, or activity needing physical effort and skill that is played or done according to rules, for enjoyment and/or as a job: Football, basketball, and hockey are all team sports.

Does Sporting mean wearing?

Sporting can just mean wearing. It also means making a show of what one is wearing .

What does Sporting a girl mean?

a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money. synonyms: bawd, cocotte, cyprian, fancy woman, harlot, lady of pleasure, prostitute, tart, whore, woman of the street, working girl. see more. types: show 6 types…

What’s another word for Sporting?

In this page you can discover 50 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for sporting, like: gentlemanly, reasonable, fair, considerate, sportsmanlike, jaunty, generous, unsporting, clean, sportsmanly and sporty.

What does caper mean in English?

(Entry 1 of 3) 1a : an illegal or questionable act or escapade With luck, Bobby Joe could have become a rich man.

Is gentlemanly a word?

adjective. like, befitting, or characteristic of a gentleman.

What is another word for suddenly?

What is another word for suddenly?

abruptly	unexpectedly
immediately	instantly
promptly	quickly
instantaneously	aback
straight away	at once

What means promptly?

1 : in a prompt manner : without delay : very quickly or immediately I’m going to speak French again, something I learned in school and promptly forgot.—

What’s the meaning of unexpected?

: not expected : unforeseen.

What is another word for scared?

1 scared, fearful, disquieted, apprehensive, timid, timorous.

What is a scared person called?

Cowardly (adj.) While fearful might be used more to describe someone in a certain situation, cowardly would be more of a character trait–someone who is always easily scared.

How do you describe a fearful person?

If someone is slightly afraid of something that is going to happen in the future, we could describe them as apprehensive. A timid person is shy and nervous, while a more negative word for someone who is not brave is cowardly, usually implying that they were too scared to do what was morally right.

What do you call someone who is not easily scared?

nerveless. adjective. someone who is nerveless does not become afraid or upset in difficult situations.

What is the scariest animal in the world?

Great White Shark Consistently taking the crown for the world’s most frightening animal, Great Whites really aren’t all that bad. They’re full of teeth, and are without a doubt mindless killers, but the chance that they’re actually a threat to anyone is typically very slim.

Who is the scariest person on earth?

10 Scariest People Who Ever Lived

• Timur (1336-1405)
• Ilse Koch (1906-1967) © Tumblr.
• HH Holmes (1861-1896) © Youtube.
• Thug Behram (1765-1840) © Hammer Films.
• Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614) © Hammer Films.
• Empress Wu Zetian (625-705) © Blogspot.
• Belle Gunness (1859-?) © BelleGunnessTheMovie.
• Vlad the Impaler (1431-1477) © Spike.

Why is Japanese horror scarier?

Although this may come from religious values, the idea of a ghost just standing nearby is enough for Japanese people to imagine what type of memories or regrets haunt the ghost internally. Japanese feel the most fear when those feelings are filled with negative memories and emotions.

What is Japanese horror called?

J-horror

What is considered the best horror movie of all time?

The Scariest Horror Movies of All Time

• of 45. The Shining (1980)
• of 45. Get Out (2017)
• of 45. Paranormal Activity (2007)
• of 45. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• of 45. Candyman (1992)
• of 45. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
• of 45. Train to Busan (2016)
• of 45. Alien (1979)

How is Japanese horror different from American horror?

In an American horror film, a character dies in a traumatic experience and then continues to haunt the place of their demise until they can be set free to pass on to the afterlife. In a Japanese film such as Ju-On: The Grudge, it’s a bit more complicated because it’s not just a haunting; it is a curse.

Are Japanese horror movies scarier?

Hollywood movies try to scary you. Japanese movies get you to scare yourself. So to answer the question directly- they make exceptional horror movies by really digging deep into the human psyche. They don’t just go for the scare. They make you feel nervous, edgy, uncomfortable, unsettled- and then they scale it up.

What is the No 1 horror movie in the world?

All Time Worldwide Box Office for Horror Movies

Rank	Released	Movie
1	2017	It
2	2007	I am Legend
3	1975	Jaws
4	2019	It: Chapter Two

Which is the most dangerous horror movie in the world?

Scariest Most Terrifying Horror Movies

• A Quiet Place (2018) PG-13 | 90 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi.
• The Exorcist (1973) R | 122 min | Horror.
• The Shining (1980) R | 146 min | Drama, Horror.
• Alien (1979) R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi.
• The Thing (1982)
• The Sixth Sense (1999)
• Halloween (1978)
• Jaws (1975)

Of OE spyrd Bowsorth-Toller says,

The word glosses stadium (1) with the meaning a course :— Ða ðe in spyrde iornaþ qui in stadio currunt, Rtl. 5, 33. (2) with the meaning a measure of distance :— Swelce spyrdas fífténe (spyrdum fífténum, Lind.) quasi stadiis quindecim, Jn. Skt. Rush. 11, 18. Swelce spyrdo fífe and twoegentig quasi stadia .xxv., 6, 19. Ðara spyrda stadiorum, Lk. Skt. Lind. Rush. 24, 13. In all these passages the West-Saxon uses furlang. [Goth. spaurds (1) a course; (2) a distance: O. H. Ger. spurt stadium.]

It is not clear whether the ‘racecourse’ sense derives from the ‘distance’ sense or vice versa; the same is true of the Latin word it glosses, stadium, although the Online Etymology Dictionary suggests the Greek original of the Latin term suggests that the ‘distance’ sense was prior.

This is a very shaky foundation upon which to build an origin for ModE sport—especially since I find no evidence that the OE term survived into ME.

