From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which also provides social actions.

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports (a common name for some card games and board games with little to no element of chance) and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors. Sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. Some view sports as differing from games based on the fact that there are usually higher levels of organization and profit (not always monetary) involved in sports. Accurate records are kept and updated for most sports at the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news.

Sports that are subjectively judged are distinct from other judged activities such as beauty pageants and bodybuilding shows, because in the former the activity performed is the primary focus of evaluation, rather than the physical attributes of the contestant as in the latter (although "presentation" or "presence" may also be judged in both activities).

Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay in good physical condition.

Although they do not always succeed, sports participants are expected to display good sportsmanship, standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and congratulating the winner when losing.

Etymology

"Sport" comes from the old French desport meaning "leisure."

History

Roman bronze reduction of Myron's Discobolos, 2nd century AD.

There are artifacts and structures that suggest that the Chinese engaged in sporting activities as early as 4000 BC.^[1] Gymnastics appears to have been a popular sport in China's ancient past. Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt.^[2] Other Egyptian sports included javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as the traditional Iranian martial art of Zourkhaneh had a close connection to the warfare skills.^[3] Among other sports that originate in Persia are polo and jousting.

A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia.^[4]

Sports have been increasingly organized and regulated from the time of the Ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialization has brought increased leisure time to the citizens of developed and developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans began following the exploits of professional athletes through radio, television, and the internet—all while enjoying the exercise and competition associated with amateur participation in sports.

In the new millennium, new sports have been going further from the physical aspect to the mental or psychological aspect of competing. Electronic sports organizations are becoming more and more popular.

Activities where the outcome is determined by judgement over execution are considered performances, or competition.

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.^[5][6]

Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake. The well-known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice, that it's “not that you won or lost but how you played the game," and the Modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing . . . is not winning but taking part" are typical expressions of this sentiment.

Violence in sports involves crossing the line between fair competition and intentional aggressive violence. Athletes, coaches, fans, and parents sometimes unleash violent behaviour on people or property, in misguided shows of loyalty, dominance, anger, or celebration. Rioting or hooliganism are common and ongoing problems at national and international sporting contests.

Professionalism

Modern sports have complex rules and are highly organized.

The entertainment aspect of sports, together with the spread of mass media and increased leisure time, has led to professionalism in sports. This has resulted in some conflict, where the paycheck can be seen as more important than recreational aspects, or where the sports are changed simply to make them more profitable and popular, thereby losing certain valued traditions.

The entertainment aspect also means that sportsmen and women are often elevated to celebrity status.

Politics

At times, sports and politics can have a large amount of influence on each other.

When apartheid was the official policy in South Africa, many sports people, particularly in rugby union, adopted the conscientious approach that they should not appear in competitive sports there. Some feel this was an effective contribution to the eventual demolition of the policy of apartheid, others feel that it may have prolonged and reinforced its worst effects.^[7]

The 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin was an illustration, perhaps best recognised in retrospect, where an ideology was developing which used the event to strengthen its spread through propaganda.

In modern sport motorization has appeared.

In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were connected with cultural nationalism. Until the mid 20th century a person could have been banned from playing Gaelic football, hurling, or other sports administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) if she/he played or supported soccer, or other games seen to be of British origin. Until recently the GAA continued to ban the playing of soccer and rugby union at Gaelic venues. This ban is still enforced, but has been modified to allow football and rugby be played in Croke Park while Lansdowne Road is being redeveloped. Until recently, under Rule 21, the GAA also banned members of the British security forces and members of the RUC from playing Gaelic games, but the advent of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the eventual removal of the ban.

Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sports, or in its reporting: people compete in national teams, or commentators and audiences can adopt a partisan view. On occasion, such tensions can lead to violent confrontation among players or spectators within and beyond the sporting venue (see Football War). These trends are seen by many as contrary to the fundamental ethos of sports being carried on for its own sake and for the enjoyment of its participants.

Physical art

Gymnastics

Sports have many affinities with art. Ice skating and Tai chi, and Dancesport for example, are sports that come close to artistic spectacles in themselves. Similarly, there are other activities that have elements of sport and art in their execution, such as artistic gymnastics, Bodybuilding, Parkour, performance art, Yoga, bossaball, dressage, culinary arts, etc. Perhaps the best example is Bull-fighting, which in Spain is reported in the arts pages of newspapers. The fact that art is so close to sports in some situations is probably related to the nature of sports. The definition of "sports" above put forward the idea of an activity pursued not just for the usual purposes, for example, running not simply to get places, but running for its own sake, running as well as we can.

