It is difficult to ascertain what would be considered the first actual “sport.” Games have been played throughout the whole of humanity’s existence. However, when was the first time a game became elevated to a sport? Many would quickly point out the Ancient Greek Olympic Games of 776 BC as their example of the first sports since it featured a competition with rules and an organizing body. Most, if not all, events were competed as individuals, as opposed to team against team. However, there is evidence that sports were played far before the Olympic Games.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Cave paintings found in the Lascaux caves in France appear to depict sprinting and wrestling in the Upper Paleolithic around 15,300 years ago. Cave paintings in the Bayankhongor Province of Mongolia dating back to the Neolithic age (c. 7000 BCE) show a wrestling match surrounded by crowds. Neolithic Rock art found at the cave of swimmers in Wadi Sura, near Gilf Kebir in Egypt, shows evidence of swimming and archery being practiced around 10,000 BCE. Prehistoric cave paintings in Japan depict a sport similar to sumo wrestling. The Ancient Sumerians from 3,000 BC certainly wrestled, as depicted in stone carvings and bronze statues. Within the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and Gilgamesh compete in belt wrestling. In the tomb of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum in Saqqara, dating to around 2400 BCE, were portrayals of wrestling in front of a crowd. The Egyptians were boxing at least 3,000 years ago, and boxing was introduced into the Ancient Greek Olympics in the 7th century B.C. The first historical reference to rowing as a sport dates to an Egyptian funerary carving from the 15th century B.C.
It’s hard to determine if these activities and games were elevated to sport through an organizing body that implemented competition rules or if these were more loosely organized impromptu matches. What appears to be true is that the earliest sports were based on the fundamental needs of defense and food acquisition through hunting. Many of the early sports were wrestling or combat-based. There is a rich tradition of wrestling and combat sports in and from Africa and the Middle East. All humans came from Africa, supported by the Out-of-Africa genetic models. The Middle East was known as the Cradle of Civilization. It makes sense that the practice of these martial skills for defense was started in the earliest foundations of humanity, and the practice may have turned into competition. Accuracy-based sports like archery practice hunting and combat skills simultaneously, and it’s easy to assign a winner by the proximity of the arrow to the target. Questioning whether one is more accurate than another certainly could escalate into competition. If more people became involved in participating, regulating, and adjudicating the competition, we have an official sport.
Closely related to combat would be testing speed and strength attributes through lifting objects or racing. The stone of Bybon from Greece, weighing over 300 pounds, from the early 6th century B.C. had an inscription that said, “Bybon son of Phola, has lifted me over head with one hand.” The stone was simultaneously the implement for the strength display and the trophy for Bybon for being the first to lift it. Another Greek lifting stone from the same period was the Thera stone, which weighed over a thousand pounds. Its inscription read, “Eumastas, son of Kritobolos, lifted me off the earth.” In Turkey, a composite (wood plus horn) bow was used to test strength by launching the farthest arrow. It took tremendous strength to pull the drawstring back for the farthest shots.
Despite sport having so much to do with war and violence, sport has been used to socialize individuals since its inception. To the Ancient Greeks, no polis, or city-state, was considered a proper community if it lacked a gymnasium. Indigenous sports often mirror the qualities people admire most, so sports reinforce people’s social norms. According to Mead and Piaget, as children move through the “play stage” to the “game stage,” they understand themselves concerning others and how others perceive them based on their performance in competitive games. If a culture valued individual strength, then a child who was strong found self-esteem and self-worth through winning competitions that tested individual strength. However, in cultures that preferred team sports, being a good teammate who consistently did their job and was loyal to the team would be held in high esteem. In sports where the athlete had to make their own equipment, craftsmanship became a way for someone to distinguish themselves from others. The materials used to make the equipment, as well as its use, revealed the geography of the people. Surfboards were found by coastal and island people, whereas skis would be found in mountainous cold climates.
How a sport is played through technique and strategy can give us cultural insights or, at the very least, be an identifier of where that athlete is from. A good example is the difference between kickboxing performed in Thailand versus Holland. One can identify a Dutch kickboxer from their hard low kicks and punching combinations, while Muay Thai fighters utilize more powerful body and head kicks and clinching for elbow and knee strikes. Southeast Asia has a rich tradition of indigenous sports that feature acrobatic kicking, which may have influenced the techniques of Muay Thai (or vice versa). In contrast, Europeans have a legacy of boxing, which may be why the Dutch prefer more hand strikes. It’s fascinating when these styles are mixed with other martial art forms; we have created a new sport of mixed martial arts.
