Sport is a term generally used to describe any athletic activity that makes use of the body in some way. It is also used to refer to a group of activities related to sport. Many different types of physical activity and some games can be considered sports. This includes track and field, softball, baseball, swimming, and golf to name a few. A sport can be competitive or simply recreational.
The first problem with defining the sport itself is that there is no universally accepted meaning of what sport is. For example, many people would describe the Olympic Games as a competition, but they also mean dressage, gymnastics, rowing, canoeing, sailing, and cycling to name a few. This leads to the problem of defining what level of physical activity is necessary for sport. For some sports, the level of physical activity required is so low that it would not be considered competitive. For example, golf does not require much speed or strength; therefore, the sport could be considered recreational.
The second problem with defining the sport is that it is very vague. Some people would argue that it is simply an extension of human physical exertion, as the competition would be between humans rather than between animals. However, the dictionary seems to lend some credence to this view by providing examples of people such as Greco-Roman wrestling or the sport of boxing. Therefore, even though the definition of sport itself is vague, the Olympic Games has provided a point of reference for the determination of competitive events. Because the Olympic Games exists to award world trophies, they serve as a popular means of determining which games are the most popular and as a way of demarcating a winner among competitors.