As OP points out, Middle English Dictionary gives sport(e with the senses:

1. (a) Amusement, entertainment; pleasure, fun; also, an activity that brings pleasure or amusement; a pastime or game; also, ?a sexual exploit, an amorous deed [quot. ?c1450, 2nd]; don sportes, to play games; haven (taken) ~, take (one’s) pleasure, have fun; ?participate in merrymaking; maken ~, create amusement, make sport; (b) a source of pleasure or delight; (c) joking; foolery; in ~, in jest; connen no ~, to engage in no foolery.

2. Solace, consolation; also, ?a means of comfort or consolation; maken ~, to console (sb.), cheer up.

There are also related words, sportaunce, sportelet, sporten, sportful, sporting.

MED sees all of these as «Shortened form[s] of disport«, «disporten, &c., which first appear in ME a generation earlier than sport(e and its relatives. For the noun MED gives the following senses:

1. (a) An activity that offers amusement, pleasure, or relaxation; entertainment, merry-making, fun, recreation; maken ~, to entertain (sb.); taken ~, amuse oneself, have fun; (b) a pastime, sport, or game; also, the game of love, flirtation; (c) in ~, in jest.

2. (a) Pleasure taken in an activity or enjoyment derived from it; haven ~, to take pleasure (in sth.), be gratified; (b) consolation, solace; a source of comfort; don ~, to cheer (sb.) up.

3. (a) Deportment, conduct; customary behavior, custom, manner; (b) an instance of behavior, an act or activity; don ~, to do something.

4. Departure; maken ~, to set out (for a place).

The first two of these senses are clearly identical with those of sport(e. They carry over into EME, whence they give rise to the modern senses.

Among the «disportes» mentioned by the MED citations are dice, reveling, minstrels singing songs and telling jests, and finding Venus on a bed of gold, as well as recreations which would be regarded as «sports» today, hawking, hunting, angling, archery.

None of the citations alludes to racing or reflects (except for one allusion to the «actes and disportes Olimpicalle») a sense of «competitive» sport.

And there is no other MED headword of the form sp?rt*, sp?rd*, spr?t*, or spr?d* which could be taken as derivative of spyrd.

It looks like the similarity of the OE term is coincidental, since it cannot be traced into ME.

A sport is an organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. It is governed by a set of rules or customs. In sports the key factors are the physical capabilities and skills of the competitor when determining the outcome (winning or losing). The physical activity involves the movement of people, animals and/or a variety of objects such as balls and machines or equipment. In contrast, games such as card games and board games, though these could be called mind sports and some are recognized as Olympic sports, require primarily mental skills and only mental physical involvement. Non-competitive activities, for example as jogging or playing catch are usually classified as forms of recreation.

Physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first often define the result of a sport. However, the degree of skill and performance in some sports such as diving, dressage and figure skating is judged according to well-defined criteria. This is in contrast with other judged activities such as beauty pageants and body building, where skill does not have to be shown and the criteria are not as well defined.

Records are kept and updated for most sports at the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news. Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay in good physical condition. However, professional sport is a major source of entertainment.

While practices may vary, sports participants are expected to display good sportsmanship, and observe standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and congratulating the winner when losing.

Etymology and meaning[]

«Sport» comes from the Old French desport meaning «leisure.» American English uses the term «sports» to refer to this general type of recreational activity, whereas other regional dialects use the singular «sport».
The Persian word for «sport» is based on the root bord, meaning «winning». The Chinese term for «sport,» tiyu (体育; 體育) connotes «physical training». The Modern Greek term for sport is Αθλητισμός (athlitismos), directly cognate with the English terms «athlete» and «athleticism.»

The oldest definition of sport in English (1300) is of anything humans find amusing or entertaining.^[1] Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.^[2] Roget’s defines the noun sport as an «Activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement» with synonyms including diversion and recreation.^[3] An example of a more sharply defined meaning is «an athletic activity where one competitor or a team of competitors plays against another competitor or group of competitors [with] a conclusive method of scoring…not determined by a judge.»^[4]

History[]

There are artifacts and structures that suggest that the Chinese engaged in sporting activities as early as 4000 BC.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7] Among other sports that originate 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 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 the Peloponnesus called Olympia.^[8]

Sports have been increasingly organized and regulated from the time of the Ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialization 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.

In the new millennium, new sports have been going further from the physical aspect to the mental or psychological aspect of competing. Electronic sports organizations are becoming more and more popular.

File:Bruno Senna 2006 Australian Grand Prix.jpg

Sportsmanship[]

Main article: Sportsmanship

Template:See also

Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.^[9][10]

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.

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.

Professional sports[]

File:OHL-Hockey-Plymouth-Whalers-vs-Saginaw-Spirit.jpg

Main article: Professional sport

The aspect of sports, together with the increase of mass media and leisure time, has led to professionalism in sports. This has resulted in some conflict, where the paycheck are more important than recreational aspects, or where the sports are changed simply to make them more profitable and popular, thereby losing certain valued traditions.

The entertainment aspect also means that sportsmen and women are often elevated to celebrity status in media and popular culture.

Politics[]

At times, sports and politics’s can have a large amount of influence on each other.

When apartheid was the official 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.^[11]

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.

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 soccer, or other games seen to be of British origin. Until recently the GAA continued to ban the playing of soccer and rugby union at Gaelic venues. This ban is still enforced, but was modified 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.

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 (see 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.

Physical art[]

For example, figure skating, drum corps, artistic gymnastics, dancesport, and Tai chi can be considered artistic spectacles. Similarly, there are other activities that have elements of sport and art in their execution, such as bodybuilding, free running, martial arts, performance art, Yoga, dressage, and culinary arts. Perhaps the best example is bull-fighting, which in Spain is reported in the arts pages of newspapers.

