sport health essay

Essay on Sports and Health

Students are often asked to write an essay on Sports and Health in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Sports and Health

Sports and health.

Sports play a crucial role in maintaining our health. They help in strengthening our muscles, improving endurance, and boosting our immune system.

Physical Benefits

Engaging in sports makes our heart and lungs stronger. It also helps in maintaining a healthy weight, reducing the risk of obesity.

Mental Benefits

Sports not only improve our physical health, but also our mental health. They help in reducing stress and improving mood.

In conclusion, sports are essential for a healthy lifestyle. They keep us physically fit and mentally strong. So, let’s play sports and stay healthy.

250 Words Essay on Sports and Health

Introduction.

Sports play an indispensable role in maintaining physical and mental health. As a holistic approach to wellness, they foster discipline, teamwork, and resilience, transcending beyond mere physical activity.

The Physical Health Benefits of Sports

Participation in sports promotes cardiovascular health, improves muscular strength and endurance, and enhances flexibility. Regular physical activity can help maintain a healthy weight, reducing the risk of obesity, diabetes, and other lifestyle diseases. Sports also stimulate the production of endorphins, the body’s natural mood lifters, promoting a sense of well-being.

Mental Health and Sports

Beyond physical health, sports contribute significantly to mental health. They serve as a natural antidote to stress, anxiety, and depression. The focus required in sports fosters mental agility, improving cognitive functions such as memory and concentration. Furthermore, the social interactions in team sports can foster a sense of belonging, boosting self-esteem and confidence.

Sports and Long-term Health

The health benefits of sports extend into long-term health outcomes. Regular physical activity slows the aging process, enhances the immune system, and reduces the risk of chronic diseases. Additionally, the discipline, time management, and goal-setting skills learned through sports can translate into healthier lifestyle choices.

In conclusion, sports offer a multifaceted approach to health, integrating physical, mental, and social aspects. Encouraging participation in sports from an early age can foster a lifelong commitment to health and wellness. As the adage goes, “A healthy mind in a healthy body” epitomizes the profound connection between sports and health.

500 Words Essay on Sports and Health

The interplay of sports and health.

Sports and health are two intertwined concepts, each influencing the other in profound ways. The relationship between these two entities goes beyond the surface-level understanding of physical fitness, delving into psychological and social aspects of health.

Physical Health and Sports

Engaging in sports is synonymous with physical activity, which is a primary factor in maintaining good health. Regular physical activity helps in controlling weight, combating health conditions and diseases, and improving overall bodily functions. It promotes cardiovascular health by reducing risks of heart disease and hypertension, and aids in maintaining healthy bones, muscles, and joints.

Sports also contribute to better sleep patterns. The physical exertion during sports activities enhances sleep quality by promoting deeper sleep cycles and helping in falling asleep faster. This is critical for body repair and regeneration, thereby improving overall health.

Sports and Mental Health

The benefits of sports extend to mental health as well. Participating in sports can help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. The physical activity stimulates the production of endorphins, the body’s natural mood lifters, leading to feelings of happiness and relaxation.

Moreover, sports can enhance cognitive functions. It improves concentration, helps in better decision-making, and boosts memory. These cognitive benefits are not only immediate but also help in maintaining cognitive health in the long run, reducing the risk of cognitive decline as we age.

Social Health through Sports

Sports foster a sense of community and belonging, which are vital for social health. They promote teamwork, cooperation, and mutual respect, teaching valuable social skills like communication and conflict resolution. Participating in sports can lead to the development of lifelong friendships and a sense of shared identity, thereby enhancing social well-being.

Challenges and Considerations

Despite the numerous health benefits, sports also come with potential risks. These include physical injuries and the psychological pressure to perform, which can lead to stress and burnout. It’s essential to balance the competitive aspect of sports with the need for physical and mental well-being.

Proper training, adequate rest, and a supportive environment can help mitigate these risks. It’s also crucial to remember that while sports can significantly contribute to health, they should be part of a broader approach to health that includes a balanced diet, regular medical check-ups, and mental health care.

In conclusion, sports play a fundamental role in promoting physical, mental, and social health. They offer a holistic approach to health, addressing various aspects beyond mere physical fitness. However, it’s important to approach sports with a balanced perspective, considering the potential challenges and risks. With the right approach, sports can undoubtedly be a powerful tool for enhancing overall health.

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Physical Activity and Sports—Real Health Benefits: A Review with Insight into the Public Health of Sweden

Christer malm.

1 Sports Medicine Unit, Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden; [email protected]

Johan Jakobsson

Andreas isaksson.

2 Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Solna, Sweden; [email protected]

Positive effects from sports are achieved primarily through physical activity, but secondary effects bring health benefits such as psychosocial and personal development and less alcohol consumption. Negative effects, such as the risk of failure, injuries, eating disorders, and burnout, are also apparent. Because physical activity is increasingly conducted in an organized manner, sport’s role in society has become increasingly important over the years, not only for the individual but also for public health. In this paper, we intend to describe sport’s physiological and psychosocial health benefits, stemming both from physical activity and from sport participation per se. This narrative review summarizes research and presents health-related data from Swedish authorities. It is discussed that our daily lives are becoming less physically active, while organized exercise and training increases. Average energy intake is increasing, creating an energy surplus, and thus, we are seeing an increasing number of people who are overweight, which is a strong contributor to health problems. Physical activity and exercise have significant positive effects in preventing or alleviating mental illness, including depressive symptoms and anxiety- or stress-related disease. In conclusion, sports can be evolving, if personal capacities, social situation, and biological and psychological maturation are taken into account. Evidence suggests a dose–response relationship such that being active, even to a modest level, is superior to being inactive or sedentary. Recommendations for healthy sports are summarized.

