Sports Abbreviations

What are sports?

Sport is all competitive physical activity with well-defined rules and objectives. The objective of all sports is to overcome opponents in absolute respect for the rules.

Sports can be practiced individually or collectively, professionally, recreationally or to improve health. Practitioners of sports are called sportsmen, sportsmen or athletes.

Sport encompasses several dimensions such as practice, leisure and as an event. There are several types of sport, in Brazil, the most popular are football, volleyball and basketball.

The practice of the sport goes back to China, 4000 BC, where the first records of gymnastics were recorded. Later, Egypt and, above all, ancient Greece marked the history of sports competitions.

The sport in its current format began in the 18th century, with the development of various modalities and the creation of competitions. In 1896, the sport achieved a new status with the first edition of the Modern Era Olympic Games in Athens.

Types of sport

Sports can be classified as:

• Invasionsports – sports in which the objective is to reach a goal (goal, basket, try, touchdown…) positioned in the opponent’s field. Examples of invasion sports are football, basketball, handball, rugby, American football, etc.
• Netsports – non-contact sports in which opposing players are separated by a net. Examples of net sports are volleyball, tennis, badminton, etc.
• Field and batsports – sports that use a bat or bat to strike or hit a ball. Examples of field and bat sports are: cricket, baseball, softball.
• Combat sports- martial arts and fights, consist of a dispute in which the objective is to strike the opponent to score, dominate or knock him out. Examples of combat sports are: MMA, Muay Thai, Karate, Kung Fu, Jiu-jitsu, fencing, etc.
• Branded Sports- Sports in which competitors compare a particular brand achieved. Examples of branded sports are track and field, cycling, triathlon, weightlifting, etc.
• Precisionsports – sports in which the competitor must hit a specific target. Examples of precision sports are darts, golf, snooker, bowling, curling, etc.
• Technical-combinationsports – are sports in which competitors perform a movement routine evaluated by a jury and converted into points. Examples of technical-combinational sports are: artistic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, diving, street skateboarding, etc.
• eSports- individual or collective electronic games competition. Examples of eSports are the championships of: LoL, FIFA/PES, Free Fire, etc.

The 5 most popular sports in the world

The most popular sports in the world are those that combine a large number of practitioners and, above all, a significant amount of spectators.

Here is the list of the sports that have the most spectators around the world:

1. Football (4 billion viewers)

Football is by far the sport with the largest number of practitioners and spectators worldwide. Its official body, FIFA, has 211 member entities, among affiliated countries and territories. This number exceeds, for example, the 193 participating countries of the UN or the 201 of the International Olympic Committee.

It is estimated that football has more than 4 billion spectators, spread across 7 continents. In Brazil alone there are about 360 thousand registered soccer players.

2. Cricket (2.6 billion viewers)

Cricket is a field and bat sport in which two teams of 11 athletes face each other. In varying turns, each team assumes the throwing or batting position.

The team that throws aims to eliminate the batters, hitting the three sticks ( stumps ) positioned behind the batter, while the other team seeks to hit the ball as far as possible to be able to perform its runs ( runs ).

Although not very popular among Brazilians, cricket is the sport of choice in populous countries such as India and Pakistan. Cricket is also very popular in England, the home country of the sport.

Thus, cricket has around 2.6 billion spectators worldwide.

3. Hockey (2 billion)

Hockey is one of the most practiced sports in the northernmost countries of the globe, including Canada and Finland, where it is the national sport.

The American Hockey League (NHL) is one of the largest and most thriving sports leagues in the entire world. With this, hockey reaches the third position with about 2 billion spectators.

4. Tennis (1.25 billion viewers)

Tennis is the fourth most popular sport in the world with around 1.25 billion viewers. The 4 main tennis tournaments, the so-called Grand Slam, are played every year and are responsible for a large part of this audience.

Brazil has 10 Grand Slam titles, 7 with Maria Esther Bueno and 3 with Gustavo Kuerten.

5. Volleyball (950 million spectators)

Volleyball is the second most popular sport in Brazil and the fifth in the world, with around 950 million spectators.
Volleyball is one of the sports in which Brazil stands out the most at the Olympics.

The men’s team won the gold medal in Barcelona (1992), Athens (2004) and Rio de Janeiro (2016); and three silver medals: Los Angeles (1984), Beijing (2008) and London (2012).

The women’s team won two gold medals: in Beijing (2008) and London (2012); one silver in Tokyo (2020) and two bronze medals in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).

Sport, exercise and physical activity

Sport involves physical activity within a system of rules in fair and equal competition. It is a fundamental principle of the sport that its participants have equal chances, keeping the due particularities, of winning the dispute.

Thus, sport differs from conventional physical activities and physical exercises for being its own universe with its own logic based on a series of norms and rules.

Physical exercise follows a routine and a procedure, based on repetition with the aim of improving physical condition.

Physical activity refers to any activity that involves the body and some energy expenditure. Physical activities are the basis of any type of sport or physical exercise, but they do not necessarily have a system of rules or a specific routine.

Thus, all sport is a physical activity, but not all physical activity constitutes a sport or physical exercise.

List of Acronyms Related to Sports