All sports involve physical and mental activities that are pursued for more than simply utilitarian reasons. For instance, running, when done as a sport, occurs for reasons beyond simply moving from one place to another. Value is gained from this activity when it is conducted simply for its own sake. This is similar to the concept of aesthetic value, which is seeing something over and above the strictly functional value coming from an object’s normal use. For instance, an aesthetically pleasing car is one which doesn’t just get from A to B, but which impresses with its grace, poise, and charisma. In the same way, a sporting performance such as jumping doesn’t just impress as being an effective way to avoid obstacles. It impresses because of the ability, skill, and style that is demonstrated in its performance.

Art and sports were clearly linked at the time of Ancient Greece, when gymnastics and calisthenics invoked admiration and aesthetic appreciation for the physical build, prowess and ‘arete’ displayed by participants. The modern term ‘art’ as skill, is related to this ancient Greek term ‘arete’. The closeness of art and sport in these times was revealed by the nature of the Olympic Games, which were celebrations of both sporting and artistic achievements, poetry, sculpture and architectures.

Technology[]

Technology has an important role in sports, whether applied to an athlete’s health, the athlete’s technique, or equipment’s characteristics.

• Equipment — As sports have grown more competitive, the need for better equipment has arisen. Golf clubs, bicycles, (American) football helmets, tennis racquets, baseball and cricket bats, soccer balls, hockey skates, and other equipment have all seen considerable changes when new technologies have been applied.
• Health — Ranging from nutrition to the treatment of injuries, as the knowledge of the human body has deepened over time, an athlete’s potential has been increased. Athletes are now able to play to an older age, recover more quickly from injuries, and train more effectively than previous generations of athletes.
• Instruction — Advancing technology created new opportunities for research into sports. It is now possible to analyse aspects of sports that were previously out of the reach of comprehension. Being able to use motion capture to capture an athlete’s movement, or advanced computer simulations to model physical scenarios has greatly increased an athlete’s ability to understand what they are doing and how they can improve themselves.

Terminology[]

In British English, sporting activities are commonly denoted by the mass noun «sport». In American English, «sports» is more used. In all English dialects, «sports» is the term used for more than one specific sport. For example, «football and swimming are my favourite sports», would sound natural to all English speakers, whereas «I enjoy sport» would sound less natural than «I enjoy sports» to North Americans.

The term «sport» is sometimes extended to encompass all competitive activities, regardless of the level of physical activity. Both games of skill and motor sport exhibit many of the characteristics of physical sports, such as skill, sportsmanship, and at the highest levels, even professional sponsorship associated with physical sports. Air sports, billiards, bridge, chess, motorcycle racing, and powerboating are all recognized as sports by the International Olympic Committee with their world governing bodies represented in the Association of the IOC Recognised International Sports Federations.^[12]

Spectator sport[]

As well as being a form of recreation for the participants, much sport is played in front of an audience. Most professional sport is played in a ‘theatre’ of some kind; be it a stadium, arena, golf course, race track, or the open road, with provision for the (often paying) public. Around 95% of males participate in sport or active based activity, while females have a rate of 45%. Template:Citation needed

File:Womens australian football 3.jpg

Large television or radio audiences are also commonly attracted, with rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the ‘rights’ to show certain fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 Final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million. The Cricket World Cup is another sporting event which attracts a global audience. The 2007 Cricket World Cup attracted about 2.3 Billion viewers all over the world. 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. 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.

Youth Sports[]

Participating in sports play a large role in a child’s life. NFL quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning and Mark Sanchez began their football career in high school.

The benefits of playing youth sports include:

• Better grades
• Less risk of drug or alcohol use
• Chance at sports scholarships
• Health Benefits

The biggest risk for youth sports is the increased risk of injury, including concussions and gym class injuries.^[13]

See also[]

• Outline of sports
• List of sportspeople
• List of sports attendance figures
• List of professional sports leagues
• Timeline of sports

References[]

Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree of skill, especially at higher levels. Hundreds of sports exist, including those for a single participant, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals. Some non-physical activities, such as board games and card games are sometimes referred to as sports, but a sport is generally recognised as being based in physical athleticism.

Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs. Physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first often define the result of a sport. However, the degree of skill and performance in some sports such as diving, dressage and figure skating is judged according to well-defined criteria. This is in contrast with other judged activities such as beauty pageants and body building, where skill does not have to be shown and the criteria are not as well defined.

Records are kept and updated for most sports at the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news. Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay in good physical condition. However, professional sport is a major source of entertainment.

While practices may vary, participants in many sports are expected to display good sportsmanship, and observe standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and congratulating the winner after having lost.^{[citation needed]}

Etymology and meaning

«Sport» comes from the Old French desport meaning «leisure». American English uses the term «sports» to refer to this general type of recreational activity, whereas other regional dialects use the singular «sport». The French word for sport is based on the Persian word bord, meaning «winning» or «win». The Chinese term for sport, tiyu (体育; 體育) connotes physical training. The modern Greek term for sport is Αθλητισμός (athlitismos), directly cognate with the English terms «athlete» and «athleticism».

The oldest definition of sport in English (1300) is of anything humans find amusing or entertaining.^[1] Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.^[2] Roget’s defines the noun sport as an «activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement» with synonyms including diversion and recreation.^[3]

History

There are artifacts and structures that suggest that the Chinese engaged in sporting activities as early as 2000 BC.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[6] Among other sports that originate 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 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 the Peloponnesus called Olympia.^[7]

Sports have been increasingly organized and regulated from the time of the ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialization 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.

In the New Millennium, new sports have been going further from the physical aspect to the mental or psychological aspect of competing. Electronic sports organizations are becoming more and more popular.

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.^[8][9][10]

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.

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 colove with.

