The Origins of Sports and Competition

Welcome Back to the Athletic Anthropologist! In this segment of our journey, I would like to talk a little bit about the origins of sports, games, and competition. I am excited to share some of the ideas and concepts about the origins of play that I learned while attending a Duke University online program focused on sports and society. So, let's jump right in!

Sports, competition, and games are all around us. Whether it was the kid next to you in school playing a mobile game on their phone, the teenagers playing on the basketball court next to your house, or your grandma playing cards at the dining room table. Competition and game envelop our lives from our childhood to our final hours. Looking throughout history, it becomes clearer that humans have always immersed themselves in sport and competition. From the early Greek Olympics, where runners dashed through packed arenas, listening to cheers from the crowd, to the early 20th century, where baseball burst onto the scene with its captivating speed and mystery, to modern-day, where you can watch or play any sport virtually through the power of the internet. Understanding the different types of games can help us better understand the origins of sports, and their prolonged popularity throughout history.

The first group of sports and competitions are activities that center around the very essence of competition. Professor Orin Starr, who led the conversation during the Duke program, described these competitions as 'Agon' games. Agon is an ancient Greek word that captures the essence of competition. It describes the exertion, emulation, and rivalry that sports exemplify. Think of two runners pushing through the pain in their legs, driving themselves to run faster and faster so that they can win a race. These types of games typically involve groups going head to head, mano a mano, trying to prove their superiority. These groups feature either individuals like in boxing, or pairs, like in tennis, or even large groups, like cricket, hockey, and many other team games. Although there is great variety in participants during these competitions, maintaining a level playing field, usually in the form of standardized rules, is essential to encouraging a truly competitive environment.

So what does this tell us about the origins of sport and game? While the definition of Agon primarily is applied to sports, it is also to describe warfare. War and conflict have been found in every civilization throughout history and can help us understand that sports probably evolved from war tactics. After all, many early sports like wrestling and martial arts, directly resemble combat. Additionally, other large team games help to teach cooperation and teamwork which are essential during battle. Many early sports helped to train young soldiers in a controlled environment to prepare them for war. Early sports nurtured soldiers' agonistic behaviors while they were not actively at war, making it easier for them to maintain the mindset they needed to perform well in battle. Agon games detail why certain sports were able to stand the test of time as they helped prepare and maintain soldiers for wars.

Now that you know about Agon games and their purpose, it should be easier to understand how many sports evolved out of warfare training. I look forward to talking to you about the other types of sports and competitions, and what they tell us about the origins and impacts of games next post. Feel free to leave a question or comment in the forum about this post and I hope you enjoyed it!

Works Cited

Starn, Orin. "Origins of Modern Sports." Sports and Society, 15 Jul. 2020, Duke University, https://www.coursera.org/learn/sports-society.