A depiction of theFIFA World Cup, the most popular sporting event in the world
Western sports are sports that are strongly associated with theWest.[a] Many modern sports were invented in or standardized by Western countries;[1] in particular, many major sports were invented in the United Kingdom after theIndustrial Revolution,[2][3] and later, America invented some major sports such asbasketball andbaseball.[4]
Western European colonialism and American influence were the initial causes of the spread of Western sports around the world.[5] Later,globalization and the prominent role of Western sports in theOlympic Games helped further grow Western sports.[1][6][7] The most-watched international sporting event is theFIFA World Cup, which showcases the Western sport offootball (also known as soccer).[8]
A depiction of theking inchess, the central playing piece. Chess was transmitted to Europe from India, undergoing various modifications along the way, and today is one of the most well-known Western board games.
Various minor games andboard games were transmitted between the West and the rest of the world in antiquity.Chess originated in India aschaturanga.[9]
The Romans built immense structures such as theamphitheatres to house their festivals of sport. The Romans exhibited a passion forblood sports, such as the infamousGladiatorial battles that pitted contestants against one another in a fight to the death. The Olympic Games revived many of the sports ofclassical antiquity—such asGreco-Roman wrestling,discus andjavelin.[10] The sport ofbullfighting is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, southern France, and some Latin American countries. It traces its roots to prehistoricbull worship andsacrifice and is often linked to Rome, where many human-versus-animal events were held. Bullfighting spread from Spain to itsAmerican colonies, and in the 19th century to France, where it developed into a distinctive form in its own right.[11]
Jousting and hunting were popular sports in the European Middle Ages, and the aristocratic classes developed passions for leisure activities. A great number of popular global sports were first developed or codified in Europe. The modern game ofgolf originated in Scotland, where the first written record of golf isJames II's banning of the game in 1457, as an unwelcome distraction to learningarchery.[12]
A depiction of Americans playingpolo, an Asian-origin game standardized and spread by the British
Western European countries used sport as a method to increase cultural connections between themselves and their colonies. Colonizers also used sport as a way to keep their soldiers fit in tough environments and to create social changes among colonized peoples; the philosophy ofMuscular Christianity was influential in this regard in British colonies, and was also put in practice in Asia by theYMCA.[13] This had an intended effect of causing the decline oftraditional sports around the world.[14][15][16][17] On the other hand, colonized peoples often used Western sports as an opportunity to prove themselves by defeating their colonizers in said sports; this contributed to many nascent independence movements.[18]
In South Asia, the influence of and resistance to Western sport also led to the standardization of sometraditional Indian games such askabaddi and introduced organized competitions at statewide and national levels for these games.[19][20][21] In China, the introduction of Western sports resulted in sports being valued more in terms of their competitive aspects,[22][23] in contrast to a native emphasis on sports being used for harmony between people and nature.[24][25][26] In Japan, Western sports were adopted as part of theMeiji era modernization, and were given values in line with the samurai philosophy ofBushido.[27] In Africa, Western sports were imposed with an eye towards the physical threat posed to colonizers by some of the militaristic training activities that Africans had traditionally practiced, and as a way of arguing thatWestern civilization was more rational and thus superior to African society by emphasizing the fact that Western sports had more elements of standardization and structure, such as yellow cards, fields with chalked-out straight lines, and stopwatches to measure time periods, than traditional African games.[28][29]
Some sports were imported to the West from its colonies; for example, the equestrian game ofpolo, which was discovered by the British in South Asia, was spread by the British worldwide in a British-standardized form.[30][31] The British also modified some Indian board games to create the modern games ofsnakes and ladders andludo.[32]
Modern team and competitive sports evolved at Britishpublics schools and at theuniversities of Oxford and Cambridge.[33][34] TheIndustrial Revolution that began in Great Britain in the 18th century brought increased leisure time, leading to more opportunities for British citizens to participate in athletic activities and also follow spectator sports. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. The bat and ball sport ofcricket, which was first played in England during the 16th century, was exported around the globe via theBritish Empire. A number of popular modern sports were devised or codified in the United Kingdom during the 19th century and obtained global prominence; these includeping pong, moderntennis, association football,netball andrugby.[35] Many sports which originated in Britain were spread throughout the British Empire during theearly modern andVictorian eras, with the British sometimes using these sports to propagate British moral values among their colonial subjects, as well as to assert the superiority of British culture.[36][37][38] The practices involved in the 'sportization' of English pastimes into global sports were also instrumental in shaping the standardization of sports in other parts of the world.[39]
Abaseball game being played between AmericanMarines and Japanese players. Baseball is a game invented by the English, modified by America, and became a popular sport in Japan and neighboring countries.