Professional sports

Main article: Professional sport

The aspect of sports, together with the increase of mass media and leisure time, has led to «professionalism» in sports. This has resulted in some conflict, where the paycheck are more important than recreational aspects, or where the sports are changed simply to make them more profitable and popular, thereby losing certain valued traditions. Indeed, since sport by definition is a leisure activity, «professional sport» does not and cannot exist. However the term is commonplace and accepted to mean a game or other activity, regarded by the general population as sport, which is performed by persons for reward with the intent to entertain spectators. The entertainment aspect also means that sportsmen and women are often elevated to celebrity status in media and popular culture. For this reason, many journalists have suggested that sports should not be reported by the general media but only by specialist magazines.

Politics

Main article: Politics and sports

Sports and politics can influence each other greatly.

When apartheid was the official 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.^[11]

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.

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 modified 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.

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.

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.

Physical art

Sports have many affinities with art. For example, figure skating, drum corps, skateboarding, artistic gymnastics, dancesport, and T’ai chi can be considered artistic spectacles. Similarly, there are other activities that have elements of sport and art in their execution, such as bodybuilding, free running, martial arts, professional wrestling, performance art, yoga, dressage, and culinary arts. Perhaps the best example is bull-fighting, which in Spain is reported in the arts pages of newspapers.

All sports involve physical and mental activities that are pursued for more than simply utilitarian reasons. For instance, running, when done as a sport, occurs for reasons beyond simply moving from one place to another. Value is gained from this activity when it is conducted simply for its own sake. This is similar to the concept of aesthetic value, which is seeing something over and above the strictly functional value coming from an object’s normal use. For instance, an aesthetically pleasing car is one which doesn’t just get from A to B, but which impresses with its grace, poise, and charisma. In the same way, a sporting performance such as jumping doesn’t just impress as being an effective way to avoid obstacles. It impresses because of the ability, skill, and style that is demonstrated in its performance.

Art and sports were clearly linked at the time of Ancient Greece, when gymnastics and calisthenics invoked admiration and aesthetic appreciation for the physical build, prowess and arete displayed by participants. The modern term art as skill, is related to this ancient Greek term arete. The closeness of art and sport in these times was revealed by the nature of the Olympic Games, which were celebrations of both sporting and artistic achievements, poetry, sculpture and architectures.

Technology

Technology has an important role in sports, whether applied to an athlete’s health, the athlete’s technique, or equipment’s characteristics.

As sports have grown more competitive, the need for better and fancier equipment has arisen. Such as Golf clubs, bicycles, American footballs and helmets, tennis rackets, baseball and cricket bats, hockey skates.

Ranging from nutrition to the treatment of injuries, as the knowledge of the human body has deepened over time, an athlete’s potential has been increased. Athletes are now able to play to an older age, recover more quickly from injuries, and train more effectively than previous generations of athletes.

Advancing technology created new opportunities for research into sports. It is now possible to analyze aspects of sports that were previously out of the reach of comprehension. Being able to use motion capture to capture an athlete’s movement, or advanced computer simulations to model physical scenarios has greatly increased an athlete’s ability to understand what they are doing and how they can improve themselves.

Terminology

In British English, sporting activities are commonly denoted by the mass noun «sport». In American English, «sports» is more used. In all English dialects, «sports» is the term used for more than one specific sport. For example, «football and swimming are my favourite sports», would sound natural to all English speakers, whereas «I enjoy sport» would sound less natural than «I enjoy sports» to North Americans.

The term «sport» is sometimes extended to encompass all competitive activities, regardless of the level of physical activity. Both games of skill and motor sport exhibit many of the characteristics of physical sports, such as skill, sportsmanship, and at the highest levels, even professional sponsorship associated with physical sports. Air sports, billiards, bridge, chess, motorcycle racing, and powerboating are all recognized as sports by the International Olympic Committee with their world governing bodies represented in the Association of the IOC Recognised International Sports Federations.^[12]

Highly recognized definition of «sport» on EU level is established by the Council of Europe: «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.^[13]

Grassroots sport

Grassroots sport is a popular phrase which is used in most of the articles about sport and sport for all.^[14] Czech Sports Association defines Grassroots sport as synergy of population active in «sport», sport organisations on the most basic level, essential infrastructure and suitable environment, where the main driving force is joy of «sport» itself. («Sport» defined by Council of Europe)^[13]

Spectator sport

As well as being a form of recreation for the participants, much sport is played in front of an audience. Most professional sport is played in a theatre of some kind; be it a stadium, arena, golf course, race track, or the open road, with provision for the (often paying) public.

Large television or radio audiences are also commonly attracted, with rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the rights to show certain fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million. The Cricket World Cup is another sporting event which attracts a global audience. The 2007 Cricket World Cup attracted about 2.3 Billion viewers all over the world. 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. 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.

The benefits of playing youth sports may include:

• Better grades
• Less risk of drug or alcohol use
• Chance at sports scholarships
• Health Benefits

The biggest risk for youth sports is the increased risk of death or serious injury, including concussions and gym class injuries.^[15]

Gender and sports opportunities

The rise of organized sports opportunities for girls has increased dramatically since the passage of Title IX in 1972. The number of female participants continues to rise as variables such as opportunity for involvement, valuing of sports as part of total development and overall fitness for girls and women has increased.

Despite the tremendous gains in sports participation made by girls and women during the last 30 years, there is still a persistent gap in the enrollment figures between males and females. The participation of girls is currently only 39% of the total participation in interscholastic athletics. There has been a slow but steady climb toward gender balance in the percent of female participants, from 32% of the males’ participation in 1973–74 to 63% in 1994–95. Hessel (2000)^{[Full citation needed]}.

See also

• Outline of sports
• List of sportspeople
• List of sports attendance figures
• List of professional sports leagues

Related topics

References

• 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

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.

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]

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]

Fair play

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.^[20][21][22]

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

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 fair play, but participants can break these rules in order to gain advantage.

