Sports | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts

<!doctype html> <html lang="en" class="topic-desktop ui-ie7 ui-ie"> <head prefix="og: https://ogp.me/ns# fb: https://ogp.me/ns/fb#"> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130"> <link rel="preconnect" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130"> <link rel="preload" as="script" href="https://www.googletagservices.com/tag/js/gpt.js" /> <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.png" /> <meta name="description" content="Sports are physical contests pursued for the goals and challenges they entail. Popular sports include football (soccer), gridiron football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, field hockey, cricket, tennis, rugby, and golf. Learn more about the development and history of sports in this article." /> <meta name="keywords" content="sports, encyclopedia, encyclopeadia, britannica, article" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports" /> <title>Sports | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts | Britannica</title> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel"> window.$UI = {}; window.Constants = {"LICENSE_URL": "/bps/license","DEFAULT_TEST_VERSION": "A","DEFAULT_STATE": "XX","QUIZ_URL": "/quiz","SPOTLIGHT_BROWSE_URL": "/stories/spotlight","CONTENT_TYPE_TEXT": "text/plain;charset=UTF-8","TOPIC_FACTS_DATA_URL": "/facts","QUIZ_BROWSE_IMAGE_QUIZZES": "images","TOPIC_MEDIA_PATH": "/images-videos","USER_PROFILE_URL": "/user","DEBUG_URL": "/debug","ONE_GOOD_FACT_URL": "/one-good-fact","ERROR_404_URL": "/error404","PROCON_CITED_IN_THE_NEWS_URL": "/procon/ProCon-in-the-News","PROCON_URL": "/procon","TOPIC_PAGE_CONTENT_AJAX_URL": "/topic-content/page","INFINITE_SCROLL_PREFIX_URL": "/scroll","TOPIC_TOP_QUESTION_BROWSE_URL": "/questions","CC_USD": "USD","domain": "britannica.com","SURVEY_URL": "/survey","CATEGORY_BROWSE_URL": "/browse","STORY_BROWSE_URL": "/stories","COUNTRY_US": "US","OPEN_MEDIA_OVERLAY_PARAMETER": "/media","NEWSLETTER_SUBSCRIPTION_URL": "/newsletter-subscription","MAINTENANCE_ERROR_URL": "https://maintenance.eb.com","IMARS_EDITOR_ID": "12365882","PROFILE_EB_EDITOR_URL": "/editor","WEB_INF_RESOURCES_PATH": "WEB-INF/resources","AI_ABOUT_PAGE_URL": "/about-britannica-ai","TOPIC_ADDITIONAL_INFO_PATH": "/additional-info","SUDOKU_GAME_URL": "/games/sudoku","CC_INR": "INR","ARTICLE_PRINT_URL": "/print/article","FIRST_EDITION_URL": "/subscriber/firstedition","WW1_PORTAL_URL": "/discover/World-War-I","MENDEL_COOKIE": "__mendel","DEMYSTIFIED_BROWSE_URL": "/stories/demystified","LIST_BROWSE_URL": "/list/browse","PROFILE_EXPERT_URL": "/contributor","ASSEMBLY_IMAGE_URL": "/image/assembly","DAY_IN_HISTORY_URL": "/on-this-day","DEFAULT_CURRENCY": "USD","CONTENT_TYPE_XML": "text/xml;charset=UTF-8","PORTAL_FINANCE_BROWSE_URL_PREFIX": "/money/browse","MONEY_IMARS_CATEGORY": "13000","AJAX_PREFIX_URL": "/ajax","TOPIC_BROWSE_URL": "/topic-browse","MARKETING_CONTENT": "/marketing-content","ENV_RUNTIME": "runtime","GALLERY_URL": "/gallery","topicUrlClassesList": "topic|animal|art|biography|event|place|plant|science|sports|technology|procon","CONTENT_TYPE_HTML": "text/html;charset=UTF-8","ENV_LOCAL": "override","MEDIA_OVERLAY_URL": "/media-overlay","CHATBOT_PAGE_URL": "/chatbot","NEWSLETTER_PAGE_URL": "/newsletters","ENV_DEV": "development","MEDIA_URL": "/media","TOPIC_TOP_QUESTION_URL": "/question","PORTAL_FINANCE_URL_PREFIX": "/money","PODCASTS_URL": "/podcasts","STAND_ALONE_VIDEO_URL": "/video","MORE_ON_THIS_DAY_URL": "/more-on-this-day","TOPIC_QUOTES_URL": "/quotes","SEARCH_PAGE_URL": "/search","PROCON_CLASS": "PROCON","KUSTOM_MENDEL_APPLICATION_ID": "1","TOPIC_CONTENT_AJAX_URL": "/topic-content/topic","ENV_BRANCH": "branch","ERROR_URL": "/error","MAIN_VERSION": "mainVersion","DEFAULT_S3_REGION": "US_EAST_1","TOPIC_COLLECTION_URL": "/summary","LOGINBOX_URL": "/auth/loginbox","ONE_GOOD_FACT_BROWSE_URL": "/one-good-fact/all-good-facts","QUIZ_BROWSE_URL": "/quiz/browse","BIO_BROWSE_URL": "/browse/biographies","LIST_URL": "/list","TIGHTROPE_QUIZ_URL": "/quiz/tightrope","ALPHA_BROWSE_URL": "/sitemap","CONTENT_TYPE_JSON": "application/json","DICTIONARY_URL": "/dictionary","COBRAND_IMAGE_URL": "/image/cobrand","PROCON_IN_THE_NEWS_URL": "/procon/pro-and-con-issues-in-the-news","PROCON_BROWSE_URL": "/procon","QUIZ_BROWSE_VOCAB_QUIZZES": "vocabulary-quizzes","SUBMISSION_URL": "/submission","EB_LOG_OUT": "/auth2/logout","ENV_PRODUCTION": "production","EXPLORE_PORTAL_URL": "/explore","TOPIC_AJAX_URL": "/ajax/topic","TOPIC_SUMMARY_BROWSE_URL": "/summaries","WTFACT_BROWSE_URL": "/stories/wtfact","VIDEO_CHANNEL_URL": "/videos","GALLERY_BROWSE_URL": "/gallery/browse","CACHE_URL": "/cache","PROCON_ABOUT_URL": "/procon/About-ProCon","COMPANION_BROWSE_URL": "/stories/companion","MEDIA_FOLDER": "/eb-media","SHOW_ALL_CONTRIBUTORS": "/additional-info#contributors","BRITANNICA_EDITORS_ID": "4419","ENV_CACHE_DISABLED": "mendelCache","CALCULATORS_BROWSE_URL": "/calculators","STORY_URL": "/story","DEFAULT_COUNTRY": "US","NAVBAR_URL": "/ajax/navbar","EB_LOGIN_URL": "/auth/eb-login","NEW_ARTICLES_URL": "/new-articles",}; window.CDN = "https://cdn.britannica.com"; window.CAM_LOGIN_URL = "https://cam.britannica.com"; window.CAM_SIGN_UP_URL = "https://cam.britannica.com/registration" window.Mendel = { "config" : { "domain": "britannica.com", "page": "Topic", "videoPlayerId": "UyMCoK2v", "sharedUrl": "https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports", "amuselabsUrl": "https://cdn3.amuselabs.com", "resourcesPrefixUrl": "https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/[url]?v=3.130.14", "date": 20241124, "userInfo": { "type": "ANONYMOUS" ,"currency": "AUUS" ,"country": "SG" ,"state": "XX" ,"timezone": "Asia/Singapore" ,"bcomId": "2400284096588265026" ,"hasAds": true ,"testVersion": "B" ,"adsTestVersion": "B" ,"consumerId": "" ,"instId": "" ,"consumerUserName": "" ,"instUserName": "" ,"cognito": null }, "tvs":{ "r":[25,25,25,25], "a": [25,25,25,25]}, "isLoggedInAsUser": false, "isPhone": false, "isDesktop": true, "logoutUrl": "/auth2/logout", "selfServiceUrl": "https://myaccount.britannica.com", "cdnUrl": "https://cdn.britannica.com", "chatbotApi": "https://www.britannica.com/chat-api", "fetchOffset": 800, "mendelCookieName": "__mendel", "mendelCookie": {"surveyShown":false,"visitedTopicId":561041,"currentDate":20241124}, "autocompleteToSearchPage": false,"topicUrl": "https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports" ,"freeTopicReason": "NO_REFERRER" ,"topicId": 561041 ,"template": "DESKTOP" ,"type": "CORE" ,"hasToc": true ,"chatbotApi": "https://www.britannica.com/chat-api" ,"showPreview": false ,"infiniteScrollList": [{"p":4,"t":561041},{"p":18,"t":428005},{"p":1,"t":2228259},{"p":1,"t":561067},{"p":1,"t":192762},{"p":1,"t":721901},{"p":1,"t":359044},{"p":15,"t":54751},{"p":1,"t":17688},{"p":1,"t":940216}] ,"sequence": 1 ,"topics": {} }, "GA": {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} }; </script> <meta property="fb:app_id" content="1887621861548296"/ <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" /> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@britannica" /> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-050-F29FD74E/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg" /> <meta name="twitter:description" content="Sports are physical contests pursued for the goals and challenges they entail. Popular sports include football (soccer), gridiron football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, field hockey, cricket, tennis, rugby, and golf. Learn more about the development and history of sports in this article."/> <meta property="og:type" content="ARTICLE"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Sports | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts | Britannica"/> <meta property="og:description" content="Sports are physical contests pursued for the goals and challenges they entail. Popular sports include football (soccer), gridiron football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, field hockey, cricket, tennis, rugby, and golf. Learn more about the development and history of sports in this article."/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Encyclopedia Britannica" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-050-F29FD74E/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg" /> <meta property="og:image:type" content="image/jpeg" /> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="init opengraph"> Mendel.openGraph = {"type":"ARTICLE","title":"Sports | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts","description":"Sports are physical contests pursued for the goals and challenges they entail. Popular sports include football (soccer), gridiron football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, field hockey, cricket, tennis, rugby, and golf. Learn more about the development and history of sports in this article.","imageUrl":"https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-050-F29FD74E/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg","imageType":"image/jpeg","pageUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports"}</script> <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/"> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/" > <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/icon?family=Material+Icons"> <link href="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/vendor-bundle.css?v=3.130.14" rel="stylesheet" /> <link href="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/mendel-css.css?v=3.130.14" rel="stylesheet" /> <link href="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.css?v=3.130.14" rel="stylesheet" /> <script type="text/javascript"> if (self !== top) { top.location = self.location; } // if ('scrollRestoration' in history) { history.scrollRestoration = 'manual'; } </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/at.js?v=3.130.14" async ></script> <script> dataLayer = []; </script> <script type="text/javascript">(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= '//www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-5W6NC8'); </script> <meta name="last-modified" content="2024-11-15" /> <script type="application/ld+json"> {"headline":"Sports | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts","image":{"url":"https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-050-F29FD74E/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg","@type":"ImageObject"},"author":[{"name":"Joseph Anthony Maguire","url":"https://www.britannica.com/contributor/Joseph-Anthony-Maguire/5505","@type":"Person"},{"name":"David Charles Rowe","url":"https://www.britannica.com/contributor/David-Charles-Rowe/5496","@type":"Person"}],"keywords":"sports","wordcount":18567,"url":"https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports","datePublished":"1998-07-20T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2024-11-15T00:00:00Z","description":"Sports are physical contests pursued for the goals and challenges they entail. Popular sports include football (soccer), gridiron football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, field hockey, cricket, tennis, rugby, and golf. Learn more about the development and history of sports in this article.","publisher":{"logo":{"url":"https://corporate.britannica.com/wp-content/themes/eb-corporate/_img/logo.png","@type":"ImageObject"},"name":"Encyclopedia Britannica","@type":"Organization"},"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"article"} </script></head> <body data-leg="B" class="new-topic topic-desktop first-page-true user-ANONYMOUS user-ads md-desktop leg-bb-ie">  <script>Mendel.config.adProvider='ay';</script> <script async src="https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js"></script> <script> window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.defineSlot('/15510053/CMP_1x1', [1, 1], 'div-gpt-ad-1709766812090-0').addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.enableServices(); }); </script> <script async defer src="https://launchpad-wrapper.privacymanager.io/0ccc6fe8-1870-4ad8-b47b-6d029ac116fc/launchpad-liveramp.js"></script> <script async src="https://JRyhoywLYXNLYMAhs.ay.delivery/manager/JRyhoywLYXNLYMAhs" type="text/javascript" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" ></script><div class="ie-warning d-flex align-items-center align-self-center justify-content-center site-alert bg-orange"> <div> You are using an <strong>outdated</strong> browser. Please <a class="text-white text-underscore" href="https://browsehappy.com/">upgrade your browser</a> to improve your experience and security. </div> </div> <script id="json-navbar-info" type="application/json"> {"topSectionLinks":[{"title":"Ask the Chatbot","url":"/chatbot","navbarId":"CHATBOT"},{"title":"Games & Quizzes","url":"/quiz/browse","navbarId":"QUIZZES"},{"title":"ProCon","url":"/procon","navbarId":"PROCON"},{"title":"History & Society","url":"/History-Society","navbarId":"HISTORY"},{"title":"Science & Tech","url":"/Science-Tech","navbarId":"SCIENCE"},{"title":"Biographies","url":"/Biographies","navbarId":"BIOS"},{"title":"Animals & Nature","url":"/Animals-Nature","navbarId":"ANIMALS"},{"title":"Geography & Travel","url":"/Geography-Travel","navbarId":"GEOGRAPHY"},{"title":"Arts & Culture","url":"/Arts-Culture","selected":true,"navbarId":"ART"},{"title":"Money","url":"/money","navbarId":"MONEY"},{"title":"Videos","url":"/videos","navbarId":"VIDEOS"}],"selectedSuperCategory":{"id":2,"title":"Arts & Culture","url":"Arts-Culture","description":"Explore arts and culture; entertainment and pop culture, actors, comics, dance, film, food, music, theatre, tv; visual arts, architecture, fashion, painting, photography, sculpture; literature, fiction, nonfiction, plays, poetry, short story; sports and recreation","keywords":"entertainment and pop culture, actors, comics, dance, film, food, music, theatre, tv; visual arts, architecture, fashion, painting, photography, sculpture; literature, fiction, nonfiction, plays, poetry, short story; sports and recreation","classId":"ART","sortOrder":6},"selectedNavbarLink":{"title":"Arts & Culture","url":"/Arts-Culture","selected":true,"navbarId":"ART"}} </script> <script id="json-hamburger-menu" type="application/json"> {"britannicaMenu1":[{"title":"Home","url":"/"},{"title":"ProCon","url":"/procon"},{"title":"History & Society","url":"/History-Society"},{"title":"Science & Tech","url":"/Science-Tech"},{"title":"Biographies","url":"/Biographies"},{"title":"Animals & Nature","url":"/Animals-Nature"},{"title":"Geography & Travel","url":"/Geography-Travel"},{"title":"Arts & Culture","url":"/Arts-Culture"},{"title":"Money","url":"/money"}],"britannicaMenu2":[{"title":"Games & Quizzes","url":"/quiz/browse"},{"title":"Videos","url":"/videos"},{"title":"On This Day","url":"/on-this-day"},{"title":"One Good Fact","url":"/one-good-fact"},{"title":"Dictionary","url":"/dictionary"},{"title":"New Articles","url":"/new-articles"}],"browseByCategory":[{"title":{"id":5,"title":"History & Society","url":"/History-Society"},"links":[{"title":"Lifestyles & Social Issues","url":"/browse/Lifestyles-Social-Issues"},{"title":"Philosophy & Religion","url":"/browse/Philosophy-Religion"},{"title":"Politics, Law & Government","url":"/browse/Politics-Law-Government"},{"title":"World History","url":"/browse/World-History"}]},{"title":{"id":6,"title":"Science & Tech","url":"/Science-Tech"},"links":[{"title":"Health & Medicine","url":"/browse/Health-Medicine"},{"title":"Science","url":"/browse/Science"},{"title":"Technology","url":"/browse/Technology"}]},{"title":{"id":3,"title":"Biographies","url":"/Biographies"},"links":[{"title":"Browse Biographies","url":"/browse/biographies"}]},{"title":{"id":1,"title":"Animals & Nature","url":"/Animals-Nature"},"links":[{"title":"Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates","url":"/browse/Birds-Reptiles-Vertebrates"},{"title":"Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates","url":"/browse/Bugs-Mollusks-Invertebrates"},{"title":"Environment","url":"/browse/Environment"},{"title":"Fossils & Geologic Time","url":"/browse/Fossil-Geologic-Time"},{"title":"Mammals","url":"/browse/Mammals"},{"title":"Plants","url":"/browse/Plants"}]},{"title":{"id":4,"title":"Geography & Travel","url":"/Geography-Travel"},"links":[{"title":"Geography & Travel","url":"/browse/Geography-Travel"}]},{"title":{"id":2,"title":"Arts & Culture","url":"/Arts-Culture"},"links":[{"title":"Entertainment & Pop Culture","url":"/browse/Entertainment-Pop-Culture"},{"title":"Literature","url":"/browse/Literature"},{"title":"Sports & Recreation","url":"/browse/Sports-Recreation"},{"title":"Visual Arts","url":"/browse/Visual-Arts"}]}],"browseByFeature":[{"title":"Companions","url":"/stories/companion"},{"title":"Demystified","url":"/stories/demystified"},{"title":"Image Galleries","url":"/gallery/browse"},{"title":"Lists","url":"/list/browse"},{"title":"Podcasts","url":"/podcasts"},{"title":"Spotlight","url":"/stories/spotlight"},{"title":"Summaries","url":"/summary"},{"title":"The Forum","url":"/stories/the-forum"},{"title":"Top Questions","url":"/question"},{"title":"#WTFact","url":"/stories/wtfact"}],"moreFromBritannica":[{"title":"Britannica Kids","url":"https://kids.britannica.com/","newTab":true}],"menuType":"DEFAULT"} </script> <header id="header" class="bg-navy-dark"> <div class="global-nav-top-bar"> <div class="grid gx-0 h-100 justify-content-between align-items-center container-lg mx-auto p-0 position-relative"> <div class="d-flex align-items-center"> <button class="d-flex align-items-center justify-self-start js-toggle js-toggle-hamburger btn btn-link link-white btn-sm rounded-0 p-10"> <div class="hamburger-tooltip"> <em class="material-icons d-inline-block font-24" id="nav-toggle" data-icon="menu"></em> </div> <em class="material-icons d-inline-block font-24 global-nav-search-icon" id="nav-search-icon" data-icon="search" ></em> </button> <a href="/" class="d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center ml-10"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel/eb-logo/MendelNewThistleLogo.png" alt="Encyclopedia Britannica" class="global-nav-logo global-nav-logo-left" /> </a> <div class="global-nav-top-search-bar global-nav-top-search-container global-nav-search-container" id="global-nav-top-search-bar"> <form method="get" action="/search" id="global-nav-search" class="md-search-form m-0 