What is considered a sport?

Jessie Liang Wednesday, June 25, 2025

When the word “sports” is mentioned, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe football, volleyball, or basketball. Are activities like cheer and dance counted as a sport? What is considered a sport?

Using the definition of a sport defined by BBC News, sports count as any “all forms of physical activity, which through casual or organized participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels”, we can now try to determine if a activity is a sport.

The examples that you just thought of are widely known sports, since they are competitive and forms social relationships. But, what about gymnastics, dance, cheer, fishing, hunting, and even competitive eating, which might not be globally recognized as sports? I think determining their categorization depends on the situation. Let’s take gymnastics as an example. Some people practice gymnastics for their own physical and mental health, or as a form of art and expression to audiences for just for fun, whereas the purpose of some gymnastics is focused on competition, like competitive tumbling, trampoline, bars, and vault.

A survey in March, 2025, showed that only 25% people globally consider gymnastics as a sport. Personally, I think gymnastics, should be, or is already a sport. It requires lots of practice and strength to perform, and 50 million people practice gymnastics already. There are also 16 types of gymnastics for men and women in the Olympics every four years, and it also is the sport with most variety in the Games.

All of activities that require the training of both mental and physical strength should be considered a sport.

Sources:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/191240/participants-in-hiking-in-the-us-since-2006/

https://www.gwi.com/blog/worlds-most-popular-sports

https://www.gymnastics.sport/site/pages/about-population.php