1. Introduction

Sport is a double-edged sword regarding effects on health. Positive effects are achieved primarily through physical activity, which is the main part of most sports. Many secondary effects of sport also bring health benefits, such as psychosocial development of both young [ 1 ] and old [ 2 ], personal development [ 3 ], later onset, and less consumption of alcohol [ 4 , 5 ]. Finally, those who play sports have a higher level of physical activity later in life [ 6 ], and through sport, knowledge of nutrition, exercise, and health can be developed [ 7 ]. Negative effects include the risk of failure leading to poor mental health [ 8 , 9 ], risk of injury [ 10 , 11 ], eating disorders [ 12 ], burnout [ 13 ], and exercise-induced gastrointestinal tract discomfort [ 14 ]. In sport, there are unfortunately also reports of physical and psychological abuse [ 15 ]. Negative aspects are more common in elite-level sports, where there is a fine balance between maximum performance and negative health. A somewhat unexpected effect of sport participation is that people submitting to planned training in some cases perform less physical activity compared to those who are exercising without a set schedule. One explanation can be a reduced spontaneous physical activity in the latter group [ 16 ]. Because physical activity is increasingly executed in an organized manner [ 17 , 18 , 19 ], sport’s role in society has become increasingly important over the years, not only for the individual but also for public health.

In this paper, we describe the health effects of sport from a physiological and psychological perspective, related both to physical activity and added values of sport per se. Initially, brief definitions of various concepts related to physical activity and health are given. This is then followed by: (1) A brief description of how physical activity and training affect our body from a physiological perspective; (2) a report on the health effects of physical activity and training; and (3) sport’s specific influences on the various dimensions of health. We chose to discuss the subject from an age-related perspective, separating children/adolescents, adults, and the elderly, as well as separating for sex in each age group.

2. Definitions of Physical Activity, Exercise, Training, Sport, and Health

Definitions and terms are based on “Physical activity in the prevention and treatment of disease” (FYSS, www.fyss.se [Swedish] [ 20 ]), World Health Organization (WHO) [ 21 ] and the US Department of Human Services [ 22 ]. The definition of physical activity in FYSS is: “Physical activity is defined purely physiologically, as all body movement that increases energy use beyond resting levels”. Health is defined according to the World Health Organization (WHO) as: “[…] a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” [ 21 ].

Physical activity can occur spontaneously (leisure/work/transport) or organized and be divided according to purpose: Physical exercise is aimed primarily at improving health and physical capacity. Physical training is aimed primarily at increasing the individual’s maximum physical capacity and performance [ 23 ]. Physical inactivity is described as the absence of body movement, when energy consumption approximates resting levels. People who do not meet recommendations for physical activity are considered physically inactive and are sometimes called “sedentary”. Sport can be organized by age, sex, level of ambition, weight or other groupings [ 24 ]. Sport can also be spontaneous [ 7 , 17 ] and defined as a subset of exercises undertaken individually or as a part of a team, where participants have a defined goal [ 7 ]. General recommendations for physical activity are found in Table 1 , not considering everyday activities. One can meet the daily recommendations for physical activity by brief, high-intensity exercise, and remaining physically inactive for the rest of the day, thereby creating a “polarization” of physical activity: Having a high dose of conscious physical training, despite having a low energy expenditure in normal life due to high volumes of sedentary time. Polarization of physical activity may lead to increased risk of poor health despite meeting the recommendations for physical activity [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. During most of our lives, energy expenditure is greater in normal daily life than in sport, physical training, and exercise, with the exceptions of children and the elderly, where planned physical activity is more important [ 28 ].

Recommendations regarding physical activity for different target groups. Note that additional health effects can be achieved if, in addition to these recommendations, the amount of physical activity increases, either by increasing the intensity or duration or a combination of both.

Compiled from FYSS 2017 ( www.fyss.se ) and WHO 2017 ( www.who.int ).

3. Aerobic and Muscle-Strengthening Physical Activity

Physical activity is categorized according to FYSS as: (1) Aerobic physical activity and (2) muscle-strengthening physical activity. Physical activity in everyday life and exercise training is mainly an aerobic activity, where a majority of energy production occurs via oxygen-dependent pathways. Aerobic physical activity is the type of activity typically associated with stamina, fitness, and the biggest health benefits [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Muscle-strengthening physical activity is referred to in everyday language as “strength training” or “resistance training” and is a form of physical exercise/training that is primarily intended to maintain or improve various forms of muscle strength and increase or maintain muscle mass [ 32 ]. Sometimes, another category is defined: Muscle-enhancing physical activity, important for maintenance or improvement of coordination and balance, especially in the elderly [ 33 ]. According to these definitions, muscle-strengthening activities primarily involve the body’s anaerobic (without oxygen) energy systems, proportionally more as intensity increases.