Participants may cheat in order to unfairly increase their chance of winning, or in order to achieve other advantages such as financial gains. The widespread existence of gambling on the results of sports fixtures creates a motivation for match fixing, where a participant or participants deliberately work to ensure a given outcome rather than simply playing to win.

Doping and drugs

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 by fans in particular is a problem at some national and international sporting contests.

Participation

Gender participation

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2012)

Female participation in sports continues to rise alongside the opportunity for involvement and the value of sports for child development and physical fitness. Despite gains during the last three decades, a gap persists in the enrollment figures 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 1973–74 to a 63% increase in 1994–95. Hessel (2000).^{[full citation needed]}

Youth participation

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2012)

Youth sport presents children with opportunities for fun, socialisation, forming peer relationships, physical fitness, and athletic scholarships. Activists for education and the war on drugs encourage youth sport as a means to increase educational participation and to fight the illegal drug trade. According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the biggest risk for youth sport is death or serious injury including concussion. These risks come from running, basketball, association football, volleyball, gridiron, gymnastics, and ice hockey.^[23] Youth sport in the US is a $15 billion industry including equipment up to private coaching.^[24]

Disabled participation

Disabled sports also adaptive sports or parasports, are sports played by persons with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. As many of these are based on existing sports modified to meet the needs of persons with a disability, they are sometimes referred to as adapted sports. However, not all disabled sports are adapted; several sports that have been specifically created for persons with a disability have no equivalent in able-bodied sports.

Spectator involvement

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 specific phenomenon of spectator sport.

Both amateur and professional sports attract spectators, both in person at the sport venue, and through broadcast media 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.

It is common for popular sports to attract large broadcast audiences, leading to rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the rights to show certain fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million and the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final attracted an estimated audience of 135 million in India alone.^[25]

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.^[26][27]
Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America;^[28][29] the viewership being so great that in 2015, advertising space was reported as being sold at $4.5m for a 30-second slot.^[26]

Amateur and professional

Sport can be undertaken on an amateur, professional or semi-professional basis, depending on whether participants are incentivised for participation (usually through payment of a wage or salary). Amateur participation in sport at lower levels is often called «grassroots sport».^[2][30]

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 into millions of dollars.^[31]

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 practised a sport professionally considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practised it merely as a hobby.^[32] From 1971, Olympic athletes were allowed to receive compensation and sponsorship,^[33] and from 1986, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes eligible for the Olympics,^[33][34] with the exceptions of boxing,^[35][36] and wrestling.^[37][38]

Technology

Technology plays an important part in modern sport. With it being a necessary part of some sports (such as motorsport), it is used in others to improve performance. Some sports also use it to allow off-field decision making.

Sports science is a widespread academic discipline, and can be applied to areas including athlete performance, such as the use of video analysis to fine-tune technique, or to equipment, such as improved running shoes or competitive swimwear. Sports engineering emerged as a discipline in 1998 with an increasing focus not just on materials design but also the use of technology in sport, from analytics and big data to wearable technology.^[39] In order to control the impact of technology on fair play, governing bodies frequently have specific rules that are set to control the impact of technical advantage between participants. For example, in 2010, full-body, non-textile swimsuits were banned by FINA, as they were enhancing swimmers’ performances.^[40][41]

The increase in technology has also allowed many decisions in sports matches to be taken, or reviewed, off-field, with another official using instant replays to make decisions. In some sports, players can now challenge decisions made by officials. In Association football, goal-line technology makes decisions on whether a ball has crossed the goal line or not.^[42] The technology is not compulsory,^[43] but was used in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil,^[44] and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada,^[45] as well as in the Premier League from 2013–14,^[46] and the Bundesliga from 2015–16.^[47] In the NFL, a referee can ask for a review from the replay booth, or a head coach can issue a challenge to review the play using replays. The final decision rests with the referee.^[48] A video referee (commonly known as a Television Match Official or TMO) can also use replays to help decision-making in rugby (both league and union).^[49][50] In international cricket, an umpire can ask the Third umpire for a decision, and the third umpire makes the final decision.^[51][52] Since 2008, a decision review system for players to review decisions has been introduced and used in ICC-run tournaments, and optionally in other matches.^[51][53] Depending on the host broadcaster, a number of different technologies are used during an umpire or player review, including instant replays, Hawk-Eye, Hot Spot and Real Time Snickometer.^[54][55] Hawk-Eye is also used in tennis to challenge umpiring decisions.^[56][57]

Politics

Sports and politics can influence each other greatly.

Benito Mussolini used the 1934 FIFA World Cup, which was held in Italy, to showcase Fascist Italy.^[58][59] Adolf Hitler also used the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, and the 1936 Winter Olympics held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, to promote the Nazi ideology of the superiority of the Aryan race, and inferiority of the Jews and other «undesirables».^[59][60] Germany used the Olympics to give of itself a peaceful image while it was very actively preparing the war.^[61]

When apartheid was the official 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.^[62]

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 Association 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, also known as Rule 42,^[63] is still enforced, but was modified 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.

Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sport, 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 sport being carried on for its own sake and for the enjoyment of its participants.

A very famous case when sport and politics collided 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.

A study of US elections has shown that the result of sports events can affect the results. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that when the home team wins the game before the election, the incumbent candidates can increase their share of the vote by 1.5 percent. A loss had the opposite effect, and the effect is greater for higher-profile teams or unexpected wins and losses.^[64] Also, when Washington Redskins win their final game before an election, then the incumbent President is more likely to win, and if the Redskins lose, then the opposition candidate is more likely to win; this has become known as the Redskins Rule.^[65][66]

As a means of controlling and subduing populations

Étienne de La Boétie, in his essay Discourse on Voluntary Servitude describes athletic spectacles as means for tyrants to control their subjects by distracting them.