The United States also developed unique variations of English sports: English migrants took antecedents ofbaseball to America during thecolonial period, and the history ofAmerican football can be traced to early versions ofrugby football and association football.[40] Many games are known as "football" were being played at colleges and universities in the United States in the first half of the 19th century. American football resulted from several major divergences from rugby, most notably the rule changes instituted byWalter Camp, the "Father of American football".[41]Basketball was invented in 1891 byJames Naismith, a Canadian physical education instructor working inSpringfield, Massachusetts, in the United States.[42]Volleyball was created inHolyoke, Massachusetts, a city directly north of Springfield, in 1895.[43] In the case oflacrosse, aNative American sport became a professional American sport.[44][45]
The United States pioneered theprofessionalization of sports; leagues likeMajor League Baseball,National Football League, and theNational Basketball Association are still among the wealthiest leagues in the world.[46][47] Many sports which were professionalized were originally children's games;[48] baseball, for example, began to be taken more seriously when gamblers saw an opportunity to commercialize the sport and started pioneering rigorous statistical reporting for baseball games to create investment opportunities.[49]
America introduced some of its sports to various Asian countries (includingAmerican colonies in Asia); this resulted in baseball becoming established in Japan and basketball becoming popular in China.[50] Mark Dyreson has argued that the spread of baseball was modeled in some ways off of Britain's similar stance at the time of exporting British sports throughout its empire to spread British values.[51]Japanese colonization of East Asia helped to spread baseball and other Western sports in the region.[52][53]
Abowler about to deliver the ball to the batter in cricket. Cricket'sT20 format and its associatedleagues have rapidly globalised, with theIndian Premier League now among the richest sports leagues in the world.[54]
Even as European colonization of the world came to an end after World War 2, Western sports continued to play a prominent role. Western sports became an important part ofnation-building anddiplomacy for some newly independent countries;[55][56][57] for example,cricket played a significant role in helping India unite its diverse peoples and conductdiplomacy when it faced tensions with its neighbor Pakistan,[58][59] and when Japan was undergoing its post-waroccupation, baseball was promoted by Americans as a way of creating reconciliation.[60] Another example of diplomacy was the launching of theAsian Games, which were meant to promotePan-Asianism.[61]
Western sports also play an important role in the promotion of health and good societal values (such as gender equality) in former colonies,[62] and are generally seen as an important part of the modernization process.[22] The worldwide dominance of Western sports has also resulted in competitions based in Western countries overtaking the popularity of local competitions in other parts of the world,[63] and the further decline of non-Western sports.[64][65][66] Western sports have also grown because of their economic dominance and brand identification among fans.[67][68]
TheOlympic Games, though they initially started off with an emphasis on including traditional games from around the world,[69] eventually became a major transmission vector for Western sports, with Western nations dominating in the event.[70] However, some non-Western sports such asjudo have over time become part of the Olympics.[71][72]
The modernOlympic Games (Olympics;French:Jeux olympiques)[b][75] are the world's preeminent internationalsporting events. They feature summer andwinter sports competitions in which thousands ofathletes from around the world participate in avariety of competitions. The Olympic Games,open to both amateur and professional athletes, involves more than 200 teams, each team representing a sovereign state or territory. By default, the Games generally substitute for anyworld championships during the year in which they take place (however, each class usually maintains its own records).[76] The Olympics are staged every four years. Since1994, they have alternated between theSummer andWinter Olympics every two years during the four-yearOlympiad.[77][78]
TheCommonwealth Games[c] is a quadrennial internationalmulti-sport event that brings together athletes from across theCommonwealth of Nations, a political association comprising the majority of former territories of theBritish Empire. First held as the British Empire Games in1930, the event has evolved through several name changes, reflecting the changing geopolitical landscape and gradual decolonisation of the Empire. It was known as the British Empire Games until1950, the British Empire and Commonwealth Games until1966, and the British Commonwealth Games until1974. Since the1978 edition, the event has been officially known as the Commonwealth Games, a name that reflects its modern identity while maintaining its historic connection to Britain.
Young men playing a bat-and-ball game in a 13th-century manuscript of theGalicianCantigas de Santa MariaBat-and-ball games, or safe haven games,[84] arefield games played by two opposingteams. Typically, action starts when the fielding team (at the defense)[clarification needed] delivers aball toward a dedicated player of the batting team (at the attack),[clarification needed] who tries to hit it with a bat and then run between various safe areas in the field to score runs (points). The defending team can use the ball in various ways against the attacking team's players to force them off the field ("get them out") when they are not in safe zones, and thus prevent them from further scoring.[85][d] The best known modern bat-and-ball games arecricket andbaseball, with common roots in the 18th-century games played inEngland.
