Sports are organized physical activities and competitions. These satisfy the human need for competition, physical exertion and play. In other words, all sports are potentially competitive.
This is the big difference between leisure, recreation or athletic events. Most people engage in some form of recreational sports; they may be involved in skiing, bowling, hiking, fishing, skating, hunting, bocce ball and so on. The vast majority of these people spend their weekends in a variety of recreational sports. But there are the athletes who participate regularly in a number of competitive sports such as football, rugby, hockey, American football, Australian football, motor racing, sprinting, cricket, tennis, polo, surfing, horse racing, motor racing, ice climbing, aerobics, surfing and cycling, just to name a few.
In the 20th century, the term sport was used increasingly to describe any activity that involved an act of sportsmanship, where the contest was won by means of skill, endurance or power. Sports competitions often require a lot of equipment and may last for many hours. The modern sport of cycling has evolved from this early roots. It has become widely popular as an individual sporting event, competitive race or even a means of transportation. Sport can refer to any type of competitive exercising.
A few of the most popular sports in the United Kingdom are golf, tennis, swimming, sailing, cricket and horse racing. Each of these has built-in professional governing bodies to ensure that the sport is maintained at the highest level. Cricket has developed its own national governing body, which oversees the game in a national sense.
Greece is one of the world’s main countries for sports, with a large number of athletes training in both the modern sports of basketball and soccer, as well as the ancient sports of wrestling, boxing and horse racing. Greece is also known as the land of modern sports, for the numerous technological advances it has made in sports communication and sports equipment over the past few decades. Modern Greek sport is recognized internationally, with numerous teams playing games in different countries and playing international tournaments. Some of the most well-known Greek athletes who have won Olympic medals include sprinters hurdlers Giorgos and runner Ion Tsakiris, tennis star Ekraios Papoulis and football player Vasilios Psaki.
Autotelic sports, also known as celestial sports, are also popular in Greece. Astounding accounts have been written about the physical contests held between the deities and stars from the heavens. Autotelic sports involve activities like wrestling, weightlifting, boxing, surfing, kite boarding, climbing and rowing. Historical references suggest that the first recorded athletic contest to be held between earthly beings and the gods took place when the heavenly bodies decided who would be the sky’s ruler. The winners were decided by celestial bodies from the sky, who were known as kyptonides.