Do not imagine that there is any bird more easily caught by decoy, nor any fish sooner fixed on the hook by wormy bait, than are all these poor fools neatly tricked into servitude by the slightest feather passed, so to speak, before their mouths. Truly it is a marvelous thing that they let themselves be caught so quickly at the slightest tickling of their fancy. Plays, farces, spectacles, gladiators, strange beasts, medals, pictures, and other such opiates, these were for ancient peoples the bait toward slavery, the price of their liberty, the instruments of tyranny. By these practices and enticements the ancient dictators so successfully lulled their subjects under the yoke, that the stupefied peoples, fascinated by the pastimes and vain pleasures flashed before their eyes, learned subservience as naïvely, but not so creditably, as little children learn to read by looking at bright picture books.^[67]

Religious views

Sport was an important form of worship in the Ancient Greek pagan religion. The ancient Olympic Games, called the Olympiad, were held in honour of the head deity, Zeus, and featured various forms of religious dedication to him and other gods.^[68] As many Greeks travelled to see the games, this combination of religion and sport also served as a way of uniting them.

The practice of athletic competitions has been criticised by some Christian thinkers as a form of idolatry, in which «human beings extol themselves, adore themselves, sacrifice themselves and reward themselves.»^[69] Sports are seen by these critics as a manifestation of «collective pride» and «national self-deification» in which feats of human power are idolized at the expense of divine worship.^[69]

Tertullian condemns the athletic performances of his day, insisting «the entire apparatus of the shows is based upon idolatry.»^[70] The shows, says Tertullian, excite passions foreign to the calm temperament cultivated by the Christian:

God has enjoined us to deal calmly, gently, quietly, and peacefully with the Holy Spirit, because these things are alone in keeping with the goodness of His nature, with His tenderness and sensitiveness. … Well, how shall this be made to accord with the shows? For the show always leads to spiritual agitation, since where there is pleasure, there is keenness of feeling giving pleasure its zest; and where there is keenness of feeling, there is rivalry giving in turn its zest to that. Then, too, where you have rivalry, you have rage, bitterness, wrath and grief, with all bad things which flow from them – the whole entirely out of keeping with the religion of Christ.^[71]

Popularity

Popularity of major sports by size of fan base:^[7]

#	Sport	Fans	Sphere
1	Association football	4 billion	Global
2	Cricket	2.5 billion	UK and Commonwealth
3	Field hockey	2 billion	Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia
4	Tennis	1 billion	Global
5	Volleyball	900 million	Western Europe and North America
6	Table tennis	875 million	Global
7	Basketball	825 million	Global
8	Baseball	500 million	United States, Caribbean, and Japan
9	Rugby	475 million	UK and Commonwealth
10	Golf	450 million	Western Europe, East Asia, and North America

See also

Interesting etymology and history of sports words

PODIUM

A podium is a platform used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. It derives from the Greek ‘Podi’ meaning foot.

LET

Its origins stem from the Old Saxon word ‘lettian’ which meant to hinder or prevent something from happening.

MARTIAL

Martial as in Martial Arts  dates back the Medieval Latin word ‘martialis’  meaning “of Mars or war.” Mars, of course  is  the Roman god of war.

POLO

The Olympic sport of water polo gets its name from the original form of the sport, which was played on horseback and involved mallets. Polo, itself  was last an Olympic sport in 1936. Polo is a rendering of a Balti Tibetan word, pulu, or “ball,” that is the target of the sport’s swinging mallets.

TRIATHLON

The word is of Greek origin, from treis (three) and áthlon, meaning “contest” or “prize”.

BADMINTON

Badminton gets its modern name from where it was first played in England by the Earl of Badminton, at Badminton House in 1873. Originally the sport was called “Poona” after the Indian city where it was invented before the British soldiers brought it to England.

JAVELIN

Javelin throwing was one of the events of the original pentathlon at the ancient Greek Olympics. The historic Hellenes didn’t call it the javelin, they called it akon or akontion .

The Javelin comes from a French word for a “light spear,” Javeline. Where the French javeline comes from, is a bit vague some says it has a Celtic root that means “forked,” and is related to a branch of a tree that spears were first made from.

MARATHON

Somewhat strangely the ancient Olympics didn’t include the Marathon race, it was only after 1896 and the Modern program starting.  Much lore surrounds the historical marathon. A Greek hero ran from Marathon to Athens to announce that Greece was victorious in their battle with Persia. He delivered his message and then died, his feat living on in the word marathon. The distance from Marathon to Athens is said to be 26 miles (42 km). I checked this on Google Maps and not knowing exactly his starting finishing points its difficult to confirm but by foot Google says its about 35km.

BANTAMWEIGHT

Most the weight categories in boxing are obvious. Like heavy weight, Middle weight and lightweight. This one is a little different, Bantamweight apparently takes its name from the bantam, named for a particularly feisty kind of chicken, originally from Bantam in Java.

POMMEL

The pommel refers to one of the handgrips fitted onto the pommel horse, which gymnasts grab in this Olympic and gymnastic event. The grips resemble pommels on the saddles for actual horses, which jut out, knob-like, from the front. These get their name from the French word ‘pommel’ meaning “little apple.” The root is from Latin word ‘pomum’, meaning fruit.”

PENTATHLON

The name is derived from Greek: combining the words pente (five) and áthlon, meaning “contest” or “prize”.

TRAMPOLINE

Trampoline is from the Italian ‘trampoli’, meaning “stilts.” Further explanation is unclear  but some think it’s related to the English word tramp, meaning “to stamp around,” and the word that is slang for “vagrant.”

SCULL

In scull rowing, the athlete propels the boat by pulling two oars at the same time. These oars are known as sculls, a name since given to the kind of boat the rowers use. Scull is a very old word in the English language dating back to as early as 1345. The word skull in old English is a “drinking- bowl.” A few etymologists liken the scooped blade of the scull to the hollow basin of the skull, some say that humans once made these drinking-bowls from actual human skulls.