This is similar to a common view of aesthetic value, which is seen as something over and above the strictly functional value coming from an object's normal use. So an aesthetically pleasing car is one which doesn't just get from A to B, but which impresses us with its grace, poise, and charisma.

In the same way, a sporting performance such as jumping doesn't just impress us as being an effective way to avoid obstacles or to get across streams. It impresses us because of the ability, skill, and style which is shown.

Boxing

Art and sports were probably more clearly linked at the time of Ancient Greece, when gymnastics and calisthenics invoked admiration and aesthetic appreciation for the physical build, prowess and 'arete' displayed by participants. The modern term 'art' as skill, is related to this ancient Greek term 'arete'. The closeness of art and sport in these times was revealed by the nature of the Olympic Games which, as we have seen, were celebrations of both sporting and artistic achievements, poetry, sculpture and architecture.

Technology

Golf, a dexterity sport.

Technology has an important role in sports, whether applied to an athlete's health, the athlete's technique, or equipment's characteristics.

Equipment As sports have grown more competitive, the need for better equipment has arose. Golf clubs, football helmets, baseball bats, soccer balls, hockey skates, and other equipment have all seen considerable changes when new technologies have been applied.

Health Ranging from nutrition to the treatment of injuries, as the knowledge of the human body has deepened over time, an athlete's potential has been increased. Athletes are now able to play to an older age, recover more quickly from injuries, and train more effectively than previous generations of athletes.

Instruction Advancing technology created new opportunities for research into sports. It is now possible to analyse aspects of sports that were previously out of the reach of comprehension. Being able to use motion capture to capture an athlete's movement, or advanced computer simulations to model physical scenarios has greatly increased an athlete's ability to understand what they are doing and how they can improve themselves.

Terminology

Show Jumping, an equestrian sport.

In British English, sporting activities are commonly denoted by the mass noun "sport". In American English, "sports" is more used. In all English dialects, "sports" is the term used for more than one specific sport. For example, "football and swimming are my favourite sports", would sound natural to all English speakers, whereas "I enjoy sport" would sound less natural than "I enjoy sports" to North Americans.

The term "sport" is sometimes extended to encompass all competitive activities, regardless of the level of physical activity. Both games of skill and motor sport exhibit many of the characteristics of physical sports, such as skill, sportsmanship, and at the highest levels, even professional sponsorship associated with physical sports. Air sports, billiards, bridge, chess, motorcycle racing, and powerboating are all recognized as sports by the International Olympic Committee with their world governing bodies represented in the Association of the IOC Recognised International Sports Federations.^[8]

Spectator sport

As well as being a form of recreation for the participants, much sport is played in front of an audience. Most professional sport is played in a 'theatre' of some kind; be it a stadium, arena, golf course, race track, or the open road, with provision for the (often paying) public.

Australian Rules Football

Large television or radio audiences are also commonly attracted, with rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the 'rights' to show certain fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 Final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million. In the United States, the championship game of the NFL, the Super Bowl, has become one of the most watched television broadcasts of the year. Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America; the viewership being so great that in 2007 advertising space was reported as being sold at $2.6m for a 30 second slot.

See also

Sports and games portal

• Outline of sports
• List of sportspeople
• List of sports attendance figures
• List of professional sports leagues
• Timeline of sports

Related topics

References

Further reading

• The Meaning of Sports by Michael Mandel (PublicAffairs, ISBN 1-58648-252-1).
• Journal of the Philosophy of Sport

Sport History  · Clubs  · Equipment  · Law · Medicine · Regulation  · Science List of sports  · Outline of sports Category · Portal

From Wikiquote

Sourced

• Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard for all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.
  • George Orwell, in Collected Essays.