Exercise intensity can be expressed in absolute or relative terms. Absolute intensity means the physical work (for example; Watts [W], kg, or metabolic equivalent [MET]), while relative intensity is measured against the person’s maximum capacity or physiology (for example; percentage of maximum heart rate (%HR), rate of perceived exhaustion (RPE), W·kg −1 or relative oxygen uptake in L·min −1 ·kg −1 (VO 2 )). In terms of recommendations to the public, as in Table 1 , the intensity is often described in subjective terms (“makes you breathe harder” for moderate intensity, and “makes you puff and pant” for vigorous intensity) [ 27 ]. While objective criteria such as heart rate and accelerometry will capture the intensity of activity, they may not distinguish between different types of physical activity behaviors [ 34 ]. FYSS defines low intensity as 20%–39% of VO 2 max, <40 %HR, 1.5–2.9 METs; moderate intensity as 40%–59% of VO 2 max, 60–74 %HR, 3.0–5.9 METs, and vigorous intensity as 60%–89% of VO 2 max, 75–94 %HR, 6.0–8.9 METs. Absolute intensity, however, can vary greatly between individuals where a patient with heart disease may have a maximal capacity of <3 MET, and an elite athlete >20 MET [ 35 ].

4. How does the Body Adapt to Physical Activity and Training?

Adaption to physical activity and training is a complex physiological process, but may, in the context of this paper, be simplified by a fundamental basic principle:” The general adaptation syndrome (GAS)” [ 36 , 37 , 38 ]. This principle assumes that physical activity disturbs the body’s physiological balance, which the body then seeks to restore, all in a dose-related response relationship. The overload principle states that if exercise intensity is too low, overload is not reached to induce desired physiological adaptations, whereas an intensity too high will result in fatigue and possibly overtraining. Thus, for adaptation to occur, greater than normal stress must be induced, interspersed with sufficient recovery periods for restoration of physiological balance [ 39 ]. During and immediately after physical exercise/training, functions of affected tissues and systems are impaired, manifested as temporarily decreased performance. You feel tired. In order to gradually improve performance capacity, repeated cycles of adequate overload and recovery are required [ 40 ]. In practice, positive effects can be seen after a relatively short period of a few weeks, but more substantial improvements if the training is maintained for a longer period.

As a rule of thumb, it is assumed that all people can adapt to physical activity and exercise, but the degree of adaptation depends on many factors, including age, heredity, the environment, and diet [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. The hereditary factor (genetics) may be the most critical for adaptation [ 45 ]. The degree of adaptation also depends on how the person in question trained previously; a well-trained athlete usually does not have the same relative improvement as an untrained one. Even if training is thought to be specific to mode, intensity, and duration, there are some overlaps. For example, it has been found that strength training in some individuals contributes to a relatively large positive impact on health and endurance, effects previously associated primarily with aerobic exercise [ 46 , 47 ]. The overload principle may, if applied too vigorously in relation to a person’s individual adaptation ability, have detrimental effects, including reduced performance, injury, overtraining, and disease [ 10 ]. Training is a commodity that must be renewed; otherwise, you gradually lose achieved performance improvements [ 48 ], although some capacities, such as muscle memory, seem to persist for life [ 49 ].

General recommendations for health may be stated, but individual predispositions make general training schedules for specific performance effects unpredictable. All exercise training should be adjusted to individual purposes, goals, and circumstances.

5. Health Effects of Physical Activity and Training

Human biology requires a certain amount of physical activity to maintain good health and wellbeing. Biological adaption to life with less physical activity would take many generations. People living today have, more or less, the same requirements for physical activity as 40,000 years ago [ 50 , 51 ]. For an average man with a body weight of 70 kg, this corresponds to about 19 km daily walking in addition to everyday physical activity [ 52 ]. For most people, daily physical activity decreases, while planned, conscious exercise and training increases [ 19 , 53 ]. Unfortunately, average daily energy intake is increasing more than daily energy output, creating an energy surplus. This is one reason for the increasing number of overweight people, and a strong contributor to many health problems [ 54 ]. More sedentary living (not reaching recommended level of physical activity), combined with increased energy intake, impairs both physical and mental capabilities and increases the risk of disease. Despite this, Swedes (as an example) seemed to be as physically active and stressed but had better general health in 2015, compared to 2004 ( Figure 1 ). Compared to 2004–2007, the Swedish population in 2012–2015 reported better overall health (more county-dots are blue) and less fatigue (smaller county-dots) with similar level of physical activity (~65% indicated at least 30 min daily physical activity) and stress (~13% were stressed).

Selected physical and mental health indicators of a Sweden cohort, in relation to the degree of physical activity for the period of years 2004–2007 ( N = 29,254) and years 2012–2015 ( N = 38,553). Surveyed subjects are age 16 to 84 years old, with data representing median scores of four years, not normalized for age. Y-axis: Percentage of subjects reporting “stressed”; X-axis: Percentage of subjects indicating physical active at least 30 minutes each day. Each dot represents one County (Län), dot-size indicates self-reported fatigue, and color self-reported healthiness of the County. If 70% of the population states they are having “Good/Very good” health, the dot is blue. If less than 70% states they are having good/very good health, the dot is red. The circle indicated with a black arrow corresponds to nation median. The black line connected to the nation circle represents the movement in the X–Y plane from the year 2004 to 2007, and from 2012 to 2015, respectively. Data retrieved from the Public Health Agency of Sweden 2019-04-22 ( www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se ).

