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SPORT
INFLUX
The changing face of sport …. What lies ahead?
T
he cave paintings at Lascaux, hieroglyphs and the earliest written records show that we have always had an interest in sport. Far from always being associated with leisure and entertainment, origins of many forms of sport, particularly athletics, can be traced back to military training and battlefield prowess. Despite this, there are recorded examples of sport for definite entertainment purposes since before 2000 BCE. Humans have always loved spectacle and watching people compete to be the best and proving their worth has been a pastime of our race for millennia. Some of the first sports, including running events and boxing, are still practiced today, whereas others have fallen by the wayside. But what makes a sport a sport? Ask any three people what constitutes a sport and you’ll likely get three different answers. Is it the opportunity to play as a professional (for money)? Is it the competition? Perhaps it’s the physical activity or mental exertion. The Council of Europe charter on sport uses the following definition: “Sport means all forms of physical activity, which through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels”. So, with this criteria, darts and snooker wouldn’t seem to fit the bill.
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The debate around darts has been prominent for over a decade, with discussions on whether to include it in the Olympics. In 2005, Sports England officially recognised it as a sport, however other bodies refuse to do the same. The Olympics committee have said it may be included in future. Yet if darts is accepted, why not other ‘games’? in 2015 the English Bridge Union went to the High court to challenge the failure of Sport England to recognise Bridge as a sport. This might seem absurd, but is there more physical activity in throwing a dart at a board, than shuffling and handling cards? Neither will make you more physically fit, although there is obviously more dexterity and physical skill in darts. Perhaps it’s time that the official definition of sport is given an overhaul? The debates around whether something is a sport or game will continue with the increased monetisation and exposure of traditional games. Poker is a card game, but the amount of prize money, skill and practice involved, leads many to consider it a sport. It is difficult to maintain the definition of ‘physical activity…. improving physical fitness’ for sport when rather sedate sports like angling are traditional holders of that definition. With this in mind, look at the very new contender – gaming. The first known video game competition took place at Stanford University in the US in 1972.
In 1980, 10,000 people attended the Atari Space Invaders Championship to watch gamers compete. In 2016, ESPN started investing in esports leagues and broadcasting competitions and the numbers of players and spectators continues to grow. The Call of Duty 2018 prize pool was $4.17M which was at the lower end of the scale. Fortnite had a prize pool of $19.96M and Dorta 2 for 2018 had a total pool of $41.26M. It seems that there is enough money to make gaming a profession, but what about the audience and competition? There were over 46 million people watching the finale of the 2017 World Championship in Poland, with over 173,000 attendees – more than many toptier sporting events. The competition is fierce, with college scholarship teams and amateur wizzes vying to become the next professional players. Practice hours of 10 – 14 hours a day are common, as are gaming related industries. Professionals also have a very short shelf-life as dexterity falls from mid-20s. Whether you consider gaming, darts and bridge a sport or not will vary depending on your own biases and experience, but you can’t argue with their increasing popularity. Long before ‘games’ were fighting to be recognised as sports, women were struggling to participate. Female sport has come a long way from the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 which women couldn’t compete, but in 1900 they were allowed to take part in lawn tennis, golf,