• If all the year were playing holidays;
  to sport would be as tedious as work;
  • William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, Scene II

Unsourced

Golf

"As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round." - Ben Hogan

"The only thing a golfer needs is more daylight." - Ben Hogan

"Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots - but you have to play the ball where it lies." - Bobby Jones

"No one will ever have golf under his thumb. No round ever will be so good it could not have been better. Perhaps this is why golf is the greatest of games. You are not playing a human adversary; you are playing a game. You are playing old man par." Bobby Jones

"It's a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get." - Arnold Palmer

"Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening - and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented." - Arnold Palmer

"Professional golf is the only sport where, if you win 20 percent of the time, you're the best." - Jack Nicklaus

"It takes hundreds of good golf shots to gain confidence, but only one bad one to lose it." - Jack Nicklaus

"Forget your opponents; always play against par." - Sam Snead

"Never let up. The more you can win by, the more doubts you put in the other players' minds the next time out." - Sam Snead

Baseball

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Baseball. (Discuss)

MANAGERS

Walt Alston[1]

• "Look at misfortune the same way you look at success - Don't Panic! Do your best and forget the consequences."

Sparky Anderson[2]

• "Baseball is a simple game. If you have good players and if you keep them in the right frame of mind then the manager is a success."

• "He's (Jose Canseco[3]) built like a Greek goddess."

• "I can't believe they pay us to play baseball - something we did for free as kids."

• "I don't know why the players make such a big fuss about sitting in the first class section of the plane. Does that mean they'll get there faster?"

• "If a team is in a positive frame of mind, it will have a good attitude. If it has a good attitude, it will make a commitment to playing the game right. If it plays the game right, it will win—unless, of course, it doesn't have enough talent to win, and no manager can make goose-liver pate out of goose feathers, so why worry?"

• "If I ever find a pitcher who has heat, a good curve, and a slider, I might seriously consider marrying him, or at least proposing."

• "If I hear Bowie Kuhn[4] say just once more he's doing something for the betterment of baseball, I'm going to throw-up."

• "I only had a high school education and believe me, I had to cheat to get that."

• "Me carrying a briefcase is like a hotdog wearing earrings."

• "People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present. I've got my faults, but living in the past is not one of them. There's no future in it."

• "Players have two things to do. Play and keep their mouths shut."

• "Problem with (John) Wockenfuss[5] getting on base is that it takes three doubles to score him."

• "The only reason I'm coming out here tomorrow is the schedule says I have to."

• "You give us the pitching some of these clubs have and no one could touch us, but God has a way of not arranging that, because it's not as much fun."

Alvin Dark[6]

• "Any pitcher who throws at a batter and deliberately tries to hit him is a communist."

• "Every player should be accorded the privilege of at least one season with the Chicago Cubs[7]. That's baseball as it should be played - in God's own sunshine. And that's really living."

• "Friendships are forgotten when the game begins."

• "The Lord taught me to love everybody, but the last ones I learned to love were the sportswriters."

• "There are surprisingly few real students of the game in baseball; partly because everybody, my eighty-three year old grandmother included, thinks they learned all there was to know about it at puberty. Baseball is very beguiling that way."

Leo Durocher[8]

• "As long as I've got a chance to beat you I'm going to take it."

• "God watches over drunks and third baseman."

• "I don't care if the guy (Jackie Robinson[9]) is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a god-damn zebra. I'm the manager of this team and I say he plays."

• "If I were playing third base and my mother were rounding third with the run that was going to beat us, I'd trip her. Oh, I'd pick her up and brush her off and say, 'Sorry, Mom,' but nobody beats me."

• "If you don't win, you're going to be fired. If you do win, you've only put off the day you're going to be fired."

• "I made a game effort to argue but two things were against me: the umpires and the rules."

• "I never questioned the integrity of an umpire. Their eyesight, yes."

• "In the olden days, the umpire didn't have to take any courses in mind reading. The pitcher told you he was going to throw at you."

• "Luck? If the roof fell in and Diz (Dean)[10] was sitting in the middle of the room, everybody else would be buried and a gumdrop would fall in his mouth."

• "Show me a good loser in professional sports, and I'll show you an idiot."

• "What are we out at the park for, except to win?"

• "Win any way you can as long as you can get away with it."

• "You argue with the umpire because there is nothing else you can do about it."

• "You don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain."

Whitey Herzog[11]

• "Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it."

• "If you don't have outstanding relief pitching, you might as well piss on the fire and call the dogs."

• "I'm not buddy-buddy with the players. If they need a buddy, let them buy a dog."

• "The only thing bad about winning the pennant is that you have to manage the All-Star Game the next year. I'd rather go fishing for three days."

• "The only way to make money as a manager is to win in one place, get fired and hired somewhere else."

• "We need just two players to be a contender. Just Babe Ruth[12] and Sandy Koufax[13]."

