7-3 History of sport: matching features

• Do you enjoy participating in sport? If so, what sport or sports?
• Why do you do sport? Why not?
• What skills can be gained by taking part in sport?
• Why do you think sport developed in the first place?

Apart from enjoyment, what other reasons for participating in sport are given in the passage?

History of sport

1. The development of sport throughout history can teach us a great deal about social change, and about the nature of sport itself. Sport seems to involve basic human skills being developed and exercised for their own sake, as well as for their usefulness. This suggests that sport is probably as old as the existence of people, and that it was a useful way of people increasing their mastery of the environment.

2. Of course, as we go further back in history, the lack of evidence makes this claim more difficult to support. However, there are many examples in France, Africa and Australia of prehistoric cave art - some of it over 30,000 years old. The existence of art is evidence of there being leisure time available. It is therefore possible that there was some activity at these times resembling sport.

3. When the British explorer Captain Cook first visited the Hawaiian Islands, in 1778, he reported that he saw the native people surfing. Likewise Native Americans played games and sport before the coming of Europeans, such as ball games, running, and other athletic activities. The ancient Mayan and Aztec civilisations played ball games on courts of a type that is still used today. It is reasonable to assume from these and other historical sources that sport dates back to the beginnings of mankind itself.

4. There is evidence that Chinese people engaged in activities which meet our definition of sport as early as 6,000 years ago. These activities seem to have developed as a form of entertainment, as well as serving a practical function in making people fit for work. In Ancient Egypt, too, sports such as swimming and fishing were well developed and regulated several thousand years ago. A wide range of sports were played in Ancient Greece, among them wrestling, running, discus throwing, and chariot racing. This suggests that the military culture of Greece was an influence on the development of its sports. It was the importance of sports that led to the development of the Olympic Games.

5. In the last two or three centuries, running and jumping, which were originally done for food and survival, have become activities done for pleasure or competition. The Industrial Revolution and mass production brought increased leisure in the 19th and particularly the 20th centuries. This led to a major growth in spectator sports, and made it possible for far more people to play and watch. Recently, there has been a move towards adventure and extreme sports as a form of escapism from the routines of life, examples being white-water rafting, canyoning and bungee jumping.