What is a sport

A sport is a physical activity involving competition between two or more individuals or two or more teams. The essential elements of sport are A) physical activity and B) competition.

Under this definition, a sport must involve physical activity, however the activity may but need not be particularly vigorous. For example we consider golf and curling to be a sport but generally do not consider a chess game or competitive debate to be a sport. The second essential element of sport is competition. For example rock-climbing, hiking the Appalachians trial or playing the violin are physical activities that are physically difficult to do, and require a high degree of physical skill, but we generally do not view them as sports because the goal of these activities is not to compete with another person or team.

Using this definition of sport, it is generally fairly easy to distinguish between traditional sports and other activities. However in the digital age application of this seemingly clear cut definition of sport has become more difficult to apply. Electronic video games, particularly fantasy combat games have evolved from solitary games to highly competitive spectator competitions marketed as “E-Sports”. But are they really sports? So called E-Sports are clearly highly competitive, and these games require a high level of skill. However the physical activity required to participate in E-Sports is limited to pushing buttons on a game controller and does not involve strength, speed, stamina or dexterity. For this reason E-sports are much more similar to chess which also requires movement of a chess piece but which is not considered a sport.