• "We need three kinds of pitching: left handed, right handed, and relief."

Miller Huggins[14]

• "A good catcher is the quarterback, the carburetor, the lead dog, the pulse taker, the traffic cop and sometimes a lot of unprintable things, but no team gets very far without one."

• "A manager has his cards dealt to him and he must play them."

Tommy Lasorda[15]

• "About the only problem with success is that it does not teach you how to deal with failure."

• "All last year we tried to teach him (Fernando Valenzuela[16]) English, and the only word he learned was million."

• "Baseball is like driving, it's the one who gets home safely that counts."

• "Guys ask me, don't I get burned out? How can you get burned out doing something you love? I ask you, have you ever got tired of kissing a pretty girl?"

• "He (Darryl Strawberry[17]) is not a dog; a dog is loyal and runs after balls."

• "I love doubleheaders. That way I get to keep my uniform on longer."

• "I walk into the clubhouse and it's like walking into the Mayo Clinic. We have four doctors, three therapists and five trainers. Back when I broke in, we had one trainer who carried a bottle of rubbing alcohol and by the seventh inning he had drunk it all."

• "No, we don't cheat. And even if we did, I'd never tell you."

• "When we win, I'm so happy I eat a lot. When we lose, I'm so depressed, I eat a lot. When we're rained out, I'm so disappointed I eat a lot."

Connie Mack[18]

• "Any minute, any day, some players may break a long standing record. That's one of the fascinations about the game, the unexpected surprises."

• "Humanity is the keystone that holds nations and men together. When that collapses, the whole structure crumbles. This is as true of baseball teams as any other pursuit in life."

• "I guess more players lick themselves that are ever licked by an opposing team. The first thing any man has to know is how to handle himself."

• "No matter what I talk about, I always get back to baseball."

• "You can't win them all."

• "You're born with two strikes against you, so don't take a third one on your own."

Cycling

• Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
  • H. G. Wells

• It never gets easier; you just go faster.
  • Greg Lemond

• Strange people, bike riders. They imagine a racing bike is made for going quickly. They're wrong. A racing bike is made solely for winning races.
  • Jacques Anquetil

Football (American)

• "Playoffs? You want to talk about playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs. Are you kidding me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game...another game."
  • Jim Mora
• "You play to win the game!"
  • Herm Edwards
• "Where else would you rather be than right here right now?"
  • Marv Levy

Football (Soccer)

Managers/coaches

ARSENE WENGER 'Of the nine red cards this season we probably deserved half of them.'

'As long as no-one scored, it was always going to be close'

BOBBY GOULD 'We are really quite lucky this year because Christmas falls on Christmas Day'

BOBBY ROBSON 'In a year's time, he's a year older.'

'Eighteen months ago they (Sweden) were arguably one of the best three teams in Europe, and that would include Germany, Holland, Russia and anybody else if you like.'

"Look at those olive trees. They're two hundred years old - from before the time of Christ!"

"Andy O'Brien has an horrendous nose, the poor lad. It is massive, it is."

BRYAN ROBSON 'We're going to start the game at nil-nil and go out and try to get some goals.'

Chris Turner, Peterborough manager, before LC QF, 1992. "I've told the players we need to win so that I can have the cash to buy some new ones"

DAVID O'LEARY 'I was a young lad when I was growing up.'

GEORGE GRAHAM 'The one thing I didn't expect is the way we didn't play.'

GERARD HOULLIER 'Too many players were trying to score or create a goal.'

'You can't say my team aren't winners. They've proved that by finishing fourth, third and second in the last three years.'

GLEN HODDLE 'When a player gets to 30, so does his body.'

GRAEME SOUNESS 'Today's top players only want to play in London or for Manchester United. That's what happened when I tried to sign Alan Shearer and he went to Blackburn.'

GRAHAM TAYLOR 'It's a game we've got to win. It's also a game we've not got to lose.'

HOWARD WILKINS 'If they hadn't scored, we would've won'

HOWARD WILKINSON 'I'm a firm believer that if the other side scores first you have to score twice to win.' -

HARRY REDKNAPP 'Hartson's got more previous than Jack the Ripper.'

JACK CHARLTON 'If in winning we only draw we would be fine.'

'We probably got on better with the likes of Holland, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, some of whom are not even European.'

