Michael Jordan - Bulls #1 ©Photofile |
Sports are recreational or competitive activities involving some amount of physical strength or skill. Throughout history, man has played games primarily as a means to meet socially with others, to display skills and physical prowess, and to entertain or offer excitement. At one time, sports were commonly considered to include only the outdoor recreational pastimes, such as fishing, shooting, and hunting, as opposed to games, which were regarded as organized athletic contests played by teams or individuals according to prescribed rules. The distinction between sports and games has blurred, and the two terms are now often used interchangeably.
Most games involve some form of running, throwing, and jumping, all of which developed from basic hunting skills. Many early cultures (e.g., the Aztec Indians and the ancient Greeks) incorporated religious and political elements into their games, but there was always a desire for recreational play that eventually inspired the codification of early games and the invention of new ones. The Olympic Games are an international sports festival that began in ancient Greece. There are records of the champions at Olympia from 776 BC to AD 217. The original Greek games were staged every fourth year for several hundred years, until they were abolished in AD 393 by the Roman emperor Theodosius I, probably because of their pagan associations. The revival of the Olympic Games took place in April 1896, with 13 nations sending nearly 300 representatives to take part in 42 events and 10 different sports. Since then they have been staged every fourth year, except during World War I and World War II (1916, 1940, 1944). The revival of the Olympic Games led to the formation of many international bodies controlling their own amateur sports and to the creation of National Olympic Committees in countries throughout the world. In modern times the simplest physical-skill games are such contests as races, archery, and darts. Most modern games, however, are combinations of physical skill and strategy -- most apparent in the many varieties of ball games. American football, for example, is possibly the most strategic of games involving physical skill, with its various complex plays and its control by coaches from the sidelines. | Team Sports
Individual Sports |