global-nav-search-bar-small"> <div class="search-box position-relative col-100"> <label class="sr-only" for="global-nav-search-query">Search Britannica</label> <input name="query" id="global-nav-search-query" placeholder="Search Britannica..." class="form-control form-control-lg rounded-lg font-16 search-query pl-20 pr-70 shadow-sm" maxlength="200" autocomplete="off" aria-label="Search Britannica" /> <button class="search-reset-btn btn btn-link px-10 position-absolute top-0 h-100 d-none" type="reset"> <em class="material-icons" data-icon="close"></em> </button> <button class="search-submit btn btn-link text-blue px-10 position-absolute top-0 right-0 h-100" type="submit" disabled> <span class="sr-only">Click here to search</span> <em class="material-icons search-icon" data-icon="search"></em> </button> </div> </form> </div> </div> <a href="/" class="d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel/eb-logo/MendelNewThistleLogo.png" alt="Encyclopedia Britannica" class="global-nav-center global-nav-logo non-homepage-logo" /> </a> <form method="get" action="/search" id="global-nav-search" class="md-search-form m-0 global-nav-search-bar-small global-nav-center search global-nav-center-search-container"> <div class="search-box position-relative col-100"> <label class="sr-only" for="global-nav-search-query">Search Britannica</label> <input name="query" id="global-nav-search-query" placeholder="Search Britannica..." class="form-control form-control-lg rounded-lg font-16 search-query pl-20 pr-70 shadow-sm" maxlength="200" autocomplete="off" aria-label="Search Britannica" /> <button class="search-reset-btn btn btn-link px-10 position-absolute top-0 h-100 d-none" type="reset"> <em class="material-icons" data-icon="close"></em> </button> <button class="search-submit btn btn-link text-blue px-10 position-absolute top-0 right-0 h-100" type="submit" disabled> <span class="sr-only">Click here to search</span> <em class="material-icons search-icon" data-icon="search"></em> </button> </div> </form> <div class="col-35 col-sm-auto text-right order-3 mr-lg-15 align-items-center d-flex justify-content-end"> <div class="d-none d-md-inline-block"> <SPAN class="marketing-HEADER_SUBSCRIPTION_DESKTOP2 marketing-content" data-marketing-id="HEADER_SUBSCRIPTION_DESKTOP2"><a href="https://subscription.britannica.com/subscribe?partnerCode=BP_Black_Friday_AUUS" class="subscribe-link btn btn-sm btn-outline-white-orange py-5 mr-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Subscribe </a></SPAN></div> <div class="d-inline-block d-md-none mr-5 mr-sm-10"> <SPAN class="marketing-HEADER_SUBSCRIPTION_MOBILE marketing-content" data-marketing-id="HEADER_SUBSCRIPTION_MOBILE"><a href="https://subscription.britannica.com/subscribe?partnerCode=BP_Black_Friday_AUUS" class="subscribe-link btn btn-xs btn-orange-dark p-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Subscribe </a></SPAN></div> <button class="js-toggle-user-dropdown js-toggle btn btn-sm btn-link link-white rounded-0 px-md-15 pl-5 pr-5"> <span class="d-none d-md-inline-block mr-5">Login</span> <em class="material-icons d-inline-block d-md-none font-16 font-sm-20" data-icon="account_circle"></em> <div class="d-none dropdown-menu-subscription-link">https://subscription.britannica.com/subscribe?partnerCode=BP_Black_Friday_AUUS</div> <em class="material-icons inactive-icon d-inline-block font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_down"></em> <em class="material-icons active-icon d-inline-block font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_up"></em> </button> </div> </div> </div> <div class="d-none hamburger-menu-subscription-link"><DIV class="marketing-HAMBURGER_MENU_CTA marketing-content" data-marketing-id="HAMBURGER_MENU_CTA"><a href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=hamburger-menu&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024" class="subscribe-link btn btn-sm btn-orange py-5" target="_blank"> Subscribe <span class="d-none d-md-inline"> Now</span> </a></DIV></div> <div id="global-nav-react"> <div class="d-none"> <ul> <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="/procon">ProCon</a></li> <li><a href="/History-Society">History & Society</a></li> <li><a href="/Science-Tech">Science & Tech</a></li> <li><a href="/Biographies">Biographies</a></li> <li><a href="/Animals-Nature">Animals & Nature</a></li> <li><a href="/Geography-Travel">Geography & Travel</a></li> <li><a href="/Arts-Culture">Arts & Culture</a></li> <li><a href="/money">Money</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li><a href="/quiz/browse">Games & Quizzes</a></li> <li><a href="/videos">Videos</a></li> <li><a href="/on-this-day">On This Day</a></li> <li><a href="/one-good-fact">One Good Fact</a></li> <li><a href="/dictionary">Dictionary</a></li> <li><a href="/new-articles">New Articles</a></li> </ul> <a href="/History-Society">History & Society</a> <ul> <li><a href="/browse/Lifestyles-Social-Issues">Lifestyles & Social Issues</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Philosophy-Religion">Philosophy & Religion</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Politics-Law-Government">Politics, Law & Government</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/World-History">World History</a></li> </ul> <a href="/Science-Tech">Science & Tech</a> <ul> <li><a href="/browse/Health-Medicine">Health & Medicine</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Science">Science</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Technology">Technology</a></li> </ul> <a href="/Biographies">Biographies</a> <ul> <li><a href="/browse/biographies">Browse Biographies</a></li> </ul> <a href="/Animals-Nature">Animals & Nature</a> <ul> <li><a href="/browse/Birds-Reptiles-Vertebrates">Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Bugs-Mollusks-Invertebrates">Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Environment">Environment</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Fossil-Geologic-Time">Fossils & Geologic Time</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Mammals">Mammals</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Plants">Plants</a></li> </ul> <a href="/Geography-Travel">Geography & Travel</a> <ul> <li><a href="/browse/Geography-Travel">Geography & Travel</a></li> </ul> <a href="/Arts-Culture">Arts & Culture</a> <ul> <li><a href="/browse/Entertainment-Pop-Culture">Entertainment & Pop Culture</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Literature">Literature</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Sports-Recreation">Sports & Recreation</a></li> <li><a href="/browse/Visual-Arts">Visual Arts</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li><a href="/stories/companion">Companions</a></li> <li><a href="/stories/demystified">Demystified</a></li> <li><a href="/gallery/browse">Image Galleries</a></li> <li><a href="/list/browse">Lists</a></li> <li><a href="/podcasts">Podcasts</a></li> <li><a href="/stories/spotlight">Spotlight</a></li> <li><a href="/summary">Summaries</a></li> <li><a href="/stories/the-forum">The Forum</a></li> <li><a href="/question">Top Questions</a></li> <li><a href="/stories/wtfact">#WTFact</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li><a href="https://kids.britannica.com/">Britannica Kids</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </header> <div class="bg-navy-dark"> <div class="container-lg p-0 d-flex justify-content-center global-nav-categories-bar overflow-hidden"> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 global-nav-slider category-snap-slider"> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex font-14 overflow-hidden text-nowrap mx-5"> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-CHATBOT " href="/chatbot">Ask the Chatbot</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-QUIZZES " href="/quiz/browse">Games & Quizzes</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-PROCON " href="/procon">ProCon</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-HISTORY " href="/History-Society">History & Society</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-SCIENCE " href="/Science-Tech">Science & Tech</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-BIOS " href="/Biographies">Biographies</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-ANIMALS " href="/Animals-Nature">Animals & Nature</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-GEOGRAPHY " href="/Geography-Travel">Geography & Travel</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-ART selected selected" href="/Arts-Culture">Arts & Culture</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-MONEY " href="/money">Money</a> <a class="nav-bar-category mx-5 category-link-VIDEOS " href="/videos">Videos</a> </div> <button disabled class="prev-button js-prev-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-blue " aria-label="Previous"> <span class="material-icons md-24" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_left"></span> </button> <button disabled class="next-button js-next-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-blue " aria-label="Next"> <span class="material-icons md-24" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></span> </button> </div> </div> </div> <main> <div class="md-page-wrapper"> <div id="content" class="md-content"> <div class="md-article-container template-desktop infinite-pagination"> <div class="infinite-scroll-container article last"> <article class="article-content container-lg qa-content px-0 pt-0 pb-40 py-lg-20 content md-expanded" data-topic-id="561041"> <div class="grid gx-0"> <div class="col-auto"> <div class="topic-left-rail md-article-drawer position-relative d-flex border-right-sm border-left-sm open"> <div class="drawer d-flex flex-column open"> <div class="left-rail-section-content"> <div class="topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center"> <div class="tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left"> <em class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports">sports</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/sports/sports">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref253547"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253547">History</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253548"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253548">Traditional African sports</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253549"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253549">Traditional Asian sports</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253550"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253550">Sports of the ancient Mediterranean world</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253551"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253551">Egypt</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253552"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253552">Crete and Greece</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253553"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253553">Rome</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253554"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253554">Sports in the Middle Ages</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253555"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253555">Sports in the Renaissance and modern periods</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253556"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports#ref253556">Globalization</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref253557"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports">Sociology of sports</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253558"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253558">Socialization into and through sports</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253559"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253559">The socialization process</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253560"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253560">Emotion and sports</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253561"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253561">Sports and national identity</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253562"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253562">The formation of national identity</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253563"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253563">Patriot games</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253564"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253564">National character</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253565"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253565">Traditions and myths</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253566"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253566">Globalization and sports processes</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253567"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253567">Western domination</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253568"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253568">Non-Western resistance</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253569"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253569">Elite sports systems</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253570"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253570">Cold War competition</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253571"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253571">Order of nations</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253572"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253572">Labour migration and elite sports</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253573"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253573">Intracontinental and intercontinental migration</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253574"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253574">Seasonal and transitory migration</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253575"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253575">Factors affecting migration</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253576"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253576">Mass media and the rise of professional sports</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253577"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253577">The marriage of media and sports</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253578"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253578">Evolution of sportswriting</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253579"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253579">Photography, radio, and television</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253580"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253580">Commercialization of sports</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253581"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253581">Violence and sports</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253582"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253582">On-field violence</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref253583"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253583">Spectator violence</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253584"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253584">Gender and sports</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253585"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253585">Race, ethnicity, and sports</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref253586"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Sociology-of-sports#ref253586">Human performance and the use of drugs</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref253587"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Psychology-of-sports">Psychology of sports</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref253588"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/sports/sports/Gambling-and-sports">Gambling and sports</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/sports">Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports/images-videos">Images & Videos</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex overflow-hidden text-nowrap ml-15"> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-050-F29FD74E/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg" data-href="/media/1/561041/273986" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-004-E9740728/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg" alt="Argentina celebrating its 2022 World Cup victory" height="50" /> </a> <a href="/video/How-are-sports-chosen-for-the-Olympic-Games/307606" data-href="/media/1/561041/307606" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <div class="position-relative --aspect-ratio: 16/9"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/62/253562-138-120DAAE6/How-are-sports-chosen-for-the-Olympic-Games.jpg?w=400&h=225&c=crop" alt="How are sports chosen for the Olympics?" class="col-100" /> <div class="btn btn-sm btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow" style="top: 50%; left:50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%)"> <em class="material-icons font-14" data-icon="play_arrow" > </em> </div> </div> </a> <a href="/video/What-was-a-gladiator/313878" data-href="/media/1/561041/313878" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <div class="position-relative --aspect-ratio: 16/9"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/38/256638-138-FFB0A5AA/What-was-a-gladiator.jpg?w=400&h=225&c=crop" alt="The video thumbnail image shows an ancient drawing of a gladiator holding a shield and spear." class="col-100" /> <div class="btn btn-sm btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow" style="top: 50%; left:50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%)"> <em class="material-icons font-14" data-icon="play_arrow" > </em> </div> </div> </a> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/95/10595-050-5231B111/Pairs-knights-woodcut.jpg" data-href="/media/1/561041/6169" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/95/10595-004-4E87DD6D/Pairs-knights-woodcut.jpg" alt="knights jousting" height="50" /> </a> <a href="/video/sport-jousting/219668" data-href="/media/1/561041/219668" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <div class="position-relative --aspect-ratio: 16/9"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/38/193338-138-971B7D70/sport-jousting.jpg?w=400&h=225&c=crop" alt="Learn about the history of the medieval sport of jousting" class="col-100" /> <div class="btn btn-sm btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow" style="top: 50%; left:50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%)"> <em class="material-icons font-14" data-icon="play_arrow" > </em> </div> </div> </a> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/52/70752-050-7E6F8584/baseball-game-Hoboken-Elysian-Fields-New-Jersey-1859.jpg" data-href="/media/1/561041/70832" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/52/70752-004-689B3B89/baseball-game-Hoboken-Elysian-Fields-New-Jersey-1859.jpg" alt="early baseball game" height="50" /> </a> <a href="/video/Job-description-television-sports-director/245530" data-href="/media/1/561041/245530" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <div class="position-relative --aspect-ratio: 16/9"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/50/214050-138-CC886B47/Job-description-television-sports-director.jpg?w=400&h=225&c=crop" alt="Learn how directors coordinate commercials and different live broadcast shows" class="col-100" /> <div class="btn btn-sm btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow" style="top: 50%; left:50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%)"> <em class="material-icons font-14" data-icon="play_arrow" > </em> </div> </div> </a> </div> <button disabled class="prev-button js-prev-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-blue " aria-label="Previous"> <span class="material-icons md-24" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_left"></span> </button> <button disabled class="next-button js-next-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-blue " aria-label="Next"> <span class="material-icons md-24" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></span> </button> </div> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-related-quizzes"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10"> Quizzes </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/quiz/great-moments-in-sports-quiz"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/74/234474-131-7CBD1A96/Serena-Williams-womens-single-trophy-Australian-Open-Januray-28-2017.