5 minute read
Sport in Flux
The changing face of sport …. What lies ahead?
The cave paintings at Lascaux, hieroglyphs and the earliest written records show that we have always had an interest in sport.
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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.
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, croquet and mixed sailing teams. Since then more women’s events have been added, and in the 2012 Olympics, boxing added a female event – the last remaining sport to do so.
For brands and media, the rise of interest in women’s sports is an exciting place to look for revenue. According to Nielsen, 84% of general sports fans (in the UK, US, France, Germany, Spain, Australia and New Zealand) have an interest in women’s sports. Perhaps surprisingly there is an even split in interest; of those 84%, 51% are male and 49% female.
Equal pay (or at least increased pay) agreements mean that many women can now pursue their sporting passion professionally and increasing interest and audience numbers mean that there is a growth in investment.
There have been recent controversies, with Caster Semenya hitting headlines recently; not for her running ability, but her testosterone levels. This is a common issue with many intersex sportswomen and affects transgender athletes as well. The lines are not always clear. A transgender woman, scientist and marathon runner, Joanna Harper, has done research that suggests transitioned athletes do not have an advantage, at least when it comes to marathon running, rowing, cycling and sprinting. The research isn’t complete. Males develop stronger bones than women during puberty, which is not undone by transitioning, and bone strength is an advantage in sports like wrestling and weight lifting. But things are becoming clearer in this area. Joanna’s research has meant the IOC accepts transgender competitors; she does however feel that there should be an upper limit to the testosterone levels in the blood.
“If you’re competing in the women’s division, you should do so with women’s hormone levels,” says Harper. “I understand just how much difference they make.”
But what to do in cases of naturally high testosterone in women then? Caster Semenya reportedly has over three times the normal amount of testosterone in her blood than the ‘normal’ upper limit, but is this a natural advantage to be acclaimed, or an unfair benefit of being intersex? The IOC has made their position clear and placed limits on the amount of testosterone a woman can have in her blood while competing, which is yet to be appealed. So, what of other natural advantages, like height in basketball or Michael Phelps’ unique ability to produce half the lactic acid of his rivals? Why are some advantages applauded as natural advantage and others censured as unfair?
Another great milestone in sport in recent years is the increased participation and acceptance of differently abled people. Perhaps surprisingly, this isn’t a very recent development. Sports for athletes with impairments have existed for more than 100 years, and the London Olympic Games in 1948 had an organised competition for wheelchair athletes comprised of ex-service men and women. In 1960 these became the Paralympic Games, featuring 400 athletes from 23 countries and since then they have taken place every four years in line with the Olympics.
The rise in the popularity of sports for disabled athletes has continued unabated, and games are held across the world in nearly all sporting events. Some, like the IBSA (International Blind Sports Federation) and the Deaflympics are for those with specific disabilities, whereas others like the Paralympics and Special Olympic World Games are for athletes with any disability. However, this area of sports is struggling. The hope of a lasting legacy of the 2012 London Paralympic Games has not transpired with the amount of disabled people participating in sport or exercise dropping by 10% since the games were held. Barriers to participation are myriad, including accessibility of grounds and equipment, to staff training. With a report showing that 7/10 disabled people want to get more active, and Sport England investing £20.3M into recent programmes to encourage this, hopefully we will soon see a change for the better.
The majority of these changes have happened in the last 50 years, which is why so much is unsettled and why some sports are only just finding their audiences. With increased reach of social media bringing new fans and their money, it is clear that ‘sport’ as we know it will continue to change and develop. It’s exciting to think about what sport might become in another 50 years.
Laura Watkins