Results in Figure 1 may in part be explained by a polarization of who is physically active: Some individuals are extremely active, others very inactive, giving a similar central tendency (mean/median). As physical activity and mental stress are not changed, but health is, the figure indicates that other factors must be more important to our overall health and fatigue. Recently, a national study of Swedish 11- to 15-year-olds concluded that this age group is inactive for most of their time awake, that is, sitting, standing or moving very little [ 55 ]. Time as inactive increased with age, from 67 percent for 11-year-olds to 75 percent for 15-year-olds. The study states that in all age groups, the inactive time is evenly distributed over the week, with school time, leisure time, and weekend. Further, those who feel school-related stress have more inactive time, both overall and during school hours, than those who have less school-related stress.

People active in sports have, in general, better health than those who do not participate in sports, because they are physically and mentally prepared for the challenges of sports, abilities that in many cases can be transferred to other parts of life [ 56 ].

However, there is a certain bias in this statement. Sport practitioners are already positively selected, because sickness and injury may prevent participation. As many health benefits of sport are related to the level of physical activity, separation of sport and physical exercise may be problematic. Regardless, societal benefits of these health effects can be seen in lower morbidity, healthier elderly, and lower medical costs [ 7 , 57 , 58 ].

Health effects of physical activity in many cases follow a dose–response relationship; dose of physical activity is in proportion to the effect on health [ 59 , 60 ]. Figure 2 depicts the relationship between risk of death and level of physical activity, in a Finnish twin cohort, adjusted for smoking, occupational group, and alcohol consumption [ 59 ]. Odds ratio (OR) for the risk of all-cause mortality in a larger sample in the same study was 0.80 for occasional exercisers ( p = 0.002, 95% CI = 0.69–0.91). This dose–response relationship between risk of all-cause mortality and physical activity is evident in several extensive studies [ 60 , 61 , 62 ]. The total dose is determined by the intensity (how strenuous), duration (duration), and frequency (how often). While Figure 2 shows sex differences in death rates, it is likely that sedentary behavior is equally hazardous for men and women, but inconsistent results sometime occur due to inadequate assessment measures, or low statistical power [ 59 , 63 ]. To obtain the best possible development due to physical exercise/training, both for prevention and treatment purposes, a basic understanding of how these variables affect the dose of activity is required, as well as understanding how they can be modified to suit individual requirements. A physically active population is important for the health of both the individual and society, with sport participation being one, increasingly important, motivator for exercise.

Relative risk (odds ratio; OR) of premature death in relationship to level of physical activity, in 286 male and 148 female twin pairs, adjusted for smoking, occupational group, and use of alcohol [ 59 ].

There is strong scientific evidence supporting an association between physical exercise/training and good physical and mental health. For example: A reduction in musculoskeletal disorders and reduced disability due to chronic disease [ 27 , 64 ], better mental health with reduced anxiety [ 65 , 66 ], insomnia [ 67 ], depression [ 31 ], stress [ 68 ], and other psychological disorders [ 69 ]. Physical and mental health problems are related to an increased risk of developing a number of our major public health diseases and may contribute to premature death ( Table 2 ).

Health-related physiological effects of aerobic and muscle strengthening physical activity. Green circle indicates that the activity contributes with an effect, whereas a red circle indicates that the activity has no proven effect. Orange circle indicates that the activity may in some cases be effective.

5.1. Effects on Physical Health

The effects of physical activity and exercise are both acute (during and immediately after) and long-lasting. Effects remaining after a long period of regular physical activity have far-reaching consequences for health and are described below. For example, some muscle enzymes’ activity can be quickly increased by physical exercise/training but just as quickly be lost when idle [ 118 ]. Other changes remain for months or years even if training ends—for instance, increased number and size of muscle fibers and blood vessels [ 49 , 119 , 120 ]. Good health, therefore, requires physical activity to be performed with both progression and continuity. Most of the conducted physical exercise/training is a combination of both aerobic and muscle strengthening exercise, and it can be difficult to distinguish between their health effects ( Table 2 ).

To describe ill-health, indicators of life expectancy, disease incidence (number), and prevalence (how often) are used [ 121 ]. In describing the relationship between physical activity and falling ill with certain diseases, the dose–response relationship, the effect size (the risk reduction that is shown in studies), and the recommended type and dose of physical activity are considered [ 122 ]. Table 3 shows the relative effects of regular physical activity ton the risk of various diseases (US Department of Human Services, 2009). The greatest health gains are for people who move from completely sedentary to moderately active lifestyles, with health effects seen before measurable improvements in physical performance. Previously, most scientific studies collected data only on aerobic physical activity. However, resistance exercise also shows promising health (mental and physical) and disease-prevention effects [ 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 , 127 ].

Disease prevention effects of regular physical activity.

Compiled from US Department of Health and Human Service, https://health.gov/paguidelines/report/ [ 62 , 146 ] 1 : Risk reduction refers to the relative risk in physically active samples in comparison to a non-active sample, i.e., a risk reduction of 20% means that the physically active sample has a relative risk of 0.8, compared to the non-active sample, which has 1.0. 2 : In general, general recommendations for PA that are described and referred to herein apply to most conditions. However, in some cases, more specific recommendations exist, more in depth described by the US Department of Health and Human Service, amongst others [ 62 ]. 3 : Evidence is dependent on cancer subtype; refer to US Department of Health and Human Service [ 62 ] for in-depth guidance. PA = Physical.