SLALOM

In the canoe slalom and skiing slalom, fittingly, its name is from a Norwegian word, ‘slalåm’, literally “sloping track.” .

FENCING

Fencing derives from the French word ‘defence’ which in turn comes from the Latin ‘defendere’, meaning to “drive away.”

STEEPLECHASE

The Steeplechase is a 3000-meter event, requiring runners to jump over hurdles and water on the track? The history of this event is that it began on horseback in Ireland, where riders once raced through the countryside, using steeples as distance markers/finish lines and negotiating stone walls, hedges and streams along their way.

ASYMMETRIC

Asymmetric bars is the wrong name in the first place because the bars are *not* asymmetric? There is a line of symmetry and they are both the same length and thickness. That’s probably the reason they are now known as the uneven bars.

BIATHLON

Biathlon / Bicycle, The prefix ‘bi’ has its derivation from Latin, and its Greek variant di,  both mean “two.” The Latin prefix is far more prevalent in common words, such as biathlon, biceps, and bicycle, the more technical Greek di- appears in such words as dioxide and dilemma.

LOVE

Why should you never date a tennis player, to them Love means nothing. But according to etymologists, the word love is possibly derived from the French word l’oeuf which literally means egg. If we look at the shape of an ‘egg’ we can see it resembles zero and therefore came to be used when somebody has no score in tennis and other sports.

JOG

Jog doesn’t really mean what the popular pastime we enjoy today is, it really means  “to shake up and down,” a bit like jogging your memory, it was perhaps altered from Middle English ‘shoggen’ which means “to shake, jolt or move with a jerk”

MASCOT

The term is a derivative of the word ‘masco’ meaning sorceress or witch. Before the 19th century, the word ‘mascot’ was associated with inanimate objects that would be commonly seen such as a lock of hair or a figurehead on a sailing ship. Now most teams and sports events have their own mascots.

ARENA

The word derives from Latin ‘harena,’ a particularly fine-grained sand that covered the floor of ancient arenas such as the Colosseum in Rome, to absorb blood and gore.

 DOPING

The word ‘Doping’ which we now associate with cheating in sport comes from the early 19th century in Holland were doop is a ‘sauce’, and from ‘doopen’ which is ‘to dip or mix’.

STADIUM

The stadion was sprint race named after the building in which it took place. This word became stadiom in Latin, which became the English word stadium. There were other types of running events, but the stadion was the most prestigious. The winner was often considered to be the winner of an entire Games. Though a separate event, the stadion was also part of the ancient Pentathlon. The Stadion was big enough for twenty competitors, and the race was a 200-yard (about 180-metre) sprint. The original stadion track in Olympia measures approximately 190 metres.

TENNIS

We are happy to step onto court and hit a ball over the net with a racquet and play a game called tennis, but what does the word tennis actually mean? There have been several attempts to pinpoint the exact origins of the word tennis, but the closest one seems to derive from tenez which is the command form of the French verb Tenir, which means to hold. This is what players in 13th century France would shout out before hitting the ball to their opponent when playing the game ‘jeu de palme.’

GYMNASIUM

The gymnasium (in Ancient Greece functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games. It was also a place for socialising and engaging in intellectual pursuits. That’s why some German high schools are named gymnasiums. In most countries though, it is just used as an athletic area.

BAGEL

A ‘bagel’ is a tennis score of 6-0 in a set. The bagel is the shape of the zero.

SEED

We use the word ‘seed’ in sport to avoid big names (based on success)  and teams meeting each other in early rounds of competitions. Seeds are planted into the draw and so it is known where certain players or teams will be. Seeding is used in numerous sports, such as Tennis, Squash, American Football Playoff, Champions League Football.

ACE

To hit an unreturnable serve in tennis. The origin of the tennis meaning of this word dates back to around the 18th Century where an Ace in cards meant excellence. It was also a number 1 and so became synonymous with a single unplayable shot like a serve.

GYM

The name comes from the Ancient Greek term gymnós meaning “naked”.

DEUCE

If you listen to the pronunciation ‘juice’ you could forgive yourself for thinking that this word means to be in a ‘tight squeeze’ at 40 points each. But alas the origins of this tennis word seem to be again from the French language where the term a deux de jeux means to be two points away from the game.

SERVE

Serving has it roots in Tennis and royalty. Some players didn’t want to bend down and pick balls up and so would have their servants throw the ball to start the rally.

BOYCOTT

The word boycott entered the English language during the Irish “Land War” and derives from Captain Charles Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord, Lord Erne, who lived in County Mayo, Ireland. He was the subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880.

ACHILLES HEEL

After Achilles was born, his mother wanted to protect him from harm. She held him by the heel and dipped him into the river Styx. In Greek Mythology, the river Styx was located in the Underworld and had special powers. Achilles became invulnerable everywhere but at his heel where his mother held him.

LOB

This is a funny word. Literally, as its early meaning derives from the Old English word ‘lobbes’ which meant clown. And there’s no funnier sight to see, than drawing your opponent into the net and lobbing the ball over their head seeing them scramble back after it.

OLÉ

The Moors of Northern Africa ruled the area of the Iberian peninsula known as Spain for nearly 700 years. Their language was Arabic, its influence on the Spanish language is significant. One of those words is Olé.

Ancient traditions among many Moors were to have great celebrations that included dancing. When a dancer performed at the highest levels of grace and intensity, for that moment, they were believed to be vessels through which Allah was acting, and the moment allowed the witnesses to see a glimpse of Allah’s power through the artist. So, it was customary for the Moors of Northern Africa centuries ago to exclaim Allah! Over the time and many centuries this became Ole and is used not only in the barbaric activity (I won’t call it sport) of Bullfighting but it is also by spectators celebrating beautiful sport. The Brazilians crowds were first to use it whilst watching Garrincha.