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Serena Williams poses with the Daphne Akhurst Trophy after winning the Women's Singles final against Venus Williams of the United States on day 13 of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 28, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (tennis, sports)" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/quiz/great-moments-in-sports-quiz" >Great Moments in Sports Quiz</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/quiz/sports-quiz"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/47/148847-131-607DD61C/Cricket-bat-ball.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Cricket bat and ball. cricket sport of cricket.Homepage blog 2011, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/quiz/sports-quiz" >Sports Quiz</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/quiz/turn-up-the-heat"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/94/168094-131-BC94FDF6/horse-racing-silks-race-horses-Jockeys-grass.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="horse racing. thoroughbred racing. Jockeys in racing silks race horses on an oval grass race track." width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/quiz/turn-up-the-heat" >Turn Up the Heat</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/quiz/i-am-the-greatest-athlete"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/55/235355-131-5EA8CFD4/Usain-Bolt-Jamaica-gold-medal-breaking-world-record-200m-Beijing-Summer-Olympics-August-20-2008.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Usain Bolt of Jamaica reacts after breaking the world record with a time of 19.30 to win the gold medal as Churandy Martina (left) of Netherlands Antilles and Brian Dzingai of Zimbabwe come in after him in the Men's 200m Final at the National Stadium during Day 12 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 20, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Summer Olympics, track and field, athletics)" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/quiz/i-am-the-greatest-athlete" >I Am the Greatest (Athlete)</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/quiz/american-sports-nicknames"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/52/139052-131-7A7975D1/Balls-shapes-colors-sizes-sports.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Assorted sports balls including a basketball, football, soccer ball, tennis ball, baseball and others." width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/quiz/american-sports-nicknames" >American Sports Nicknames</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-read-next"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10"> Read Next </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/list/10-best-sports-rivalries-of-all-time"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/53/189653-131-A7E9422A/Kevin-Garnett-shooting-Ronny-Turiaf-Boston-Celtics-2008.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="NBA Lakers Celtics Finals Kevin Garnett shooting." width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/list/10-best-sports-rivalries-of-all-time" >10 Great Sports Rivalries</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/list/7-unsportsmanlike-sportsmen"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/37/178537-131-A3735B2F/golf-golfer-gloves-Unsportsmanlike-club-greens-ball.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="golf. Competitive and cheating golfer wears golf gloves on golf club greens and prepares golf ball for lucky hole in one. Unsportsmanlike, sports, cheater" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/list/7-unsportsmanlike-sportsmen" >7 Unsportsmanlike Sportsmen</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/list/10-unusual-sports"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/86/239086-131-80CE73A7/Red-Bull-Soapbox-Race-Zagreb-Croatia.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Car with a pickle design in the Zagreb Red Bull Soapbox Race, Zagreb, Croatia, September 14, 2019. (games, races, sports)" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/list/10-unusual-sports" >10 Unusual Sports</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/story/how-are-sports-chosen-for-the-olympics"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/47/190947-131-FCF3F960/Olympic-torch-illustration-sports-summer-games.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Olympic torch illustration surrounded by sports in the summer games" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/story/how-are-sports-chosen-for-the-olympics" >How Are Sports Chosen for the Olympics?</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/story/who-really-invented-baseball"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/53/212553-131-B8C3D5AF/Baseball-bat.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="An old worn baseball and wood bat" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/story/who-really-invented-baseball" >Who Really Invented Baseball?</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-discover"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10"> Discover </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/list/11-egyptian-gods-and-goddesses"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/52/196952-131-0665E4EE/Egyptians-hieroglyphics-carvings.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="An ancient egyptian hieroglyphic painted carving showing the falcon headed god Horus seated on a throne and holding a golden fly whisk. Before him are the Pharoah Seti and the goddess Isis. Interior wall of the temple to Osiris at Abydos, Egypt." width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/list/11-egyptian-gods-and-goddesses" >11 Egyptian Gods and Goddesses</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/list/americas-5-most-notorious-cold-cases-including-one-you-may-have-thought-was-already-solved"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/71/196471-131-8FEA8DDD/Daily-Police-Bulletin-Elizabeth-Short-Black-Dahlia-January-1947.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Los Angeles Police Department wanted flyer on Elizabeth Short, aka the "Black Dahlia," who was brutally murdered in January 1947. The FBI supported the Los Angeles Police Department in the case, including by identifying Short through her fingerprints that" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/list/americas-5-most-notorious-cold-cases-including-one-you-may-have-thought-was-already-solved" >America’s 5 Most Notorious Cold Cases (Including One You May Have Thought Was Already Solved)</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/list/secret-service-code-names-of-11-us-presidents"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/45/189145-131-45FF672E/Secret-Service-Agent-Earpiece.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Secret Service Agent Listens To Earpiece" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/list/secret-service-code-names-of-11-us-presidents" >Secret Service Code Names of 11 U.S. Presidents</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/story/why-do-we-eat-turkey-on-thanksgiving"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/72/201772-131-C576ED87/Turkey-sides.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Thanksgiving Turkey with all the sides" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/story/why-do-we-eat-turkey-on-thanksgiving" >Why Do We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/story/the-rise-of-the-machines-pros-and-cons-of-the-industrial-revolution"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/17/167717-131-94C99B30/boys-mill-Macon-Georgia-1909.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Young boys working in a thread spinning mill in Macon, Georgia, 1909. Boys are so small they have to climb onto the spinning frame to reach and fix broken threads and put back empty bobbins. Child labor. Industrial revolution" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/story/the-rise-of-the-machines-pros-and-cons-of-the-industrial-revolution" >The Rise of the Machines: Pros and Cons of the Industrial Revolution</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/story/7-banned-books-through-time"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/34/166534-131-FEA58963/Cheshire-Cat-Lewis-Carroll-Alices-Adventures-in.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Alice in Wonderland)" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/story/7-banned-books-through-time" >11 Banned Books Through Time</a> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/story/why-is-ireland-two-countries"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/43/148643-131-2B2237A6/example-landscape-Irish-Ireland-Sligo.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop" alt="Rural Irish landscape, Sligo, Ireland." width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/story/why-is-ireland-two-countries" >Why Is Ireland Two Countries?</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <button class="drawerToggle btn position-sticky border btn-xs btn-white btn-circle rounded-sm d-none d-lg-flex " type="button" aria-label="Toggle Drawer"> <em class="material-icons font-18 text-blue" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_left"></em> </button> </div> </div> <div class="col"> <div class="h-100 ml-0 pr-lg-0 "> <div class="h-100 grid gx-0 gx-lg-20"> <div class="h-100 col-sm"> <div class="h-100 infinite-pagination-container d-flex flex-column position-relative"> <div class="position-absolute top-0 h-100 w-100"> <div class="toc-sticky-header d-none d-lg-none bg-gray-50 px-10 px-sm-30 position-sticky w-100 "> <div class="toc-sticky-header-inner-container align-items-center d-flex mx-auto h-100 w-100"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-sm btn-white text-blue border-2 border-gray-100 gtm-mobile-toc-header-button js-sections-button d-lg-none p-10"> <em class="material-icons my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Contents </button> <div class="header-ai-ask-button-placeholder"></div> <div class="header-ai-summarize-button-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="grey-box w-100 grey-box-top"> <div class="grey-box-content mx-auto w-100"> <script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement" : [ { "@type" : "ListItem", "position" : 1, "item" : { "@id" : "https://www.britannica.com/browse/Entertainment-Pop-Culture", "name": "Entertainment & Pop Culture" } } , { "@type" : "ListItem", "position" : 2, "item" : { "@id" : "https://www.britannica.com/browse/Leisure-Nightlife", "name": "Leisure & Nightlife" } } ] } </script> <nav class="breadcrumb mt-20"> <span class="breadcrumb-item "> <a class="link-gray-600" href="/browse/Entertainment-Pop-Culture">Entertainment & Pop Culture</a> </span> <span class="breadcrumb-item "> <a class="link-gray-600" href="/browse/Leisure-Nightlife">Leisure & Nightlife</a> </span> </nav> <div class="page2ref-true topic-content topic-type-REGULAR" data-student-article="true"> <script class="page-description-json" type="application/json"> { "url": "/sports/sports", "shareUrl": "https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports", "browserTitle": "Sports | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts", "firstTopicPage": true, "topicId":561041 } </script> <div class="reading-channel"> <div class="desktop-header-image module-spacing"> <figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-20 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="13684" data-asm-type="image"> <div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"> <a style="min-height: 160px;" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-050-F29FD74E/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/561041/273986"> <picture> <source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-050-F29FD74E/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg?w=300"> <img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-050-F29FD74E/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg?w=400&h=300&c=crop" alt="Argentina celebrating its 2022 World Cup victory" loading="eager" /> </picture> <button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"> <em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em> </button> </a> </div> <figcaption class="card-body"> <div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"> <span> <a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/22/238522-050-F29FD74E/FIFA-2022-World-Cup-Argentina.jpg" data-href="/media/1/561041/273986">Argentina celebrating its 2022 World Cup victory</a> <span><span>Team captain Lionel Messi (holding trophy) and other members of Argentina's national team after winning the 2022 Men's World Cup.</span></span> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <span class="link-blue">(more)</span> </button> </span> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </div><div class="topic-header"> <div class="d-flex align-items-top justify-content-between"> <div class="d-flex flex-column"> <div> <div> <h1>sports</h1></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="d-none d-sm-flex flex-row"> <div class="mr-10 mb-15"> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="d-none d-sm-block md-topic-tools qa-action-buttons mb-15" data-topic-id="561041"> <button class="js-tooltip btn btn-sm btn-outline-blue border pr-10 border-2" > <em class="material-icons md-icon ml-n10 my-n5 mr-5" data-icon="more_vert"></em> More Actions </button> <div class="md-more-popover popover popover-sm p-0 font-14 z-1"> <div> <button class="js-print-modal-button js-modal gtm-topic-tool btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal="[data-topic-id=561041] .md-print-modal" > <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="print"></em> Print </button> <div class="md-print-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif d-flex align-items-center pb-15 border-bottom"> <em class="material-icons text-blue mr-10">print</em> Print </div> <div class="mt-20 mb-10"> Please select which sections you would like to print: </div> <form action="/print/article/561041" method="post" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> <div class="print-box-items"> <ul class="list-unstyled"> <li><label><input class="mr-10" type="checkbox" name="sequence[]" value="0">Table Of Contents</label></li> </ul> </div> <input type="submit" class="btn btn-blue md-disabled" value="Print" /> </form> </div> </div> </div> <div> <button class="js-modal qa-cite-modal-button btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal="[data-topic-id=561041] .md-cite-modal"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="verified"></em> Cite </button> <div class="md-cite-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif d-flex align-items-center pb-15 border-bottom mb-15"> <em class="material-icons text-blue mr-10">verified</em>Cite </div> <div class="font-serif"> While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. </div> <div class="label mt-20 mb-10">Select Citation Style</div> <select class="js-citation-format-select form-select"> <option selected value="mla">MLA</option> <option value="apa">APA</option> <option value="chicago">Chicago Manual of Style</option> </select> <div class="citation font-serif border rounded p-15 mt-20" data-authors="Joseph Anthony Maguire, David Charles Rowe, Allen Guttmann, J.E. Luebering" data-title="sports" data-published-date="15 Nov. 2024" data-url="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports" > <div class="citation-text"></div> </div> <button class="js-copy-citation-button mt-20 btn btn-xs btn-outline-blue border shadow-sm pr-10" > <em class="material-icons md-icon ml-n10 my-n5 mr-5" data-icon="file_copy"></em> <span class="js-citation-status-text">Copy