Aerobic physical activity has been shown to benefit weight maintenance after prior weight loss, reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome, normalize blood lipids, and help with cancer/cancer-related side effects ( Table 2 and Table 3 ), while effects on chronic pain are not as clear [ 29 ].

Muscle-strengthening physical activity has, in contrast to aerobic exercise, been shown to reduce muscle atrophy [ 128 ], risk of falling [ 75 ], and osteoporosis [ 74 ] in the elderly. Among the elderly, both men and women adapt positively to strength training [ 129 ]. Strength training also prevents obesity [ 130 ], enhances cognitive performance if done alongside aerobic exercise [ 131 ], counteracts the development of neurodegenerative diseases [ 132 , 133 , 134 ], reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome [ 135 ], counteracts cancer/cancer-related side effects [ 135 , 136 ], reduces pain and disability in joint diseases [ 137 ], and enhances bone density [ 137 , 138 ]. The risk of falling increases markedly with age and is partly a result of reduced muscle mass, and reduced coordination and balance [ 76 , 139 , 140 ]. A strong correlation between physical performance, reduced risk of falls, and enhanced quality of life is therefore, not surprisingly, found in older people [ 141 ]. Deterioration in muscle strength, but not muscle mass, increases the risk of premature death [ 142 ] but can be counteracted by exercise as a dose–response relationship describes the strength improvement in the elderly [ 122 , 143 ]. Recommendations state high-intensity strength training (6–8 repetitions at 80% of 1-repetition maximum) as most effective [ 144 ]. Muscle strengthening physical activity for better health is recommended as a complement to aerobic physical activity [ 29 ]. Amongst the elderly, vibration training can be an alternative to increase strength [ 145 ].

5.2. Effects on Mental Health

Mental illness is a global problem affecting millions of people worldwide [ 147 ]. Headache, stress, insomnia, fatigue, and anxiety are all measures of mental ill health. The term “ ill health ” constitutes a collection of several mental health problems and symptoms with various levels of seriousness. Studies have compared expected health benefits from regular physical activity for improvement of mental health with other treatments, for example, medication. Most recent studies show that physical activity and exercise used as a primary, or secondary, processing method have significant positive effects in preventing or alleviating depressive symptoms [ 31 , 148 , 149 , 150 , 151 ] and have an antidepressant effect in people with neurological diseases [ 152 ]. Training and exercise improve the quality of life and coping with stress and strengthen self-esteem and social skills [ 69 , 153 ]. Training and exercise also lessen anxiety in people who are diagnosed with an anxiety- or stress-related disease [ 68 ], improve vocabulary learning [ 154 ], memory [ 155 , 156 ], and creative thinking [ 157 ].

The same Swedish data as used in Figure 1 show that between the years 2004–2007 and 2012–2015 anxiety, worry, and insomnia decreased but were not obviously correlated to the slightly increased level of physical activity in the population during the same period. Thus, in a multifactorial context, the importance of physical exercise alone cannot be demonstrated in this dataset.

Some of the suggested physiological explanations for improved mental health with physical activity and exercise are greater perfusion and increased brain volume [ 107 , 158 ], increased volume of the hippocampus [ 106 ], and the anti-inflammatory effects of physical activity, reducing brain inflammation in neurological diseases [ 159 ]. Physical exercise may also mediate resilience to stress-induced depression via skeletal muscle peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α), enhancing kynurenine conversion to kynurenine acid, which in turn protects the brain and reduces the risk for stress-induced depression [ 153 ]. Further, increased release of growth factors, endorphins, and signaling molecules are other exercise-induced enhancers of mental health [ 69 ].

6. How Sport Affects Health

Sport’s main purposes are to promote physical activity and improve motor skills for health and performance and psychosocial development [ 56 ]. Participants also gain a chance to be part of a community, develop new social circles, and create social norms and attitudes. In healthy individuals, and patients with mental illness, sport participation has been shown to provide individuals with a sense of meaning, identity, and belonging [ 160 , 161 ]. Whether the sport movement exists or not, training and competition including physical activity will happen. Sport’s added values, in addition to the health benefits of physical activity, are therefore of interest. Some argue that it is doubtful, or at least not confirmed, that health development can come from sport, while others believe that healthy sport is something other than health, reviewed in depth by Coakley [ 162 ]. In a sporting context, health is defined as subjective (e.g., one feels good), biological (e.g., not being sick), functional (e.g., to perform), and social (e.g., to collaborate) [ 163 ]. Holt [ 56 ] argued that the environment for positive development in young people is distinctly different from an environment for performance, as the latter is based on being measured and assessed. That said, certain skills (goal setting, leadership, etc.) can be transferred from a sporting environment to other areas of life. The best way to transfer these abilities is, at the moment, unclear.

Having the goal to win at all costs can be detrimental to health. This is especially true for children and adolescents, as early engagement in elite sports increases the risk of injury, promotes one-dimensional functional development, leads to overtraining, creates distorted social norms, risks psychosocial disorders, and has the risk of physical and psychological abuse [ 15 , 164 ]. Of great importance, therefore, is sport’s goal of healthy performance development, starting at an early age. For older people, a strong motivating factor to conduct physical activity is sports club membership [ 165 ]. One can summarize these findings by stating sport’s utility at the transition between different stages of the life; from youth to adulthood and from adulthood to old age. There, sports can be a resource for good physical and mental health [ 166 ].