JOE ROYLE 'Our goalkeeper didn?t have a save to make in 90 minutes, and yet he still ended up conceding four goals'

JOHN LAMBIE, Partick Thistle manager, when told a concussed striker did not know who he was. "That's great, tell him he's Pele and get him back on."

JOHN TOSHACK 'Winning all the time is not necessarily good for the team.'

MALCOLM ALLISON 'A lot of hard work went into this defeat.'

RON GREENWOOD 'Playing with wingers is more effective against European sides like Brazil than English sides like Wales.'

TERRY VENABLES "The mere fact that he's injured stops him getting injured again, if you know what I mean' -

NY Cosmos executive, on Beckenbauer's positioning. "Tell the Kraut to get his ass up front. We don't pay a million for a guy to hang around in defence."

Players

DAVID BECKHAM "We want Brooklyn to be christened but we don't know into what religion yet."

"I always used to go for blond and quiet girls, but Victoria is the total opposite - dark and loud."

"Alex Ferguson is the best manager I've ever had at this level. Well, he's the only manager I've actually had at this level. But he's the best manager I've ever had."

"My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about 7."

Beckham's reply after being asked if he thought that he was a volatile player, "Well, I can play in the centre, on the right and occasionally on the left side."

IAN RUSH 'I couldn't settle in Italy - it was like living in a foreign country.'

MICHAEL OWEN 'I was alone up front, with Danny Murphy playing between me, myself and the midfield.'

NORMAN WHITESIDE "The only thing I have in common with George Best is that we come from the same place... play for the same club... and were discovered by the same man."

SANDER WESTERVELD "I dreamt of playing for a club like Manchester United, and now here I am at Liverpool.' -

THIERRY HENRY "Sometimes in football you have to score goals."

ALLEN IVERSON "I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we're talking about practice."

ROBERT "DANNY" BLANCHFLOWER "The point of football is to equalize before the other team scores."

LARRY JOHNSON "You play to win the game! That's right...You play to win the game.

Women

Mia Hamm, soccer

• “True champions aren't always the ones that win, but those with the most guts.”

Jackie Joyner Kersee, track & field

• “It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret”

Billie Jean King, tennis

• “A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.”

• “No one changes the world who isn't obsessed.”
  • San Francisco Chronicle (8 Aug 1978)

Martina Navratilova, tennis

• " Oh no E.M.P. I can't camp, i mean rush."
  • Torren Erut

• “Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people.”

• “Just go out there and do what you have to do.”

• “It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.”

Sheryl Swoopes, basketball

• “No matter how far life pushes you down, no matter how much you hurt, you can always bounce back.”

Babe Didrikson Zaharias, golf

• “Study the rules so that you won't beat yourself by not knowing something.”

• “You can't win them all -- but you can try.”

Miscellaneous

• "Win together today, and we walk together forever" ~ Fred Shero before the Philadelphia Flyers won their first cup - written on a board

• "Karate is a form of martial arts in which people who have had years and years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of the world." ~ Dave Barry

• "I know everything there is to know about hitting. I don't know anything there is to know about living." ~ Darryl Strawberry

• "Minimum effort, maximum efficiency" ~ Carlos Gracie Jr., referring to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Look up sports in Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From LoveToKnow 1911

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

German

German Wikipedia has an article on:

Sport

Wikipedia ^de

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʃpɔʁt/
•  Audio^{help, file}
•  Audio (AT)^{help, file}

Noun

Sport m.

1. sport (any athletic activity that uses physical skills)

From Wikia Gaming, your source for walkthroughs, games, guides, and more!

A big, general, genre for all sports games. Sports games are an interesting genre - they don't play the same at all. Even in their specific sub genres - Madden 2005 will not play anything like MLB 2K5. In other genres, this would not hold true. You'll find things in common in racing or fighting; Mario Kart and Gran Turismo share some gameplay elements, and Street Fighter and King of Fighters share much more.

But Sports games all play very differently. The only thing they all have in common is that they depict a sport being played. Gameplay, graphics, controls, will be different depending on the game. There are many different sub-genres in sports: Extreme sport (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2), Simulation sport (NHL 2005), Arcade sport (Mario Tennis) and Statistical sport (Baseball Mogul).

Examples of Sport Games

• Madden 2005
• NBA Street
• Super Mario Strikers
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
• Mario Tennis

This article is a stub. You can help by adding to it. Stubs are articles that writers have begun work on, but are not yet complete enough to be considered finished articles.