Citation</span> </button> </div> </div> </div> <div> <button class="js-share-modal-button js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal="[data-topic-id=561041] .md-share-modal"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="share"></em> Share </button> <div class="md-share-modal size-lg d-none qa-share-modal"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif d-flex align-items-center pb-15 border-bottom"> <em class="material-icons text-blue mr-10" data-icon="share"></em> Share </div> <div class="label my-20">Share to social media</div> <div class="md-social-toolbar-circle d-flex align-items-start inverted" data-value="share" title="sports" data-url="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports" > <a class="social-icon facebook justify-content-center d-flex align-items-center align-self-center" data-provider="facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/BRITANNICA/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>Facebook</span></a> <a class="social-icon x justify-content-center d-flex align-items-center align-self-center" data-provider="x" href="https://x.com/britannica" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>X</span></a> </div> <div class="label pt-20 mt-20 mb-5 border-top">URL</div> <a class="font-serif text-truncate d-inline-block" href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports">https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports</a> </div> </div> </div> <div> <button class="js-feedback-modal-button js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal=".md-feedback-modal"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="message"></em> Feedback </button> </div> <div> <button class="qa-external-website-modal-button js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal="[data-topic-id=561041] .md-websites-modal"> <em class="material-icons md-icon ml-n10 mr-5" data-icon="link"></em> External Websites </button> </div> </div> <div class="md-feedback-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif pb-15 border-bottom"> Feedback </div> <form method="post" action="/submission/feedback/561041"> <div class="my-20"> Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). </div> <div class="type-menu"> <label for="feedback-type" class="label mb-10">Feedback Type</label> <select id="feedback-type" class="form-select mb-30" name="feedbackTypeId" required> <option value="" selected="selected">Select a type (Required)</option> <option value="1">Factual Correction</option> <option value="2">Spelling/Grammar Correction</option> <option value="3">Link Correction</option> <option value="4">Additional Information</option> <option value="5">Other</option> </select> </div> <label for="feedback" class="label mb-10">Your Feedback</label> <textarea id="feedback" class="form-control mb-30" name="feedback" maxlength="3000" rows="7" required></textarea> <button class="btn btn-blue" type="submit">Submit Feedback</button> </form> <div class="success-messaging d-none mt-30"> <div class="title">Thank you for your feedback</div> <p>Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="md-websites-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif pb-15 border-bottom font-weight-bold"> External Websites </div> <div class="pb-20"> <ul class="list-unstyled mt-20 lh-lg"> <li><a class="external" href="https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Psychology/Developmental_Psychology/Lifespan_Development_-_A_Psychological_Perspective_2e_(Lally_and_Valentine-French)/05%3A_Middle_and_Late_Childhood/5.02%3A_Sports" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Social Science LibreTexts - Sports</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Philosophy of Sport</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/sports" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">World History Encyclopedia - Sports Timeline</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://hraf.yale.edu/ehc/assets/summaries/pdfs/games-and-sports.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Human Relations Area Files - Games and Sports</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="md-websites-ebk-title">Britannica Websites</div> <div class="md-websites-ebk-subtitle">Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.</div> <ul class="list-unstyled bps-topic-web-sites lh-lg"> <li><a class="external" href="https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/sports/390852" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sports - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/sports/601225" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sports - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="toc-header-marker"></div> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 js-header-ai-ask-button d-none btn-sm btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 mr-0 mr-lg-10 ml-5 ml-sm-10 ml-lg-0 p-10"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> <div class="md-byline module-spacing "> <div class="font-serif font-12"> <span class="written-by text-gray-700"> Written by </span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor" href="/contributor/Joseph-Anthony-Maguire/5505" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">Joseph Anthony Maguire</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Professor of the Sociology of Sport, Loughsborough University, England. Author of <i>Global Sport: Identities, Societies, Civilizations </i>and others.<i>.</i></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Joseph Anthony Maguire</span>, <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor" href="/contributor/David-Charles-Rowe/5496" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">David Charles Rowe</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Associate Professor of media and cultural studies, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia. Author of <i>Sport, Culture and the Media: The Unruly Trinity</i> and others.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> David Charles Rowe</span><span class="text-gray-700 mx-5">•</span><a class="see-all border-gray-700 gtm-byline" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports/additional-info#contributors">All</a> </div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-11-15T00:00:00CST" >Nov 15, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sports/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Al-Michaels" topicid="2224391">Al Michaels</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Bud-Selig" topicid="862219">Bud Selig</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Vin-Scully" topicid="2072026">Vin Scully</a></dd> <dd><a href="/money/Mukesh-Ambani" topicid="1710517">Mukesh Ambani</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Frank-Gifford" topicid="1728515">Frank Gifford</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/sports/baseball" topicid="54751">baseball</a></dd> <dd><a href="/sports/boxing" topicid="76377">boxing</a></dd> <dd><a href="/sports/American-football" topicid="212839">American football</a></dd> <dd><a href="/sports/disc-golf" topicid="1107798">disc golf</a></dd> <dd><a href="/sports/winter-sports" topicid="645673">winter sports</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/sports"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><div class="bg-gray-50 p-15 rounded module-spacing recent-news d-flex flex-column float-false"> <div> <h2 class="font-weight-bold font-14 m-0 d-inline"> News <span class="text-gray-600">•</span> </h2> <div class="recent-news-item first-recent-news-item d-inline"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5912565/2024/11/10/saudi-world-cup-bid-human-rights/" rel="nofollow">Human rights groups urge FIFA to postpone confirmation of Saudi Arabia as 2034 World Cup hosts - The Athletic</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 11, 2024, 7:12 AM ET (New York Times) <button class="btn btn-link d-inline p-0 font-12 js-toggle-recent-news"> <span class="text-gray-500">...</span><span>(Show more)</span> </button> </span> </div> </div> <div class="rest-of-recent-news-items"> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/czxvw1rgpwno" rel="nofollow">Man Utd news: 'There is a real belief Amorim can change things'</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 6, 2024, 7:09 AM ET (BBC) </span> </div> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/live/cn7mzzp0v4nt" rel="nofollow">Champions League LIVE: Amorim's Sporting face Man City & Alonso's Leverkusen go to Liverpool</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 5, 2024, 3:01 AM ET (BBC) </span> </div> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.news-medical.net/news/20241104/Researchers-uncover-the-hidden-history-of-concussion-in-sports.aspx" rel="nofollow">Researchers uncover the hidden history of concussion in sports</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 4, 2024, 3:02 PM ET (News-Medical) </span> </div> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/video/focusing-on-teen-mental-health/" rel="nofollow">Focusing on teen mental health</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Oct. 31, 2024, 12:15 PM ET (CBS) </span> </div> <button class="js-toggle-recent-news d-flex btn btn-unstyled font-14 pr-10 rounded-sm mt-10" aria-label="Toggle additional news items"> Show less <em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_less"></em> </button> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref403560"></span>sports</strong>, physical contests pursued for the goals and challenges they entail. Sports are part of every <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="culture" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture" data-type="MW">culture</a> past and present, but each culture has its own definition of sports. The most useful definitions are those that clarify the relationship of sports to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/play-behavior" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">play</a>, games, and contests. “Play,” wrote the German theorist Carl Diem, “is purposeless activity, for its own sake, the opposite of work.” Humans work because they have to; they play because they want to. Play is autotelic—that is, it has its own goals. It is voluntary and uncoerced. <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Recalcitrant" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Recalcitrant" data-type="MW">Recalcitrant</a> children compelled by their parents or teachers to compete in a game of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/American-football" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">football</a> (soccer) are not really engaged in a sport. Neither are professional athletes if their only motivation is their paycheck. In the real world, as a practical matter, motives are frequently mixed and often quite impossible to determine. Unambiguous definition is nonetheless a prerequisite to practical determinations about what is and is not an example of play.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="307606" data-asm-type="video"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="video" video-id="253562"><a data-id="253562" class="gtm-assembly-link d-flex justify-content-center" style="--aspect-ratio: 16/9" href="/video/How-are-sports-chosen-for-the-Olympic-Games/-307606"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/62/253562-138-120DAAE6/How-are-sports-chosen-for-the-Olympic-Games.jpg?w=800&h=450&c=crop" alt="How are sports chosen for the Olympics?" loading="lazy"><script type="application/json"> { "sources": [ { "file" : "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/ibV36tyL.m3u8" } ], "image": "https://cdn.britannica.com/62/253562-138-120DAAE6/How-are-sports-chosen-for-the-Olympic-Games.jpg" ,"tracks": [ { "file" : "//assets-jpcust.jwpsrv.com/tracks/7l4AcqFF.vtt", "label": "English" } ] ,"adfile": "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/UWtjBI64.m3u8" } </script><div class="btn btn-xl btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow" style="top: 50%; transform: translateY(-50%)"><em class="material-icons" data-icon="play_arrow"></em></div></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><span class="md-assembly-title font-weight-bold mr-5 d-inline font-sans-serif md-video-caption" video-control="253562">How are sports chosen for the Olympics?</span><span>Even tug-of-war once held its own as a respected Olympic sport.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div><a class="font-14 mt-10 d-inline-block" href="/sports/sports/images-videos">See all videos for this article</a></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">There are at least two types of play. The first is spontaneous and unconstrained. Examples abound. A child sees a flat stone, picks it up, and sends it skipping across the waters of a pond. An adult realizes with a laugh that he has uttered an unintended pun. Neither action is premeditated, and both are at least relatively free of constraint. The second type of play is regulated. There are rules to determine which actions are <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="legitimate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legitimate" data-type="MW">legitimate</a> and which are not. These rules transform spontaneous play into games, which can thus be defined as rule-bound or regulated play. Leapfrog, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/chess" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chess</a>, “playing house,” and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/basketball" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">basketball</a> are all games, some with rather simple rules, others governed by a somewhat more complex set of regulations. In fact, the rule books for games such as basketball are hundreds of pages long.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">As games, chess and basketball are obviously different from leapfrog and playing house. The first two games are competitive, the second two are not. One can win a game of basketball, but it makes no sense to ask who has won a game of leapfrog. In other words, chess and basketball are contests.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">A final distinction separates contests into two types: those that require at least a minimum of physical skill and those that do not. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/shuffleboard" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Shuffleboard</a> is a good example of the first; the board games <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/Scrabble" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Scrabble</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/Monopoly-board-game" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Monopoly</a> will do to exemplify the second. It must of course be understood that even the simplest sports, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/weightlifting" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">weightlifting</a>, require a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="modicum" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/modicum" data-type="MW">modicum</a> of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intellectual" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectual" data-type="MW">intellectual</a> effort, while others, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/baseball-billiards" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">baseball</a>, involve a considerable amount of mental alertness. It must also be understood that the sports that have most excited the passions of humankind, as participants and as spectators, have required a great deal more physical prowess than a game of shuffleboard. Through the ages, sports heroes have demonstrated awesome strength, speed, stamina, endurance, and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="dexterity" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dexterity" data-type="MW">dexterity</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><a class="btn btn-blue btn-sm mt-10 font-sans-serif" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/06/94706-004-5D1B0AF5/Diagram-levels-play.jpg" target="_blank">Click Here to see full-size table</a><span class="inline-table-wrapper overflow-auto"><span class="inline-table md-drag"><img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/06/94706-004-5D1B0AF5/Diagram-levels-play.jpg" alt="levels of play" width="342" height="140"></span></span>Sports, then, can be defined as autotelic (played for their own sake) physical contests. On the basis of this definition, one can devise a simple inverted-tree diagram. Despite the clarity of the definition, difficult questions arise. Is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/mountaineering" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">mountain climbing</a> a sport? It is if one understands the activity as a contest between the climber and the mountain or as a competition between climbers to be the first to accomplish an ascent. Are the drivers at the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/Indianapolis-500" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Indianapolis 500</a> automobile race really athletes? They are if one believes that at least a modicum of physical skill is required for winning the competition. The point of a clear definition is that it enables one to give more or less satisfactory answers to questions such as these. One can hardly understand sport if one does not begin with some <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conception" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conception" data-type="MW">conception</a> of what sports are.