Sport is an activity of people organized according to certain rules, which consists in comparing their physical and intellectual abilities. Sport is a competition according to certain rules, usually a specific type of physical or intellectual activity, which is carried out for the purpose of competition, as well as improving health, obtaining moral and material satisfaction, striving for improvement and fame, improving skills.
Sport, unlike physical culture or physical activity, involves participation in official competitions, for which the athlete can receive material rewards, titles, ranks, awards. In addition to the actual competitions, a component of sports is preparation for them – training. In this regard, sport is a subspecies of the broader concept of physical culture. Sports often serve as entertainment for spectators.
Sports are divided into amateur and professional. Professional sports are an important part of the entertainment industry. Major sports competitions are watched by thousands of spectators in the stands of stadiums and sports halls and millions of television viewers.
Competition
Not everyone agrees with the inclusion of the competition in the list of requirements defining the sport[7]. An alternative view is to recognize sports as anything that involves physical exercise. This opinion is held by the Council of Europe in particular. Then the definition of sport coincides with what is called physical education.
During competitions, their participants are assigned places, depending on the result. To balance the odds, participants are divided into groups based on ability (for example, by gender, weight, and age). Evaluation of results can be both objective and subjective. For example, in a race, the time taken by a participant to cover a distance is an objective assessment, while in a gymnastics or figure skating competition, the assessments are made by a jury of judges and are subjective. The subjective assessment of judges often determines the result in boxing and other types of martial arts.
A single competition in game sports is usually called a tournament. Tournaments consist of separate matches – matches in football or tennis, games in chess and go, etc. Individual tournaments are held from year to year and have a high international prestige – for example, the Wimbledon tournament in tennis or the Masters in golf. There are different tournament systems, such as round-robin, in which all participants meet each other once or twice, Olympic, that is, the system with elimination after the first loss, Swiss, with elimination after two losses, etc.
Competitions that determine the winner within the district, country, continent, world are called championships. They usually take place under the auspices of a certain sports federation. The winners of championships are called champions. In some sports, for example in football, in addition to the championships held according to the round-robin system, cups are played in parallel, according to the Olympic system.
In non-game sports, for example, athletics, skiing, biathlon, etc., separate competitions held throughout the year (season) are combined into general structures, usually called world cups or Grand Prix. In athletics, this role is performed by the Diamond League. The World Cup usually consists of separate stages in which athletes collect points, the sum of which determines the winner of the season.
In addition to competitions in individual sports, there are large international competitions in many sports at once, the most prestigious of which are the Olympic Games. This class of competitions also includes the Paralympic Games, their counterparts for individual continents or regions, for example, the European Games, the Mediterranean Games, the Pan American Games, etc. Non-Olympic sports organize the World Games.
Winners, runners-up and other participants in sports competitions are usually awarded with different trophies, according to the traditions of the sport. At the amateur level, these are usually diplomas and certificates certifying sports achievements, at the higher level, medals and cups are awarded. In the USA, the winners of many competitions receive special rings. Olympic champions are awarded a laurel wreath. In some sports, victory is marked with special items, for example, the winner of the Masters in golf receives a green jacket, which he has the right to wear for a year and then hand over to a museum. Professional athletes receive money for their participation in competitions, the amount of which is determined by the success of the performance.
Organization of sports
Sports are mostly organized according to the system of sports clubs, which provide services to professional athletes and amateurs, providing them with sports facilities, halls, equipment and coaches. In the USSR, sports clubs were united into sports associations, mostly on the trade union principle. This system has been preserved in Ukraine, although new forms of providing sports services to the population and organizing professional sports are emerging.
Sports clubs organize club competitions, and to conduct competitions between clubs, they unite in federations, associations, unions, etc. Such associations can be regional, national (within one country) and international. Usually, each sport has one legislative international organization that establishes the rules of the competition and the rules of the sport itself. Global competitions, such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games, are organized by the International Olympic Committee in cooperation with the federations of individual sports.
Sponsorship is important for the development of high-level sports. Famous athletes receive a large part of their income from advertising.