When sport is integrated with religion, all the functions of religion, like giving meaning to life, creating social unity, stability, and control, promoting well-being, and motivating positive social change, are adopted by the sport, which elevates its significance and purpose for play. Sometimes, sports are used to honor a god, like in the case of Ancient Greece and Zeus for the Olympic Games. In other cases, it exemplifies a hero, like in the case of Ancient Irish Hurling; it appears prominently in the legend of Cúchulainn, the Celtic mythology hero. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient horseless polo game was mentioned several times. Kho-Kho and Kabaddi are traditional sports of India believed to be thousands of years old, and their play is meant to symbolize parts of the sacred Hindu texts of the Mahabharata. The Mayans had a sacred text called the Popol Vuh. The first set of twins, Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hanahpú, were invited to the Mayan Underworld of Xibalba to play a ballgame. The Mesoamerican Ball game reenacted the hero’s journey archetypal myth of the twins.
In the quest for religious truth, the athlete is meant to abstain from certain behaviors or follow a strict code of conduct and diet. Some of these behaviors mandated by religion may also promote health while aiding them in their spiritual quest. For example, the Ancient Zoroastrians believed that the development of physical and mental strength could be used to enhance spirituality. Thus, aside from preparing warriors for battle, this training is supposed to promote kindness and humility by cultivating outer strength. When Indian wrestlers join an akhara (gymnasium), they commit themselves to the quest for a holy life. As devout Hindus, they recite mantras as they do their knee bends and push-ups. In their struggle against “pollution,” they strictly control their diet, sexual habits, breathing, and even their urination and defecation. In modern times, as sports have moved away from religious connections, the ideas of specific training protocols and regimented diets for athletic performance have remained.
One of the reasons people are inspired by sport is that it is inherently dramatic. The sport’s plot is quickly understood and unfolds in real time in front of the participants and spectators. Like any great dramatic piece, storylines can be derived from the actions of the sport, such as the euphoria of victory and the agony of defeat, the hero and the villain, good and evil. Music and attractive clothing or costumes are added to sports to increase the drama, sometimes for religious purposes and sometimes merely to make the sport more attractive to the audience. This integration of the arts cements the sport as a part of culture since the arts are also an extension of culture. If the arts and sports are seen as threads, they become a strong rope when intertwined, symbolizing how culture is made.
There are pros and cons to how sports can shape a national narrative. Citizens can be inspired or manipulated by historical legacies and traditions harking back to past glory. A country may use a sport as an example for its citizens to strive for. Since sports tell a story that is easy to understand for the masses, a popular one that relates to the culture of a people can be elevated to a “national sport.” One example is the sport of cricket to the English. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Cricket is supposed to embody the ideas of fair play, valor, graceful conduct, and steadfastness,” which are all supposed to be characteristics of upper-class English conduct, which in turn become the desirable traits of all English people.”
Other examples of sports that serve as the avatar for the character of a nation include bullfighting for Spain, ice hockey for Canada, Gaelic Football for Ireland, lacrosse for Midwest and Central Plains Native Americans, and Judo and Sumo Wrestling in Japan. However, the narratives and origins of sport and national identity are often purposely manipulated for an agenda. When the Romans had gladiatorial combat, a popular theme was Roman soldiers versus barbarians. The “Roman” gladiators used their distinct military weaponry to make it obvious to the audience who they were, while the barbarian’s armor and weapons made them easily identifiable. Like a modern professional wrestling match, it was immediately clear to the audience who to cheer for and who to root against. However, as the lands of conquered barbarians became part of Rome, former barbarian motifs would also come to represent Rome. This essentially was a way to “Romanize” them, symbolically proving they were part of the empire.
Another example of sports legacy manipulation comes from England, which intertwined the origins of many of its sports with the monarchy when, in reality, that was not the case. In many instances, the monarchy worked to ban certain sports. However, if a sport persisted, the monarchy could change course and instead take credit for the tradition of the games by insinuating the sport is as old and important as the monarchy itself. If you can’t beat them, join them. Oppositely, to prove the separation between America and England, the myth of Abner Doubleday creating American baseball was used to separate the true origins of baseball from English Rounders and Cricket. By denying the connection between the two, they symbolically cut cords with England and established an American culture separate from England.