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/great-moments-in-sports-quiz" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/74/234474-131-7CBD1A96/Serena-Williams-womens-single-trophy-Australian-Open-Januray-28-2017.jpg" alt="Serena Williams poses with the Daphne Akhurst Trophy after winning the Women's Singles final against Venus Williams of the United States on day 13 of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 28, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (tennis, sports)" class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">Great Moments in Sports Quiz</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref253547"> <h2 class="h1">History</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">No one can say when sports began. Since it is impossible to imagine a time when children did not spontaneously run races or wrestle, it is clear that children have always included sports in their play, but one can only speculate about the emergence of sports as autotelic physical contests for adults. <span id="ref403562"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/hunting-sport" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Hunters</a> are depicted in prehistoric art, but it cannot be known whether the hunters pursued their prey in a mood of grim necessity or with the joyful abandon of sportsmen. It is certain, however, from the rich literary and iconographic evidence of all ancient civilizations that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/hunting-sport" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">hunting</a> soon became an end in itself—at least for royalty and nobility. Archaeological evidence also indicates that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/ball-sports" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">ball</a> games were common among ancient peoples as different as the Chinese and the Aztecs. If ball games were contests rather than noncompetitive <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="ritual" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/ritual" data-type="EB">ritual</a> performances, such as the <span id="ref403598"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Japanese</a> football game <em><span id="ref403563"></span>kemari</em>, then they were sports in the most rigorously defined sense. That it cannot simply be assumed that they were contests is clear from the evidence presented by Greek and Roman antiquity, which indicates that ball games had been for the most part playful pastimes like those recommended for health by the Greek physician Galen in the 2nd century <span class="text-smallcaps">ce</span>.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <section data-level="2" id="ref253548"> <h2 class="h2">Traditional African sports</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">It is unlikely that the 7th-century Islamic conquest of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/North-Africa" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">North Africa</a> radically altered the traditional sports of the region. As long as wars were fought with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/bow-and-arrow" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">bow and arrow</a>, archery contests continued to serve as demonstrations of ready prowess. The prophet Muhammad specifically authorized horse races, and geography dictated that men race camels as well as horses. Hunters, too, took their pleasures on horseback.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Among the many games of North Africa was <em>ta kurt om el mahag</em> (“the ball of the pilgrim’s mother”), a Berber bat-and-ball contest whose configuration bore an uncanny resemblance to baseball. <em>Koura</em>, more widely played, was similar to football (soccer).</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Cultural variation among black Africans was far greater than among the Arab peoples of the northern littoral. Ball games were rare, but <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/wrestling" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">wrestling</a> of one kind or another was <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ubiquitous" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ubiquitous" data-type="MW">ubiquitous</a>. Wrestling’s forms and functions varied from tribe to tribe. For the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nuba" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Nuba</a> of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Sudan" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">southern Sudan</a>, ritual bouts, for which men’s bodies were elaborately decorated as well as carefully trained, were the primary source of male status and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="prestige" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prestige" data-type="MW">prestige</a>. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tutsi" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Tutsi</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hutu" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Hutu</a> of Rwanda were among the peoples who staged contests between females. Among the various peoples of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/sub-Saharan-Africa" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">sub-Saharan Africa</a>, wrestling matches were a way to celebrate or symbolically encourage human fertility and the earth’s fecundity. In southern Nigeria, for instance, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Igbo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Igbo</a> tribesmen participated in wrestling matches held every eighth day throughout the three months of the rainy season; hard-fought contests, it was thought, persuaded the gods to grant abundant harvests of corn (maize) and yams. Among the Diola of the Gambia, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="adolescent" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/adolescent" data-type="EB">adolescent</a> boys and girls wrestled (though not against one another) in what was clearly a prenuptial ceremony. Male champions were married to their female counterparts. In other tribes, such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Yala" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Yala</a> of Nigeria, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fon-people" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Fon</a> of Benin, and the Njabi of the Congo, boys and girls grappled with each other. Among the Kole, it was the kin of the bride and the bridegroom who wrestled. Stick fights, which seem to have been less closely associated with religious practices, were common among many tribes, including the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zulu" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Zulu</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mpondo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mpondo</a> of southern Africa.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Contests for runners and jumpers were to be found across the length and breadth of the continent. During the age of imperialism, explorers and colonizers were often astonished by the prowess of these “primitive” peoples. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nandi-people" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Nandi</a> runners of Kenya’s Rift Valley seemed to run distances effortlessly at a pace that brought European runners to pitiable physical collapse. Tutsi high jumpers of Rwanda and Burundi soared to heights that might have seemed incredible had not the jumpers been photographed in flight by members of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adolf-Frederick" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Adolf Friedrich</a> zu Mecklenburg’s anthropological expedition at the turn of the 20th century.</p><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD11 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Long before European conquest introduced modern sports and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="marginalized" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marginalized" data-type="MW">marginalized</a> native customs, conversion to Islam tended to undercut—if not totally eliminate—the religious function of African sports, but elements of pre-Christian and pre-Islamic magical cults have survived into postcolonial times. Zulu football players rely not only on their coaches and trainers but also on the services of their <em>inyanga</em> (“witch doctor”).</p><span class="marker MOD11 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref253549"> <h2 class="h2">Traditional Asian sports</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD12 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Like the highly evolved civilizations of which they are a part, traditional Asian sports are ancient and various. Competitions were never as simple as they seemed to be. From the Islamic <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Middle-East" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Middle East</a> across the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Indian-subcontinent" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Indian subcontinent</a> to China and Japan, wrestlers—mostly but not exclusively male—embodied and enacted the values of their <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cultures" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cultures" data-type="MW">cultures</a>. The wrestler’s strength was always more than a merely personal statement. More often than not, the men who strained and struggled understood themselves to be involved in a religious endeavour. Prayers, incantations, and rituals of purification were for centuries an important aspect of the hand-to-hand combat of Islamic wrestlers. It was not unusual to combine the skills of the wrestler with those of a mystic poet. Indeed, the celebrated 14th-century Persian <em>pahlavan</em> (ritual wrestler) Maḥmūd Khwārezmī was both.</p><span class="marker MOD12 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD13 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Typical of the place of sport within a religious <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="context" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context" data-type="MW">context</a> was the spectacle of 50 sturdy Turks who wrestled in Istanbul in 1582 to celebrate the circumcision of the son of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Murad-III" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Murad III</a>. When Indian wrestlers join an <em>akhara</em> (gymnasium), they commit themselves to the quest for a holy life. As devout Hindus, they recite <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="mantras" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mantras" data-type="MW">mantras</a> as they do their knee bends and push-ups. In their struggle against “pollution,” they strictly control their diet, sexual habits, breathing, and even their urination and defecation.</p><span class="marker MOD13 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD14 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">While the religious aspects of Turkish and Iranian “houses of strength” (where weightlifting and gymnastics were practiced) became much less <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="salient" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salient" data-type="MW">salient</a> in the course of the 20th century, the elders in charge of Japanese <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sumo-sport" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">sumo</a> added a number of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shinto" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Shintō</a> elements to the rituals of their sport to underscore their claim that it is a unique expression of Japanese tradition. A somewhat arbitrary distinction can be made between wrestling and the many forms of unarmed hand-to-hand combat categorized as martial arts. The emphasis of the latter is military rather than religious, instrumental rather than expressive. Chinese <em>wushu</em> (“military skill”), which included armed as well as unarmed combat, was highly developed by the 3rd century <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>. Its unarmed techniques were especially prized within Chinese culture and were an important influence on the martial arts of Korea, Japan, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Southeast-Asia" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Southeast Asia</a>. Much less well known in the West are <em>varma adi</em> (“hitting the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="vital" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vital" data-type="EB">vital</a> spots”) and other martial arts traditions of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Asia" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">South Asia</a>. In the early modern era, as unarmed combat became obsolete, the emphasis of Asian martial arts tended to shift back toward religion. This shift can often be seen in the language of sports. Japanese <em>kenjutsu</em> (“techniques of the sword”) became <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/kendo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>kendō</em></a> (“the way of the sword”).</p><span class="marker MOD14 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD15 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Of the armed (as opposed to unarmed) martial arts, archery was among the most important in the lives of Asian warriors from the Arabian to the Korean peninsulas. Notably, the Japanese <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/samurai" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">samurai</a> practiced many forms of archery, the most colourful of which was probably <em>yabusame</em>, whose <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="mounted" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/mounted" data-type="EB">mounted</a> contestants drew their bows and loosed their arrows while galloping down a straight track some 720 to 885 feet (220 to 270 metres) long. They were required to shoot in quick succession at three small targets—each about 9 square inches (55 square cm) placed on 3-foot- (0.9-metre-) high poles 23 to 36 feet (7 to 11 metres) from the track and spaced at intervals of 235 to 295 feet (71.5 to 90 metres). In <em>yabusame</em>, accuracy was paramount.</p><span class="marker MOD15 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD16 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In Turkey, where the composite (wood plus horn) bow was an instrument of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/great-power" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">great power</a>, archers competed for distance. At Istanbul’s Okmeydanı (“Arrow Field”), the record was set in 1798 when <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Selim-III" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Selim III</a>’s arrow flew more than 2,900 feet (884 metres).</p><span class="marker MOD16 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD17 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">As can be seen in Mughal art of the 16th and 17th centuries, aristocratic Indians—like their counterparts throughout Asia—used their bows and arrows for hunting as well as for archery contests. Mounted hunters demonstrated <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="equestrian" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/equestrian" data-type="EB">equestrian</a> as well as toxophilite skills. The Asian aristocrat’s passion for horses, which can be traced as far back as Hittite times, if not earlier, led not only to horse races (universal throughout Asia) but also to the development of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/polo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">polo</a> and a host of similar equestrian contests. These equestrian games may in fact be the most distinctive Asian contribution to the repertory of modern sports.</p><span class="marker MOD17 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD18 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In all probability, polo evolved from a far rougher game played by the nomads of Afghanistan and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Asia" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Central Asia</a>. In the form that survived into the 21st century, Afghan <em>buzkashi</em> is characterized by a dusty <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/melee-sport" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">melee</a> in which hundreds of mounted tribesmen fought over the headless <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="carcass" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/carcass" data-type="EB">carcass</a> of a goat. The winner was the hardy rider who managed to grab the animal by the leg and drag it clear of the pack. Since <em>buzkashi</em> was clearly an inappropriate passion for a civilized monarch, polo filled the bill. Persian manuscripts from the 6th century refer to polo played during the reign of Hormuz I (271–273). The game was painted by miniaturists and celebrated by Persian poets such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdowsi" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Ferdowsī</a> (c. 935–c. 1020) and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hafez" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Ḥāfeẓ</a> (1325/26–1389/90). By 627 polo had spread throughout the Indian subcontinent and had reached China, where it became a passion among those wealthy enough to own horses. (All 16 emperors of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tang-dynasty" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Tang dynasty</a> [618–907] were polo players.) As with most sports, the vast majority of polo players were male, but the 12th-century Persian poet <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nezami" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Neẓāmī</a> <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="commemorated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commemorated" data-type="MW">commemorated</a> the skills of Princess Shīrīn. Moreover, if numerous terra-cotta figures can be trusted as evidence, polo was also played by aristocratic Chinese women.