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.

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 of the score that the entire team received.

There are games where a single player may play without another player. An example is Solitaire (American English) or Patience (British English) played with cards. Requiring mental rather than physical exertion, such games are not usually referred to as "sports," but chess and similar games of strategy often are. A solitary physical activity without competition, such as jogging, may be called exercise or recreation rather than a "sport." 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.

A great many sports are played with balls:

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 often athletes will be sponsored by sports equipment manufacturers. There have been some ethical concerns with the use of technology in sports, but for many athletes the advances of science and technology are now a strong component in boosting their performance.

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.