Sport, also known as sports, is all
forms of physical activity which,
through casual or organized participation, aim to use, maintain or improve
physical ability. Sport can be practiced for health, for leisure or competitively, in the latter case often with spectators.
Hundreds of sports exist, both from those requiring only two participants,
through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams
or competing as individuals.
Sport is generally recognized as
activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition,
and other organizations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities
without a physical element from classification as sports. However, a number of
competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognizes both chess
and bridge as bona fide
sports, and Sport Accord, the international sports
federation association, recognizes five non-physical sports, although limits
the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.
Sports are usually governed by a set
of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, and allow
consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can be determined by physical
events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first, or by the
determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance,
including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or
artistic impression.
In organized sport, records of
performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be
widely announced or reported in sport news. In addition, sport is a major source of
entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sports drawing large crowds to venues, and reaching
wider audiences through sports broadcasting.