Baseball is abat-and-ballsport played between twoteams of nine players each, taking turnsbatting andfielding. The game occurs over the course of severalplays, with each play beginning when a player on thefielding team, called thepitcher, throws aball that a player on thebatting team, called thebatter, tries to hit with abat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run thebases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becomingrunners, and to prevent runnersadvancing around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter).
Cricket is abat-and-ball game that is played between twoteams of eleven players on afield, at the centre of which is apitch with awicket at each end, each comprising twobails (small sticks) balanced on threestumps. Two players from thebatting team, the striker and nonstriker, stand in front of either wicket holdingbats, while one player from thefielding team, the bowler,bowls theball toward the striker's wicket from the opposite end of the pitch. The striker's goal is to hit the bowled ball with the bat and then switch places with thenonstriker, with the batting team scoring onerun for each of these swaps. Runs are also scored when the ball reaches theboundary of the field or when the ball is bowledillegally.
Peter Bondra scoring a goal inice hockeyIn sport, agoal may refer to either an instance of scoring, or to the physical structure or area where an attacking team must send theball orpuck in order toscore points. The structure of a goal varies from sport to sport, and one is placed at or near each end of the playing field for each team to defend. Sports which feature goal scoring are also commonly known as invasion games.[86][87]
Basketball is ateam sport in which two teams of five players each (excluding subs), opposing one another on a rectangularcourt, compete with the primary objective ofshooting abasketball (approximately 9.4 inches (24 cm) in diameter) through the defender'shoop (a basket 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter mounted 10 feet (3.05 m) high to abackboard at each end of the court). Teams alternate betweenoffense, when they attempt to score, anddefense, when they try to prevent the opposing side from scoring. Afield goal is worth two points, unless made from behind thethree-point line, when it is worth three. After afoul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot atechnical foul is given one, two or three one-pointfree throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated. However, if the additional period still results in a tied score, yet another additional period is mandated. This goes on until the score is not tied anymore.
There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games played in many different parts of the world. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification ofthese games at English public schools during the 19th century, itself an outgrowth ofmedieval football. The expansion and cultural power of theBritish Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas ofBritish influence outside the directly controlled empire. By the end of the 19th century, distinct regional codes were already developing:Gaelic football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage. In 1888, theFootball League was founded inEngland, becoming the first of many professional football associations. During the 20th century, several of the various kinds of football grew to become some of the most popularteam sports in the world.
Hockey is a family ofstick sports where two opposing teams usehockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, and playing surface. Hockey includes both summer and winter variations that may be played on an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or an indoor gymnasium. Some forms of hockey require skates, eitherinline,roller orice, while others do not. The various games are usually distinguished by proceeding the wordhockey with a qualifier, as infield hockey,ice hockey,roller hockey,rink hockey, orfloor hockey.In each of these sports, two teams play against each other by trying to manoeuvre the object of play, either a type of ball or adisk (such as apuck), into the opponent's goal using ahockey stick. Two notable exceptions use a straight stick and an open disk (still referred to as apuck) with a hole in the center instead. The first case is a style of floor hockey whose rules were codified in 1936 during theGreat Depression by Canada'sSam Jacks. The second case involves a variant which was later modified in roughly the 1970s to make a related game that would be considered suitable for inclusion as a team sport in the newly emerging Special Olympics. The floor game ofgym ringette, though related to floor hockey, is not a true variant because it was designed in the 1990s and modelled on the Canadian ice skating team sport ofringette, which was invented in Canada in 1963. Ringette was also invented by Sam Jacks, the same Canadian who codified the rules for the open disk style of floor hockey in 1936.
Certain sports which share general characteristics with the forms of hockey, but are not generally referred to as hockey includelacrosse,hurling,camogie, andshinty.
Racket sports (or racquet sports) aregames in which players use aracket or paddle to hit aball or ashuttlecock. A racket has a handled frame with an open hoop that supports a network of tightly stretched strings. A paddle, sometimes called a bat, has a solid face rather than a network of strings, but may be perforated with a pattern of holes, or be covered with a textured surface.
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^Either because they were invented in a Western country, were played in the West for centuries, or were primarily spread around the world by the West.
^English and French are the official languages of the Olympic Movement.
^which also refers itself as the Friendly Games[79][80] or simply the Comm Games.[81][82]
^In some games for a small number of players, such asworkup and the wayold cat games, there are no teams and players rotate through the positions.[citation needed]