SPORT

The word “sport” comes from the Old French word ‘desport’ meaning “leisure”.

MUSCLE

The word muscle has its roots  from the Latin word ‘musculus’, which itself is a diminutive of ‘mus’ meaning ‘mouse’. Some people used to describe muscles as little mice moving about under the skin.

BICEP

The muscle literally means ‘two-headed’, from bi- ‘two’ + -ceps which itself comes from the latin caput meaning ‘head’.

VOLLEY

A volley in 1570 meant the firing of a number of guns at the same time. late 16th century: from French volée, based on Latin volare ‘to fly’. A volley in sport eventually became hitting the object before it had finished flying.

MONOCEP

There are a couple of ‘monoceps’ but no one talk about these. The Sphincter muscle is one and it only has one head.

TOURNAMENT

Tournament has its roots from Old French ‘tornement’ which was a contest between groups of knights on horseback.

SPECTATOR

Spectator comes from the Latin spectātor, which derives from spectō “watch”, from speciō meaning to “look at”.

COLOSSEUM

The name Colosseum is believed to be derived from a colossal statue of Nero that once stood nearby. It comes from the Greek word ‘kolossos’, meaning “gigantic statue.”

HATTRICK

A hat trick in sport is commonly getting three of something. A goal in football, being struck out in Baseball three times in a game, three consecutive motor racing wins, in marbles hitting all the marbles in a single turn etc etc.

Hat trick come originally from Cricket when a bowler would get three wickets from consecutive balls. A long time ago the bowlers would all wear caps. And the bowler in celebration of the three outs in consecutive balls would perform a trick with the hat as way of celebration.

FUNNY BONE HUMERUS

The “funny bone” got its nickname because of that funny feeling you get after you hit it. The bone itself is called the Humerus hence the funny bone.  Running down the inside part of your elbow is a nerve called the ulnar nerve and this is the part of the reason things hurt so much when you bang your funny bone!

DISCUS

The Greeks threw diskos, while the Romans threw discus. Both diskos and discus referred to various “round, flat objects” and alsoused to describe the “face” of the sun. At the root of the Greek diskos is a verb meaning “to throw” or “cast.”

CALF

Calf as in a baby cow and calf as in our lower leg probably come from the same root. One of the roots listed for calf is “to swell.” The shape of swelling from pregnancy and the shape of the lower leg have similar shapes.

The calf is comprised of two muscles — the gastrocnemius and the soleus. These muscles meet at the Achilles tendon, which attaches directly to the heel. Any leg or foot motion uses these muscles. Not exactly what you asked for, but the actual muscle name is Gastrocnemius. Which is Greek for stomach + leg.

QUADRICEP

The quadricep has four muscles making it up and their heads attach in four places. The quadriceps muscles are your;

• Rectus femoris,
• Vastus lateralis,
• Vastus medialis,
• Vastus intermedius.

SPONSOR

The word sponsor see its roots from sponsus, past participle of spondere ” meaning to give assurance or promise solemnly,”

PRIZE

A Prize comes the from the old French word ‘pris’ meaning price, value, worth; reward.

WIN

Win come from Old English ‘winnan’, meaning to fight, endure or struggle.

LACTIC ACID

It is the main acid produced in the souring of milk by bacteria, although the lactic acid produced by bacteria and that produced by animals are molecular mirror-images. Lactic gets its name from the Latin word ‘lac’, and its genitive lactis meaning milk.

Lactic acid, or lactate, is a chemical byproduct of anaerobic respiration, the process by which cells produce energy without oxygen around. Bacteria produce it in yogurt and our guts.  Lactic acid is also in our blood, where it’s deposited by muscle and red blood cells.

YOGA

The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit ‘Yuj’, meaning ‘to join’ or ‘to unite’.

RECUPERATE

Recuperate is from the Latin word of recuperare “to get again,”

ATHLETE

Athlete comes from the Latin athleta who was “a wrestler, athlete, combatant in public games.” Athletes in ancient Greece were “prizefighter, contestant in the games,”

DECATHLON

The word “decathlon” was formed from the Greek word déka, meaning “ten” and áthlon, meaning “contest” or “prize”.

AMBIDEXTROUS

The word “ambidextrous” is derived from the Latin roots ambi-, meaning “both”, and dexter, meaning “right” or “favorable”. Thus, “ambidextrous” is literally “both right” or “both favorable”.

HEPTATHLON

A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek hepta (seven) and áthlon, meaning “contest” or “prize”.  A competitor in a heptathlon is referred to as a heptathlete.

LOSE  now this is quite an interesting one for me, because I have heard about this word. It’s the word that describes others when I play them, but having no first hand knowledge of it I thought I would investigate it a little

To ‘lose’ comes either from the old English ‘losian’ meaning “to be lost or perish,” and/or ‘los’ which means “destruction, loss.” These in turn may well have come from the  Old Norse word ‘los’, meaning “the breaking up of an army;”

ETYMOLOGY

The word etymology derives from the Greek word (étumon), meaning “true sense or sense of a truth”, and the suffix ology means ‘the study of.’

CADDY

According to Scottish golf lore, the term caddy is derived from the French word, “le cadet.” This term means, “the boy,” or, “youngest of the family.”

GOLF

Golf, usually taken as an alteration of Middle Dutch colf, colve meaning stick, club or bat.

FORE

Fore is from old English meaning before, in front of. Used in other words like forecourt. In golf, fore is shouted to warn others in front of you of wayward shots. Along time ago in golf a fore caddy was used to go infornt of the player to watch where the ball finished up.