For other uses, see Sport (disambiguation).
Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which also provides opportunities to
nurture physical fitness and social interaction skills.
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]
Contents
1Meaning and usage
o 1.1Etymology
o 1.2Nomenclature
o 1.3Definition
o 1.4Competition
2History
3Fair play
o 3.1Sportsmanship
o 3.2Cheating
o 3.3Doping and drugs
o 3.4Violence
4Participation
o 4.1Gender participation
o 4.2Youth participation
o 4.3Disabled participation
o 4.4Spectator involvement
5Amateur and professional
6Technology
7Politics
o 7.1As a means of controlling and subduing populations
8Religious views
9Popularity
10See also
11References
12Further reading
13External links
Meaning and usage