</p><span class="marker MOD18 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD19 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">There were also ball games for ordinary men and women. Played with carefully sewn stuffed skins, with animal bladders, or with found objects as simple as gourds, chunks of wood, or rounded stones, ball games are universal. Ball games of all sorts were quite popular among the Chinese. Descriptions of the game <em>cuju</em>, which resembled modern football (soccer), appeared as early as the Eastern <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Han-dynasty" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Han dynasty</a> (25–220). Games similar to modern <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/badminton" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">badminton</a> were also played in the 1st century. Finally, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ming-dynasty-Chinese-history" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Ming dynasty</a> (1368–1644) <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/scroll-painting" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">scroll painting</a> <em>Grove of Violets</em> depicts elegantly attired ladies playing <em>chuiwan</em>, a game similar to modern <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/golf-billiards" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">golf</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD19 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref253550"> <h2 class="h2">Sports of the ancient Mediterranean world</h2> <section data-level="3" id="ref253551"> <h2 class="h3"><span id="ref403564"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Egypt" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Egypt</a></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD20 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Sports were unquestionably common in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Egypt" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">ancient Egypt</a>, where pharaohs used their hunting <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="prowess" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/prowess" data-type="EB">prowess</a> and exhibitions of strength and skill in archery to demonstrate their fitness to rule. In such exhibitions, pharaohs such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amenhotep-II" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Amenhotep II</a> (ruled 1426–1400 <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>) never competed against anyone else, however, and there is reason to suspect that their extraordinary achievements were scribal fictions. Nonetheless, Egyptians with less claim to divinity wrestled, jumped, and engaged in ball games and stick fights. In paintings found at Beni Hassan, in a tomb dating from the Middle Kingdom (1938–c. 1630 <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>), there are studies of 406 pairs of wrestlers demonstrating their skill.</p><span class="marker MOD20 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="3" id="ref253552"> <h2 class="h3"><span id="ref403565"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Crete" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Crete</a> and <span id="ref403566"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Greece" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Greece</a></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD21 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Since Minoan script still baffles scholars, it is uncertain whether images of Cretan boys and girls testing their acrobatic skills against bulls depict sport, religious ritual, or both. That the feats of the Cretans may have been both sport and ritual is suggested by evidence from Greece, where sports had a cultural significance unequaled anywhere else before the rise of modern sports. <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Secular" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Secular" data-type="MW">Secular</a> and religious motives mingle in history’s first extensive “sports report,” found in Book XXIII of Homer’s <span id="ref403567"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iliad-epic-poem-by-Homer" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>Iliad</em></a> in the form of funeral games for the dead Patroclus. These games were part of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-religion" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Greek religion</a> and were not, therefore, autotelic; the contests in the <em><span id="ref403568"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Odyssey-epic-by-Homer" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Odyssey</a></em>, on the other hand, were essentially secular. Odysseus was challenged by the Phaeacians to demonstrate his prowess as an athlete. In general, Greek culture included both cultic sports, such as the Olympic Games honouring <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zeus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Zeus</a>, and secular contests.</p><span class="marker MOD21 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD22 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The most famous association of sports and religion was certainly the <span id="ref403569"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/Olympic-Games" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Olympic Games</a>, which Greek tradition dates from 776 <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>. In the course of time, the earth goddess Gaea, originally worshiped at <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Olympia-ancient-site-Greece" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Olympia</a>, was supplanted in importance by the sky god Zeus, in whose honour priestly officials conducted quadrennial athletic contests. Sacred games also were held at Delphi (in honour of Apollo), Corinth, and Nemea. These four events were known as the <em><span id="ref403570"></span>periodos</em>, and great athletes, such as Theagenes of Thasos, prided themselves on victories at all four sites. Although most of the events contested at Greek sacred games remain familiar, the most important competition was the chariot race. The extraordinary prestige accorded athletic triumphs brought with it not only literary <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="accolades" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accolades" data-type="MW">accolades</a> (as in the odes of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pindar" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Pindar</a>) and visual commemoration (in the form of statues of the victors) but also material benefits, contrary to the amateur <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="myth" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myth" data-type="MW">myth</a> <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="propagated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propagated" data-type="MW">propagated</a> by 19th-century philhellenists. Since the Greeks were devoted to secular sports as well as to sacred games, no polis, or city-state, was considered a proper <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="community" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community" data-type="MW">community</a> if it lacked a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/gymnasium-sports" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">gymnasium</a> where, as the word <em>gymnos</em> indicates, naked male athletes trained and competed. Except in militaristic Sparta, Greek women rarely participated in sports of any kind. They were excluded from the Olympic Games even as spectators (except for the priestess of Demeter). The 2nd-century-<span class="text-smallcaps">ce</span> traveler <span id="ref403571"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pausanias-Greek-geographer" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Pausanias</a> wrote of races for girls at Olympia, but these events in honour of Hera were of minor importance.</p><span class="marker MOD22 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="3" id="ref253553"> <h2 class="h3"><span id="ref403572"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Rome" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Rome</a></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD23 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Although <span id="ref403573"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/chariot-racing" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chariot races</a> were among the most popular sports spectacles of the Roman and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Byzantine" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Byzantine" data-type="MW">Byzantine</a> eras, as they had been in Greek times, the Romans of the republic and the early empire were quite selectively enthusiastic about Greek athletic contests. Emphasizing physical exercises for military preparedness, an important motive in all ancient civilizations, the Romans preferred boxing, wrestling, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/hurling" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">hurling</a> the javelin to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/running-athletics" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">running</a> footraces and throwing the discus. The historian Livy wrote of Greek athletes’ appearing in Rome as early as 186 <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>; however, the contestants’ nudity shocked Roman moralists. The emperor <span id="ref403574"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Augustus-Roman-emperor" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Augustus</a> instituted the <span id="ref403575"></span>Actian Games in 27 <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span> to celebrate his victory over Antony and Cleopatra, and several of his <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="successors" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/successors" data-type="EB">successors</a> began similar games, but it was not until the later empire, especially during the reign of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hadrian" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Hadrian</a> (117–138 <span class="text-smallcaps">ce</span>), that many of the Roman elite developed an enthusiasm for Greek athletics.</p><span class="marker MOD23 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD24 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="313878" data-asm-type="video"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="video" video-id="256638"><a data-id="256638" class="gtm-assembly-link d-flex justify-content-center" style="--aspect-ratio: 16/9" href="/video/What-was-a-gladiator/-313878"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/38/256638-138-FFB0A5AA/What-was-a-gladiator.jpg?w=800&h=450&c=crop" alt="The video thumbnail image shows an ancient drawing of a gladiator holding a shield and spear." loading="lazy"><script type="application/json"> { "sources": [ { "file" : "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/ikqPsNoL.m3u8" } ], "image": "https://cdn.britannica.com/38/256638-138-FFB0A5AA/What-was-a-gladiator.jpg" ,"tracks": [ { "file" : "//assets-jpcust.jwpsrv.com/tracks/V7UejumG.vtt", "label": "English" } ] ,"adfile": "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/kDUqhT2u.m3u8" } </script><div class="btn btn-xl btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow" style="top: 50%; transform: translateY(-50%)"><em class="material-icons" data-icon="play_arrow"></em></div></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><span class="md-assembly-title font-weight-bold mr-5 d-inline font-sans-serif md-video-caption" video-control="256638">The not-so-Hollywood history of the gladiator</span><span>What were Russell Crowe and Paul Mescal getting themselves into?</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div><a class="font-14 mt-10 d-inline-block" href="/sports/sports/images-videos">See all videos for this article</a></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Greater numbers flocked to the chariot races held in Rome’s <span id="ref403576"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Circus-Maximus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Circus Maximus</a>. They were watched by as many as 250,000 spectators, five times the number that crowded into the <span id="ref403577"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Colosseum" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Colosseum</a> to enjoy <span id="ref403578"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/gladiator" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">gladiatorial</a> combat. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that the latter contests were actually more popular than the former. Indeed, the <em><span id="ref403579"></span>munera</em>, which pitted man against man, and the <em><span id="ref403580"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/venationes" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">venationes</a></em>, which set men against animals, became popular even in the Greek-speaking Eastern Empire, which historians once thought immune from the lust for blood. The greater frequency of chariot races can be explained in part by the fact that they were relatively inexpensive compared with the enormous costs of gladiatorial combat. The <em>editor</em> who staged the games usually rented the gladiators from a <em>lanista</em> (the manager of a troupe of gladiators) and was required to reimburse him for losers executed in response to a “thumbs down” sign. Brutal as these combats were, many of the gladiators were free men who volunteered to fight, an obvious sign of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intrinsic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intrinsic" data-type="MW">intrinsic</a> motivation. Indeed, imperial edicts were needed to discourage the aristocracy’s participation. During the reign of Nero (54–68), female gladiators were introduced into the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/arena-amphitheater" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">arena</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD24 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD25 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The Roman <span id="ref403581"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/circus-racecourse" class="md-crosslink ">circus</a> and the Byzantine <span id="ref403582"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/hippodrome-architecture" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">hippodrome</a> continued to provide chariot racing long after Christian protests (and heavy economic costs) ended the gladiatorial games, probably early in the 5th century. In many ways the chariot races were quite modern. The charioteers were divided into bureaucratically organized factions (e.g., the “Blues” and the “Greens”), which excited the loyalties of fans from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Great-Britain-island-Europe" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Britain</a> to Mesopotamia. Charioteers boasted of the number of their victories as modern athletes brag about their “stats,” indicating, perhaps, some <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="incipient" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incipient" data-type="MW">incipient</a> awareness of what in modern times are called <span id="ref403583"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/sporting-record" class="md-crosslink ">sports records</a>. The gladiatorial games, however, like the Greek games before them, had a powerful religious dimension. The first Roman combats, in 264 <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>, were probably derived from Etruscan funeral games in which mortal combat provided companions for the deceased. It was the idolatry of the games, even more than their brutality, that horrified Christian protesters. The less-obtrusive pagan religious associations of the chariot races helped them survive for centuries after Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 337 <span class="text-smallcaps">ce</span>.</p><span class="marker MOD25 mod-inline"></span> </section> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref253554"> <h2 class="h2">Sports in the <span id="ref403584"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Middle-Ages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Middle Ages</a></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD26 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The sports of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="medieval" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medieval" data-type="MW">medieval</a> Europe were less well-organized than those of classical antiquity. Fairs and seasonal festivals were occasions for men to lift stones or sacks of grain and for women to run smock races (for a smock, not in one). The favourite sport of the peasantry was <span id="ref403585"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/folk-football" class="md-crosslink ">folk football</a>, a wild no-holds-barred unbounded game that pitted married men against bachelors or one village against another. The violence of the game, which survived in Britain and in France until the late 19th century, prompted Renaissance humanists, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Elyot" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sir Thomas Elyot</a>, to condemn it as more likely to maim than to benefit the participants.