Sumo wrestling, which had ancient and strong ties to Japanese culture, went through a long period of irrelevancy for hundreds of years as governments actively tried to suppress the sport because it was seen as a backward relic of the past. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that Sumo was resurrected as the symbol of Japanese strength. Japanese officials invented and propagated many of Sumo’s “old traditions” in the late 1800s. The celebration of Samurai and the Bushido (Samurai) became a way to inspire and build up the war machine of the Japanese empire during the World Wars. Britannica says, “Japanese Sumo added several Shintō elements to the rituals of their sport to underscore their claim that it is a unique expression of Japanese tradition. In the early modern era, as unarmed combat became obsolete, the emphasis on Asian martial arts shifted back toward religion. This shift can often be seen in the language of sports. Japanese kenjutsu (“techniques of the sword”) became kendō (“the way of the sword”).”
What can inspire can also divide. The intense feelings of nationalism can be a detriment to its people when patriotism turns to xenophobia and racism. Sports can even turn to violence, like in the example of soccer hooliganism or brawls in mixed martial arts arenas. However, sports have been used as a tool in political struggles for independence or equal rights. From black-American Olympians holding up a fist to Nelson Mandela rallying South Africa around the Springboks to avert a civil war and to the modern example of N.F.L. football players kneeling during the U.S. anthem, sports have been used for political means.
Sport affects international politics for better and worse. There have been several incidents where sport has affected international relationships between governments. An excerpt from Wikipedia mentions that “school-aged Japanese children defeated American children in “their own game” of baseball in 1896. It helped rewrite the perception of Japan as feeble, especially to Americans. Another example was a series of cricket games between England and Australia, in which England was so unsportsmanlike in their approach that it fractured the relationship between the countries and influenced the perception of Australia as independent of England and not as much part of the Commonwealth. Another example involved the U.S.S.R. losing to Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the Olympics in a water polo and hockey match, which solidified the countries as more than just satellites of the Soviets.” When the amateur team of the United States defeated the Soviets in hockey in 1980, it symbolized America’s dominance over Russia in the Cold War between the two nations.
Quite possibly, the most outstanding achievement of sport is that it can promote peace. One way is serving as an alternative to war, which prevents needless death and suffering. Feuds, arguments, or legal proceedings could be settled by sport instead of physical harm. A sport similar to lacrosse, called stickball, was named the “Little Brother of War” by the Cherokee people because it served all the functions of war without actual killing. Aztec and Mayan governments used the Mesoamerican Ball Game to settle legal disputes in territories far away from the capital that had less influence from the capital. During the celebration of the games, an Olympic Truce was enacted so that athletes could travel safely from their countries to the games.
Finally, for an individual, sports can be a tool for amassing money, fame, status, and resources. The myth of the amateur Ancient Greek athlete who competed only for the love of sport doesn’t hold up when we see the literary accolades, art depictions, and accounts of prizes athletes received for success in competition. The spectacle of the gladiator games made money for the athletes and the countless vendors in and around the Coliseum. The top wrestlers in Senegal make hundreds of thousands of dollars per match, while the average Senegalese person makes around ten thousand dollars a year. In modern times, athletes in the top sports brands make millions, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as access, fame, and prestige.
When we examine cultures, especially those from the ancient past, we look at them through a modern lens. We invariably judge old customs as barbaric or unnecessary. However, we should not use our perspective or cultural lens as the societal barometer. A sport like bullfighting, from an outsider’s perspective, would be the epitome of barbarism. However, to others, it is a reenactment of good versus evil, humans over nature, requires grace and precision, and tremendous courage by the bullfighter. When we use our society’s standards to judge others, it becomes a reduction of those people as the “other.” The sports, music, art, and drama of a civilization express how a civilization thinks about the nature of reality and the truths of life. While the stories from another culture may not always be “true” to us, they explain a truth that that culture believes.
When we think of universal truths of how one should conduct themselves in life, it is easy to see what cultures have in common. We are more similar than different to each other. The ideal way one conducts oneself in sports participation has been called sportsmanship. There is a saying that “sport if life,” which, on the surface level, implies that someone should obsess about the sport as if their life depended on it. However, metaphorically, it also parallels the ethos of how one should conduct oneself in both sports and life. To steal a quote from me, “If sport is life, then sportsmanship is the way to live a good life.”
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