Sport
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"Sports." Culture, Sport, Q-files Encyclopedia, 10 Feb. 2022.
https://www.q-files.com/culture/sport/sports.
Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
Sports 2022. Culture, Sport. Retrieved 19 March 2024, from
https://www.q-files.com/culture/sport/sports
Culture, Sport, s.v. "Sports," accessed March 19, 2024.
https://www.q-files.com/culture/sport/sports
Sports
A sport is a physical activity in which an individual or team takes part for fun or as part of a competition. In some sports, the person who runs fastest or throws furthest is the winner. In others, such as tennis or football, players win by scoring more points or goals. In sports such as diving, gymnastics or ice skating, judges decide who are the best performers. Professional sportspeople compete for their livelihoods on a regular basis. Other people play sports for fun or exercise.
Origins of sport
Many of the sports we know today have their origins in ancient history. Some began as religious rituals. Other were tests of strength or endurance. Many of the earliest sports, the "martial arts" such as wrestling, archery and fencing, were based on fighting. Young men had to be trained for battle by practising combat with their hands or with weapons.
Sport in ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt, the first sword-fighting matches were held about 3200 years ago. The swords had blunted points and the fencers wore narrow shields on their free arms, which they used to fend off a thrust from their opponent’s sword. Wrestling may have been the first organized sport of all. It grew up in many different cultures all over the world, but in ancient Egypt, the fight was over when one man had both shoulders pressed to the ground—just as in modern forms of wrestling. Archery was also a popular sport, closely linked to hunting. A scene carved in stone in an Egyptian temple about 3500 years ago shows King Amenhotep II firing an arrow while riding in a chariot.
Olympic Games
The most famous sporting competition in the world is the Olympic Games, which is held every four years. It is named after Olympia in Greece, where the games were first held in ancient times. The first record of the games is in 776 BC. They began as a way of honouring the gods and gradually became an organized competition with running, throwing, jumping, wrestling, riding and chariot-racing events.
In the modern Olympics, begun in 1896, men and women from all over the world try to win bronze, silver and gold medals in their sport. The Games are held in a different city around the world each time. A special stadium is often built for the event.
Athletics
An athletics stadium allows several different sports to go on at the same time. Shaped like a squashed “O” with straight sides, the running track borders the central field. It is divided by white lines into strips, or “lanes”, along which the athletes run. Races are known as track events. They may be short sprints or longer races of several laps. Some races involve jumping over hurdles. In relays, members of a team each run a section of the race before passing a baton to a team-mate. Inside the track there are areas for “field” events such as throwing the javelin, discus or shot, pole vaulting, and the long and high jumps.
Consultant: Sean Callery