</p><span class="marker MOD26 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD27 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="nascent" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nascent" data-type="MW">nascent</a> <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="bourgeoisie" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bourgeoisie" data-type="MW">bourgeoisie</a> of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Middle-Ages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Middle Ages</a> and the Renaissance amused itself with <span id="ref403586"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/archery" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">archery</a> matches, some of which were arranged months in advance and staged with considerable fanfare. When town met town in a challenge of skill, the companies of crossbowmen and longbowmen marched behind the symbols of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-George" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">St. George</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Sebastian" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">St. Sebastian</a>, and other patrons of the sport. It was not unusual for contests in running, jumping, cudgeling, and wrestling to be offered for the lower classes who attended the match as spectators. Grand feasts were part of the program, and drunkenness commonly added to the revelry. In Germanic areas a <em>Pritschenkoenig</em> was supposed to simultaneously keep order and entertain the crowd with clever verses.</p><span class="marker MOD27 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD28 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies multiple medialist slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100" data-type="other"><div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex"><div class="rw-track d-flex align-items-center"><div class="position-relative rw-slide col-100 px-20 "><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="6169" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/95/10595-050-5231B111/Pairs-knights-woodcut.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/561041/6169"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/95/10595-050-5231B111/Pairs-knights-woodcut.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/95/10595-050-5231B111/Pairs-knights-woodcut.jpg?w=300" alt="knights jousting" data-width="1205" data-height="693" loading="eager"></picture><div class="position-absolute top-10 left-10 assembly-slide-tag rounded-lg">1 of 2</div><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/95/10595-050-5231B111/Pairs-knights-woodcut.jpg" data-href="/media/1/561041/6169">knights jousting</a><span>Pairs of mounted knights jousting simultaneously; woodcut, 1565.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div><div class="position-relative rw-slide col-100 px-20 "><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="219668" data-asm-type="video"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="video" video-id="193338"><a data-id="193338" class="gtm-assembly-link d-flex justify-content-center" style="--aspect-ratio: 16/9" href="/video/sport-jousting/-219668"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/38/193338-138-971B7D70/sport-jousting.jpg?w=800&h=450&c=crop" alt="Learn about the history of the medieval sport of jousting" loading="lazy"><script type="application/json"> { "sources": [ { "file" : "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/6jHs1vUv.m3u8" } ], "image": "https://cdn.britannica.com/38/193338-138-971B7D70/sport-jousting.jpg" ,"tracks": [ { "file" : "//assets-jpcust.jwpsrv.com/tracks/8SdM8BeB", "label": "English" } ] ,"adfile": "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/N0L2AgJo.m3u8" } </script><div class="btn btn-xl btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow" style="top: 50%; transform: translateY(-50%)"><em class="material-icons" data-icon="play_arrow"></em></div><div class="position-absolute top-10 left-10 assembly-slide-tag rounded-lg">2 of 2</div></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><span class="md-assembly-title font-weight-bold mr-5 d-inline font-sans-serif md-video-caption" video-control="193338">Learn about the history of the medieval sport of jousting</span><span>Reviving the medieval sport of jousting.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div><a class="font-14 mt-10 d-inline-block" href="/sports/sports/images-videos">See all videos for this article</a></figcaption></figure></div></div></div><button disabled="true" class="prev-button js-prev-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-lg btn-blue-dark m-20"><span class="material-icons" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_left"></span></button><button disabled="true" class="next-button js-next-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-lg btn-blue-dark m-20"><span class="material-icons" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></span></button></div><p class="topic-paragraph">The burghers of medieval towns were welcome to watch the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="aristocracy" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aristocracy" data-type="MW">aristocracy</a> at play, but they were not allowed to participate in <span id="ref403587"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/tournament-medieval-military-games" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tournaments</a> or even, in most parts of Europe, to compete in imitative tournaments of their own. Tournaments were the jealously guarded <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="prerogative" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prerogative" data-type="MW">prerogative</a> of the medieval <span id="ref403588"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/knight-cavalryman" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">knight</a> and were, along with hunting and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/falconry" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">hawking</a>, his favourite pastime. At the <span id="ref403589"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/tilting" class="md-crosslink ">tilt</a>, in which mounted knights with lances tried to unhorse one another, the knight was practicing the art of war, his raison d’être. He displayed his prowess before lords, ladies, and commoners and profited not only from valuable prizes but also from ransoms exacted from the losers. Between the 12th and the 16th century, the dangerously wild free-for-all of the early <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/tournament-medieval-military-games" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">tournament</a> evolved into dramatic presentations of courtly life in which elaborate pageantry and allegorical display quite overshadowed the frequently inept <span id="ref403590"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/joust" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">jousting</a>. Some danger remained even amid the display. At one of the last great tournaments, in 1559, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-II-king-of-France" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Henry II</a> of France was mortally <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="wounded" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/wounded" data-type="EB">wounded</a> by a splintered lance.</p><span class="marker MOD28 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD29 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Peasant women participated freely in the ball games and footraces of medieval times, and aristocratic ladies hunted and kept falcons, but middle-class women contented themselves with spectatorship. Even so, they were more active than their contemporaries in Heian Japan during the 8th to 12th centuries. Encumbered by many-layered robes and sequestered in their homes, the Japanese ladies were unable to do more than peep from behind their screens at the courtiers’ mounted archery contests.</p><span class="marker MOD29 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref253555"> <h2 class="h2">Sports in the <span id="ref403591"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Renaissance" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Renaissance</a> and modern periods</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD30 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">By the time of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Renaissance" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Renaissance</a>, sports had become entirely secular, but in the minds of the 17th-century Czech educator <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Amos-Comenius" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Amos Comenius</a> and other humanists, a concern for physical education on what were thought to be classic models overshadowed the competitive aspects of sports. Indeed, 15th- and 16th-century elites preferred dances to sports and delighted in geometric patterns of movement. Influenced by the ballet, which developed in France during this period, choreographers trained horses to perform graceful movements rather than to win races. French and Italian fencers such as the famed <span id="ref403592"></span>Girard Thibault, whose <em>L’Académie de l’espée</em> (“Fencing Academy”) appeared in 1628, thought of their activity more as an art form than as a combat. Northern Europeans emulated them. Humanistically inclined Englishmen and Germans admired the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cultivated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cultivated" data-type="MW">cultivated</a> Florentine game of <em><span id="ref403593"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/calcio" class="md-crosslink ">calcio</a></em>, a form of football that stressed the good looks and elegant attire of the players. Within the world of sports, the emphasis on <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="aesthetics" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aesthetics" data-type="MW">aesthetics</a>, rather than achievement, was never stronger.</p><span class="marker MOD30 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD31 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">While the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="aesthetic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aesthetic" data-type="MW">aesthetic</a> element survives in sports such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/figure-skating" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">figure skating</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/diving" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">diving</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/gymnastics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">gymnastics</a>, the modern emphasis is generally on quantified achievement. In fact, the transition from Renaissance to modern sports can be seen in a semantic shift; the word <em>measure</em>, which once connoted a sense of balance and proportion, began to refer almost exclusively to numerical measurements.</p><span class="marker MOD31 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD32 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Behind this epochal transition from Renaissance to modern sports lay the scientific developments that sustained the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Industrial-Revolution" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Industrial Revolution</a>. Technicians sought to perfect equipment. Athletes trained systematically to achieve their physical maximum. New games, such as basketball, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/volleyball" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">volleyball</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/team-handball" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">team handball</a>, were consciously invented to specifications as if they were new products for the market. As early as the late 17th century, quantification became an important aspect of sports, and the cultural basis was created for the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="concept" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/concept" data-type="EB">concept</a> of the sports record. The word <em>record</em>, in the sense of an unsurpassed quantified achievement, appeared, first in English and then in other languages, late in the 19th century, but the concept went back nearly 200 years.</p><span class="marker MOD32 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD33 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The development of modern sports having begun in late 17th-century England, it was appropriate that the concept of the sports record also first appeared there. During the Restoration and throughout the 18th century, traditional pastimes such as <span id="ref403594"></span>stick fighting and <span id="ref403595"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/bearbaiting" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">bullbaiting</a>, which the Puritans had condemned and driven underground, gave way to organized games such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/cricket-sport" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">cricket</a>, which developed under the leadership of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Marylebone-Cricket-Club" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Marylebone Cricket Club</a> (founded 1787). Behind these changes lay a new conception of rationalized competition. Contests that seem odd to the modern mind, such as those in which the physically impaired were matched against children, were replaced by <span id="ref403596"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/horse-racing" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">horse races</a> in which fleeter steeds were <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/disability" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">handicapped</a>, a notion of equality that led eventually to age and weight classes (though not to height classes) in many modern sports. Although the traditional sport of <span id="ref403597"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/boxing" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">boxing</a> flourished throughout the 18th century, it was not until 1743 that boxer-entrepreneur <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-Broughton" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jack Broughton</a> formulated rules to rationalize and regulate the sport. The minimal controls on <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="mayhem" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mayhem" data-type="MW">mayhem</a> imposed by Broughton were strengthened in 1867 by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/Marquess-of-Queensberry-rules" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">marquess of Queensberry</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD33 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD34 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the course of the 19th century, modern forms of British sports spread from the privileged classes to the common people. National organizations developed to standardize rules and regulations, to transform sporadic challenge matches into systematic league competition, to certify eligibility, and to register results.</p><span class="marker MOD34 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD35 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/rowing-boat-propulsion-and-sport" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Rowing</a> (crew), one of the first sports to assume its modern form, began to attract a following after the first boat race between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge (1829) and the inauguration of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/Henley-Royal-Regatta" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Henley Regatta</a> (1839). “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/athletics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Athletics</a>” became popular after Oxford and Cambridge held their first track-and-field meet in 1864. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amateur-Athletic-Association" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Amateur Athletic Association</a>, which emphasized track-and-field sports, was founded in 1880, the Amateur Rowing Association in 1882.</p><span class="marker MOD35 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD36 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Neither sport enjoyed the popularity of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/football-soccer" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">association football</a>. The various versions of football played at elite schools such as Eton, Winchester, and Charterhouse were codified in the 1840s, and England’s Football Association was formed in 1863 to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="propagate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propagate" data-type="MW">propagate</a> what came to be known as “association football” (or simply “soccer”). The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rugby-Football-Union" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Rugby Football Union</a> followed in 1871. Although the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Football-Association" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Football Association</a> and most of its <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="affiliated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affiliated" data-type="MW">affiliated</a> clubs were initially dominated by the middle and upper classes, soccer had definitely become “the people’s game” by the end of the century. For instance, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manchester-United" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Manchester United</a>, one of Britain’s most storied teams, can trace its history to a club established by the city’s railroad workers in 1880.</p><span class="marker MOD36 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD37 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The entry of working-class athletes into soccer and other sports, as participants if not as administrators, inspired Britain’s middle and upper classes to formulate the amateur rule, which originally excluded not only anyone paid for athletic performances but also anyone who earned his living by manual labour of any sort.