Today, a higher proportion of the population, compared to 50 years ago, is engaged in organized sports, and to a lesser extent performs spontaneous sports ( Figure 3 ), something that Engström showed in 2004 [ 17 ] and is confirmed by data from The Swedish Sports Confederation ( www.rf.se ). Of the surveyed individuals in 2001, 50%–60% of children and young people said they were active in a sports club. The trend has continued showing similar progression to 2011, with up to 70% of school students playing sports in a club. Furthermore, the study shows that those active in sport clubs also spontaneously do more sports [ 167 ]. Similar data from the years 2007–2018, compiled from open sources at The Swedish Sports Confederation, confirm the trend with an even higher share of youths participating in organized sports, compared to 1968 and 2001 ( Figure 4 ).

Spontaneous sport has decreased over the last decades, to the advantage of organized sport. Data compiled from Engström, 2004, The Swedish Research Council for Sport Science.

Data compiled from open sources report Sport Statistics (Idrotten i siffror) at The Swedish Sports Confederation for the year 2011 ( www.rf.se ).

Taking part in sports can be an important motivator for physical activity for older people [ 165 , 166 ]. With aging, both participation in sports ( Figure 4 ) and physical activity in everyday life [ 168 ] decreases. At the same time, the number of people who are physically active both in leisure and in organized sports increases (The Public Health Agency of Sweden 2017; www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se ). Consequently, among elderly people, a greater proportion of the physical activity occurs within the context of sport [ 8 , 28 ]. Together, research shows that organized sports, in clubs or companies, are more important for people’s overall physical activity than ever before. Groups that are usually less physically active can be motivated through sport—for example, elderly men in sport supporters’ clubs [ 169 ], people in rural areas [ 170 ], migrants [ 171 ], and people with alternative physical and mental functions [ 172 ]. No matter how you get your sporting interest, it is important to establish a physical foundation at an early age to live in good health when you get older ( Figure 5 ). As seen in Figure 5 , a greater sport habitus at age 15 results in higher physical activity at 53 years of age. Early training and exposure to various forms of sports are therefore of great importance. Participation creates an identity, setting the stage for a high degree of physical activity later in life [ 173 ].

Odds ratio (OR) of physical activity at age 53 in relation to Sport habitus at age 15. Sport habitus (“the total physical capital"), including cultural capital, athletic diversity, and grades in physical education and health are, according to Engström [ 173 ], the factors most important for being physically active in later life. For a further discussion on sport habitus, the readers are referred to Engström, 2008 [ 173 ]. Numbers above bar show the 95% confidence interval. ** = significant difference from “Very low”, p < 0.01. *** = p < 0.001.

7. Sport’s Effects on the Health of Children and Young People

The effects of participation in organized sports for children and young people are directly linked to physical activity, with long term secondary effects; an active lifestyle at a young age fosters a more active lifestyle as an adult. As many diseases that are positively affected by physical activity/exercise appear later in life, continued participation in sport as an adult will reduce morbidity and mortality.

It must be emphasized that good physical and mental health of children and young people participating in sport requires knowledge and organization based on everyone’s participation. Early specialization counteracts, in all regards, both health and performance development [ 174 , 175 ].

7.1. Positive Aspects

According to several reviews, there is a correlation between high daily physical activity in children and a low risk for obesity, improved development of motor and cognitive skills, as well as a stronger skeleton [ 176 , 177 ]. Positive effects on lipidemia, blood pressure, oxygen consumption, body composition, metabolic syndrome, bone density and depression, increased muscle strength, and reduced damage to the skeleton and muscles are also described [ 178 , 179 ]. If many aspects are merged in a multidimensional analysis [ 8 , 173 ], the factors important for future good health are shown to be training in sports, broad exposure to different sports, high school grades, cultural capital, and that one takes part in sport throughout childhood ( Table 4 ).

Compiled health profiles for men and women at the age of 20 years, depending on participation in organized sports at the age of 5, 7, 8, 10, 14, and 17 years.

Classification with repeated latent class analysis creates three groups for girls and boys, respectively: Children who never participated (girls only), participated, quit prematurely, or began late (only boys) in sports. Arrows indicate whether participation in sports at young age has an effect on health at 20 years of age. Green up arrow is positive, red down arrow negative, and a horizontal black double arrow shows that sport had no significant effect. Modified from Howie et. al., 2016 [ 8 ].

Psychological benefits of sports participation of young people were compiled by Eime et al. [ 1 ], where the conclusion was that sporting children have better self-esteem, less depression, and better overall psychosocial health. One problem with most of these studies, though, is that they are cross-sectional studies, which means that no cause–effect relationship can be determined. As there is a bias for participating children towards coming from socially secure environments, the results may be somewhat skewed.

7.2. Negative Aspects

As Table 4 and Table 5 show, there are both positive and negative aspects of sports. Within children’s and youth sports, early specialization to a specific sport is a common phenomenon [ 175 ]. There is no scientific evidence that early specialization would have positive impact, neither for health nor for performance later in life [ 175 ]. No model or method including performance at a young age can predict elite performance as an adult. By contrast, specialization and competitiveness can lead to injury, overtraining, increased psychological stress, and reduced training motivation, just to mention a few amongst many negative aspects [ 174 , 175 ]. Another important aspect is that those who are excluded from sports feel mentally worse [ 8 ]. As there is a relationship between depressive episodes in adolescence, and depression as adults [ 116 ], early exclusion has far-reaching consequences. Therefore, sports for children and young people have future health benefits by reducing the risk of developing depression and depressive symptoms, as well as improved wellbeing throughout life.

