Sport

A sport is an activity that involves skill and physical exertion and that is governed by a generally accepted set of rules and guidelines. In most sports, there are competitions (games, races, and judged competitions such as gymnastics), with clear winners and losers as defined by the rules that govern the sports. For many people, competition, and a wish to develop and display one's skill and proficiency, are strong motives for engaging in sports. But many sports, such as running, swimming, and weightlifting, are often done non-competitively, merely to get exercise or for personal enjoyment.

As well as serving as a form of recreation for those engaged in the activity, sports are often a form of entertainment for far more spectators than participants, often run and promoted as a business. In professional sports leagues or associations, members of official teams or clubs are paid for their participation. Spectators, in turn, pay for admission to view the event at an arena, stadium, or other such venue, as well as broadcasting the event on television or radio often with commentary. Also, further revenues are generated through advertising and sponsorship of different aspects of the game: individual players, teams, competitions, and equipment. The Super Bowl in American football is a prime example: sponsorship of a thirty-second advertising slot during the game costs $2.6 million. There is also a phenomenon known as sports entertainment, such as professional wrestling, where the practices of sport are used to produce an entertaining show.

Types of sports

A sport may be either individual (as in running), group (e.g., two players may form a doubles team in tennis) or team (e.g., football). Individual sports, such as running and swimming, may feature teams, as at track meets, and team members may root for each other, but individuals do not directly help each others' individual scores, and the team scores are determined by individual performance. Group and team sports are very different in this regard: one player can directly help other player's ability to score, and so it is fully meaningful to speak only of the score that the entire team received.

Sports can also be divided into ball sports, races, fights, and demonstrations of skill. A great many sports, and most popular most spectator sports, are played with balls or ball-like objects: not just football in all varieties, but also baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, and hockey. These sports usually involve getting a ball through a relatively small target such as goal or hoop (an exception: baseball), and almost all are team sports (an exception: golf). Races include track and field events such as the 100-meter dash, long-distance running, swimming, cycling, and rowing. These sports usually involve moving a person (as in the marathon), or an object in which people are moving (as in luge), from a start line to a finish line, and the winner is determined by the fastest time. Fighting sports include boxing, martial arts such as karate, and wrestling, and are typically scored or based on how many "takedowns" a person scores. The best-known and most-watched demonstrations of skill and strength include figure skating, gymnastics, and weightlifting, but also include such diverse sports as surfing and rock climbing.

Games that do not require physical exertion are not usually referred to as sports. Chess and similar games of strategy sometimes are, and are reported on in Sports sections of newspapers. This is probably due to the fact that, insofar as they are interesting public competitions, they resemble the sports that are reported on in newspapers. Whether chess really ought to be called a sport is a matter about which intelligent people are capable of debating at great length.

A rather new kind of sport involves video games in single player mode, such as Dance Dance Revolution (a kind of game in which the player steps on an electronic carpet input device rhythmically) or multiplayer (computer) mode, such as StarCraft which is a very popular in South Korea competitions of which even show on their TV networks. The Wii gaming platform also involves some physical exertion.

Equipment and clothing

While many sports can be performed at an amateur level without specialist equipment, professional athletes often require rather extensive amounts of specialist equipment and clothing, and a great deal of research is conducted on how such equipment can improve performance, often by creating ever more technologically-advanced materials to make the equipment lighter or more resilient, and to make clothing that reduces friction or drag (for swimming, running, skiing or many other sports) or increase grip (as with running footwear). Much of this equipment is expensive, and athletes are often sponsored by sports equipment manufacturers. For many athletes, the advances of science and technology are now a strong component in boosting their performance.

There have been some ethical concerns with the use of technology in sports, but most athletes and sports organizations have decided that sports equipment and clothing are acceptable means of improving performance, while performance enhancing drugs are not.

Sports and politics

In the twentieth century, much controversy surrounded athletes who used their position to advocate for political causes. Many black American athletes took a vital role in advocating for civil rights, and used their athletic ability to change people's attitudes. Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their gloved fists in a black power salute on the rostrum at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City was one example of this, as were the athletic careers of Jesse Owens and Mohammed Ali.

There has been a great deal of controversy in 2008 over the political reactions to the hosting of the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, with many people concerned about the human rights record of the Chinese government. During the torch-bearing ceremonies, numerous people attempted to extinguish while it passed through London and Paris. The British Olympic team were asked to sign a 'gag clause' that would prevent them from engaging in political speech during the Games, but they refused.