</p><span class="marker MOD37 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref253556"> <h2 class="h2">Globalization</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD38 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">From the British Isles, modern sports (and the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="amateur" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/amateur" data-type="EB">amateur</a> rule) were diffused throughout the world. Sports that originally began elsewhere, such as tennis (which comes from Renaissance France), were modernized and exported as if they too were raw materials imported for British industry to transform and then export as finished goods.</p><span class="marker MOD38 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD39 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the 18th and 19th centuries, the British expelled the French from Canada and from India and extended British rule over much of Africa. To the ends of the earth, cricket followed the Union Jack, which explains the game’s current popularity in Australia, South Asia, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/West-Indies-island-group-Atlantic-Ocean" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">West Indies</a>. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/rugby" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Rugby</a> football flourishes in other postcolonial cultures, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/New-Zealand" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">New Zealand</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">South Africa</a>, where the British once ruled. It was, however, association football’s destiny to become the world’s most widely played modern sport.</p><span class="marker MOD39 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD40 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Cricket and rugby seemed to require British rule in order to take root. Football needed only the presence of British economic and cultural influence. In Buenos Aires, for instance, British residents founded clubs for cricket and a dozen other sports, but it was the Buenos Aires Football Club, founded June 20, 1867, that kindled Argentine passions. In almost every instance, the first to adopt football were the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cosmopolitan" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cosmopolitan" data-type="MW">cosmopolitan</a> sons of local elites, many of whom had been sent to British schools by their Anglophile parents. Seeking status as well as diversion, middle-class employees of British firms followed the upper-class lead. From the gamut of games played by the upper and middle classes, the industrial workers of Europe and Latin <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">America</a>, like the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="indigenous" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indigenous" data-type="MW">indigenous</a> population of Africa, appropriated football as their own.</p><span class="marker MOD40 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD41 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="70832" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/52/70752-050-7E6F8584/baseball-game-Hoboken-Elysian-Fields-New-Jersey-1859.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/561041/70832"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/52/70752-050-7E6F8584/baseball-game-Hoboken-Elysian-Fields-New-Jersey-1859.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/52/70752-050-7E6F8584/baseball-game-Hoboken-Elysian-Fields-New-Jersey-1859.jpg?w=300" alt="early baseball game" data-width="1600" data-height="516" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/52/70752-050-7E6F8584/baseball-game-Hoboken-Elysian-Fields-New-Jersey-1859.jpg" data-href="/media/1/561041/70832">early baseball game</a><span>An early baseball game at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1859; engraving from <em>Harper's</em> magazine.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">By the late 19th century, the United States had begun to rival Great Britain as an industrial power and as an inventor of modern sports. Enthusiasts of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/baseball" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">baseball</a> denied its origins in British children’s games such as cat and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/rounders" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rounders</a> and concocted the myth of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abner-Doubleday" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Abner Doubleday</a>, who allegedly invented the game in 1839 in Cooperstown, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/New-York-state" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">New York</a>. A more plausible date for the transformation of cat and rounders into baseball is 1845, when a New York bank clerk named Alexander Cartwright formulated the rules of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. Even before the Civil War, the game had been taken over by urban workers such as the volunteer firemen who organized the New York Mutuals in 1857. By the time the National League was created in 1876, the game had spread from coast to coast. (It was not until the 1950s, however, that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Major-League-Baseball" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Major League Baseball</a> planted its first franchises on the West Coast.)</p><span class="marker MOD41 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD42 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/basketball" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Basketball</a>, invented in 1891 by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Naismith" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">James Naismith</a>, and volleyball, invented four years later by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Morgan-Welsh-bishop" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">William Morgan</a>, are both quintessentially modern sports. Both were scientifically designed to fulfill a perceived need for indoor games during harsh <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/New-England" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">New England</a> winters.</p><span class="marker MOD42 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD43 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Football (soccer) is the world’s most popular ball game, but, wherever American economic and culture influence has been dominant, the attraction to baseball, basketball, and volleyball has tended to exceed that to football. Baseball, for example, boomed in Cuba, where Nemesio Guilló introduced the game to his countrymen in 1863, and in Japan, where Horace Wilson, an American educator, taught it to his Japanese students in 1873. Since basketball and volleyball were both invented under the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="auspices" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/auspices" data-type="MW">auspices</a> of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/YMCA" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">YMCA</a> (Young Men’s Christian Association), it seemed reasonable for YMCA workers to take the games to China, Japan, and the Philippines, where the games took root early in the 20th century. It was, however, only in the post-World War II world that U.S. influence generally overwhelmed British; only then did basketball and volleyball become globally popular.</p><span class="marker MOD43 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD44 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/American-football" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">American football</a>, which now enjoys enclaves of enthusiasm in Great Britain and on the European continent, traces its origins to 1874, when a rugby team from Montreal’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/McGill-University" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">McGill University</a> traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to challenge a team of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Harvard-University" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Harvard University</a> students. Adopted by American students, rugby evolved into <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/American-football" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">gridiron football</a>, and in that form it became the leading intercollegiate game. Although the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Football-League" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">National Football League</a> was established in 1920 (at $100 a franchise), the professional game was a relatively minor affair until after <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">World War II</a>, when football joined baseball and basketball to form the “trinity” of American sports. (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/ice-hockey" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Ice hockey</a>, imported from Canada, runs a poor fourth in the race for fans of team sports.)</p><span class="marker MOD44 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD45 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the dramatic global <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="diffusion" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diffusion" data-type="MW">diffusion</a> of modern sports, the French have also played a significant role. They left it to an Englishman, Walter Wingfield, to modernize the game of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/tennis" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tennis</a>, which originated in Renaissance France, but the French took the lead, early in the 19th century, in the development of the bicycle and in the popularization of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/cycling" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">cycling</a> races. The first Paris–Rouen race took place in 1869; the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/Tour-de-France" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Tour de France</a> was inaugurated in 1903. The huge success of the latter inspired the Giro d’Italia (1909) and a number of other long-distance races.</p><span class="marker MOD45 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD46 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The French also left their mark on sports in another way. In 1894, at a conference held at the Sorbonne in Paris, Pierre de Coubertin selected the first members of a Comité International Olympique (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/International-Olympic-Committee" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">International Olympic Committee</a>; IOC) and arranged for the first Olympic Games of the modern era to be held in Athens in 1896. In 1904 Robert Guérin led a group of football (soccer) enthusiasts in forming the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Federation-Internationale-de-Football-Association" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Fédération Internationale de Football Association</a> (FIFA), which England’s insular Football Association was at first too <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="arrogant" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arrogant" data-type="MW">arrogant</a> to join. The English name of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (1912; since 2001 known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/World-Athletics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">International Association of Athletics Federations</a>; IAAF) suggests that the British were more cooperative in track-and-field sports than in football, but the IAAF’s founder was a Swedish industrialist, Sigfrid Edström.</p><span class="marker MOD46 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD47 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Japan, one of the few non-Western nations where traditional sports still rival modern ones in popularity, is also one of the few non-Western nations to contribute significantly to the repertory of modern sports. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/judo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Judo</a>, invented in 1882 by Kanō Jigorō in an effort to combine Western and Asian traditions, attracted European adherents early in the 20th century. In 1964 judo became an Olympic sport.</p><span class="marker MOD47 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD48 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">From 1952, when the <span id="ref403613"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Soviet-Union" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Soviet Union</a> emerged from its self-imposed sports isolation, to 1991, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="ceased" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/ceased" data-type="EB">ceased</a> to exist, the <span id="ref403599"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Marxism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">communist</a> societies of eastern Europe dominated the Olympic Games. In 1988, for instance, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/East-Germany" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">German Democratic Republic</a> (East Germany), with a population of some 16 million, outscored the United States, 15 times its size. While anabolic steroids and other banned substances contributed to the East Germans’ triumph, credit must also be given to their relentless application of scientific methods in the search for the ultimate sports performance. The collapse of communism undermined state-sponsored elite sports in eastern Europe, but not before the nations of western Europe had begun to emulate their athletic adversaries by sponsoring scientific research, subsidizing elite athletes, and constructing <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="vast" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vast" data-type="EB">vast</a> training centres.</p><span class="marker MOD48 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD49 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the 20th century, sports underwent social as well as spatial diffusion. After a long and frequently bitter struggle, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-American" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">African Americans</a>, Australian Aboriginal people, “Cape Coloureds” (in South Africa), and other excluded racial and ethnic groups won the right to participate in sports. After a long and somewhat less-bitter struggle, women also won the right to compete in sports—such as rugby—that had been considered quintessentially masculine.</p><span class="marker MOD49 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD50 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">While the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/British-Isles" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">British Isles</a> may be considered the homeland of modern sports, modern <span id="ref403601"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/physical-education" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">physical education</a> can be traced back to German and Scandinavian developments of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Men such as <span id="ref403603"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Christoph-Friedrich-Guts-Muths" class="md-crosslink ">Johann Christoph Friedrich Guts Muths</a> in <span id="ref403602"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Germany</a> and <span id="ref403604"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Per-Henrik-Ling" class="md-crosslink ">Per Henrik Ling</a> in Sweden elaborated systems of gymnastic <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/exercise-physical-fitness" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">exercise</a> that were eventually adopted by school systems in Britain, the United States, and Japan. These noncompetitive <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="alternatives" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alternatives" data-type="MW">alternatives</a> to modern sports also flourished in eastern Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among repressed ethnic peoples such as the Poles and Czechs, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/gymnastics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">gymnastics</a> became almost a way of life. For them, gymnastic festivals were grand occasions at which tens of thousands of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="disciplined" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disciplined" data-type="MW">disciplined</a> men and women demonstrated nationalistic fervour.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD50 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD51 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Gymnastic fervour was not, however, much in evidence among the world’s schoolchildren and college students as they encountered gymnastics in required physical-education classes. Calisthenic exercises designed to improve health and fitness were dull and dreary compared with the excitement of modern sports. Long before the end of the 20th century, even German educators had abandoned <em>Leibeserziehung</em> (“physical education”) in favour of <em>Sportunterricht</em> (“instruction in sports”). For young and for old, for better and for worse, sports are the world’s passion.</p><span class="marker MOD51 mod-inline"></span> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Allen-Guttmann/3387">Allen Guttmann</a></span> </section> </section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":4,"pageId":561041,"pageLength":6021,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

CINXE.COM

Sports | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts | Britannica