Positive and negative aspects with sport (at young age).

While some degree of sport specialization is necessary to develop elite-level athletes, research shows clear adverse health effects of early specialization and talent selection [ 180 ]. More children born during the fall and winter (September–December) are excluded [ 181 ], and as a group, they are less physically active than spring (January–April) children, both in sports and leisure ( Figure 6 ). In most sports and in most countries, there is a skewed distribution of participants when sorted by birth-date, and there are more spring children than fall children among those who are involved in sport [ 182 , 183 , 184 , 185 , 186 ]. Because a large part of the physical activity takes place in an organized form, this leads to lower levels of physical activity for late-born persons (Malm, Jakobsson, and Julin, unpublished data). Early orientation and training in physical activity and exercise will determine how active you are later in life. Greater attention must be given to stimulating as many children and young people as possible to participate in sport as long as possible, both in school and on their leisure time. According to statistics from the Swedish Sports Confederation in 2016, this relative-age effect persists throughout life, despite more starting than ending with sport each year [ 18 ].

The figure shows the distribution of 7597 children aged 10 years and younger who in 2014 were registered as active in one particular, individual sport in Sweden (data compiled from the Swedish Sport Confederation, www.rf.se ). Spring, Summer, and Fall represent January–April, May–August, and September–December, respectively.

When summarize, the positive and negative aspects of sport at a young age can be divided into three categories: (1) Personal identification, (2) social competence, and (3) physiological capacity, briefly summarized in Table 5 . A comprehensive analysis of what is now popularly known as “physical literacy” has recently been published [ 187 ].

7.3. Relevance of Sports

Sports can make children and young people develop both physically and mentally and contribute with health benefits if planned and executed exercise/training considers the person’s own capacities, social situation, and biological as well as psychological maturation. In children and adolescents, it is especially important to prevent sports-related injuries and health problems, as a number of these problems are likely to remain long into adulthood, sometimes for life. Comprehensive training is recommended, which does not necessarily mean that you have to participate in various sports. What is required is diverse training within every sport and club. Research shows that participation in various sports simultaneously during childhood and adolescence is most favorable for healthy and lifelong participation [ 8 , 173 , 188 , 189 ].

8. Sport’s Effects on the Health of Adults and the Elderly

Adults who stop participating in sports reduce their physical activity and have health risks equal to people who have neither done sports nor been physical [ 190 , 191 ]. Lack of adherence to exercise programs is a significant hindrance in achieving health goals and general physical activity recommendations in adults and the elderly [ 192 ]. While several socioeconomic factors are related to exercise adherence, it is imperative that trainers and health care providers are informed about factors that can be modulated, such as intervention intensity (not to high), duration (not too long), and supervision, important for higher adherence, addressed more in depth by Rivera-Torres, Fahey and Rivera [ 192 ].

Healthy aging is dependent on many factors, such as the absence of disease, good physical and mental health, and social commitment (especially through team sports or group activities) [ 193 ]. Increased morbidity with age may be partly linked to decreased physical activity. Thus, remaining or becoming active later in life is strongly associated with healthy aging [ 194 ]. With increased age, there is less involvement in training and competition ( Figure 4 ), and only 20% of adults in Sweden are active, at least to some extent, in sports clubs, and the largest proportion of adults who exercise do it on their own. The following sections describes effects beyond what is already provided for children and youths.

8.1. Positive Aspects

Participation in sports, with or without competition, promotes healthy behavior and a better quality of life [ 166 ]. Exclusion from sports at a young age appears to have long-term consequences, as the previously described relative age effect ( Figure 6 ) remains even for master athletes (Malm, Jakobsson, and Julin, unpublished data). Because master athletes show better health than their peers [ 95 ], actions should be taken to include adults and elderly individuals who earlier in life were excluded from, or never started with sport [ 195 ]. As we age, physical activity at a health-enhancing intensity is not enough to maintain all functions. Higher intensity is required, best comprising competition-oriented training [ 196 , 197 ]. One should not assume that high-intensity exercise cannot be initiated by the elderly [ 198 ]. Competitive sports, or training like a competitive athlete as an adult, can be one important factor to counter the loss of physical ability with aging [ 199 ]. In this context, golf can be one example of a safe form of exercise with high adherence for older adults and the elderly, resulting in increased aerobic performance, metabolic function, and trunk strength [ 200 , 201 ].

8.2. Negative Aspects

Increased morbidity (e.g., cardiovascular disease) with aging is seen also among older athletes [ 202 ] and is associated with the same risk factors as in the general population [ 203 ]. An increased risk of cardiovascular disease among adults (master) compared to other populations has been found [ 204 ]. Unfortunately, the designs and interpretations of these studies have been criticized, and the incidence of cardiac arrest in older athletes is unclear [ 205 ]. In this context, the difference between competitive sports aiming to optimize performance and recreational sports has to be taken into account, where the former is more likely to induce negative effects due to high training loads and/or impacts during training and games. Although high-intensity training even for older athletes is positive for aerobic performance, it does not prevent the loss of motor units [ 206 ].

