Sport From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Sport (disambiguation).

Page semi-protected Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which als o provides opportunities to nurture physical fitness and social interaction skil ls. Sport (or sports) is all forms of usually competitive physical activity which,[1 ] through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve phy sical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in s ome cases, spectators.[2] Hundreds of sports exist, from those requiring only tw o participants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, eit her in teams or competing as individuals. Sport is generally recognised as activities which are based in physical athletic ism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olymp ic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition,[3] and other organisatio ns such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports.[2] However, a number of compe titive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The Inter national Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as b ona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation associatio n, recognises five non-physical sports,[4][5] although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.[1] Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, and allow consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can b e determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first, or by the determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting perfo rmance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression. In organised sport, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sport s, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. In additi on, sport is a major source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectato r sports drawing large crowds to venues, and reaching wider audiences through sp orts broadcasting. According to A.T. Kearney, a consultancy, the global sporting industry is worth up to $620 billion as of 2013.[6] Contents [hide] 1 Meaning and usage 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Nomenclature 1.3 Definition 1.4 Competition 2 History 3 Fair play 3.1 Sportsmanship 3.2 Cheating 3.3 Doping and drugs 3.4 Violence 4 Participation 4.1 Gender participation 4.2 Youth participation 4.3 Spectator involvement 5 Issues and considerations 5.1 Amateur and professional 5.2 Technology 5.3 Politics 6 See also 7 References

8 Further reading 9 External links Meaning and usage Etymology "Sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning "leisure", with the oldest def inition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans find amusing or enter taining".[7] Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; h unting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.[8] Roget 's defines the noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusemen t" with synonyms including diversion and recreation.[9] Nomenclature The singular term "sport" is used in most English dialects to describe the overa ll concept (e.g. "children taking part in sport"), with "sports" used to describ e multiple activities (e.g. "football and rugby are the most popular sports in E ngland"). American English uses "sports" for both terms. Definition See also: Game#Definitions Show Jumping, an equestrian sport The precise definition of what separates a sport from other leisure activities v aries between sources. The closest to an international agreement on a definition is provided by SportAccord, which is the association for all the largest intern ational sports federations (including association football, athletics, cycling, tennis, equestrian sports and more), and is therefore the de facto representativ e of international sport. SportAccord uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:[1]