Quality of life is higher in sporting adults compared to those who do not play sports, but so is the risk of injury. When hit by injury, adults and young alike may suffer from psychological disorders such as depression [ 207 ], but with a longer recovery time in older individuals [ 208 ]. As with young athletes, secession of training at age 50 years and above reduces blood flow in the brain, including the hippocampus, possibly related to long-term decline in mental capacity [ 209 ].

8.3. Relevance of Sport

As for children and young people, many positive health aspects come through sport also for adults and the elderly [ 210 ]. Sport builds bridges between generations, a potential but not elucidated drive for adults’ motivation for physical activity. The percentage of adults participating in competitive sports has increased in Sweden since 2010, from about 20 percent to 30 percent of all of those who are physically active [ 18 ], a trend that most likely provides better health for the group in the 30–40 age group and generations to come.

9. Recommendations for Healthy Sport

• 1. Plan exercise, rest, and social life. For health-promoting and healthy-aging physical activity, refer to general guidelines summarized in this paper: Aerobic exercise three times a week, muscle-strengthening exercise 2–3 times a week.
• 2. Set long-term goals.
• 3. Adopt a holistic performance development including physiological, medical, mental, and psychosocial aspects.
• ○ a. Exercise load (time, intensity, volume);
• ○ b. Recovery (sleep, resting heart rate, appetite, estimated fatigue, etc.);
• ○ c. Sickness (when–where–how, type of infections, how long one is ill, etc.);
• ○ d. Repeat type- and age-specific physical tests with relevant evaluation and feedback;
• ○ e. Frequency of injuries and causes.
• ○ a. Motivation for training, competition, and socializing;
• ○ b. Personal perception of stress, anxiety, depression, alienation, and self-belief;
• ○ c. Repeat type- and age-specific psychological tests with relevant evaluation and feedback.
• 6. Register and interpret signs of overtraining, such as reduced performance over time, while maintaining or increasing exercise load.

Author Contributions

C.M. and A.J. conceived and designed the review. C.M., A.J., J.J. and interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript. J.J. edited the manuscript, tables, and figures. All authors approved the final version.

This work was supported by the Swedish Sports Confederation.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

AZ Writing | Sample Essays, Example Research Papers and Tips

Free essay samples, research paper examples and academic writing tips for students

Essay on Sports and Health

Today increasingly more people think of the necessity to engage in sport activity to be able to lead a healthy way of life.

Sport prevents many health problems and renders enormous influence on our health. Sport and health are closely interrelated. It has emerged that health is the base for a human being in his ability to decide serious vital tasks and surmount various obstacles. It is a necessary condition for a man to live long and happy life.

What does happen in our body when we are engaged in the regular sport activity? During exercising we make work our muscles, bones, joints, ligaments in a stress mode, which results in their adaptation to such an intensive work. It makes our muscles grow stronger, adjusts our nerve system to more effective functioning and help us perform more difficult tasks, then we done before.

There are also positive changes in our joints, but those who are thinking the more, the better, are deeply mistaken.

The regular, moderate physical activity positively influences our cardiovascular system. The correct, sparing exercise stress help preventing phlebeurysm and thrombosis in lower limbs. Due to properly proportioned physical activity, the amount of red corpuscles increases in blood, which results in the improvement of oxygen assimilation. Our respiratory system is also one of the main beneficiary from engagement in sport. Better ventilation of lungs to a great extent lead to reduction of such diseases as bronchitis and inflammation of the lungs. There is also an improvement of metabolism, due to the acceleration of metabolism of fats…

As it was already mentioned above, sparing physical activity on the regular basis prevents diseases of blood vessels, such as atherosclerosis. It is also important to say that acceleration of metabolism of carbohydrates leads to better energy consumption.

Naturally, the healthy and active way of life implies total abandonment of fat products and tobacco smoking. Facts talk for itself: moderate physical activity, daily sport exercises, healthy diet effectively prevent such diseases, as diabetes, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, obesity and hypercholesterolemia. The decrease of blood cholesterol level beneficially affects not only on the health of the people, suffering cardiac diseases, but also those who suffers diabetes of the second group, increasing the sensitiveness to insulin.

From above-described it is possible to do the following conclusion: it is necessary to be regularly engaged in physical exercises, at least during 30 minutes a day, controlling your heart-rate (simpler speaking – you have to watch after your pulse), to avoid arrhythmia and remember that excessive physical exertion only harms your heart. Doctors meet in opinion that the most healthy sports for the heart are walking, swimming, wheeling and running in an unhurried rate.

Actually all free sample essays and examples available online are 100% plagiarized! If you need a high-quality customized essay on Sports and Health topics written from scratch, you can easily hire professional academic writers online:

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How sport can have a positive impact on mental and physical health

It’s not always easy to start a workout, but research shows that sport and exercise are beneficial not only for your physical health, but your mental well-being, too. Let us help!

Health experts and Olympic athletes agree: Your mental and physical health benefit when you get active and participate in sport – whatever that means for you.

From daily exercise to choosing a sport to practice or play, the body and mind are worked in new and different ways each time you move your body.

On June 23rd every year we come together to celebrate that, as part of Olympic Day.

For the 2020 edition, we connected with Olympians around the world for Olympic Day 2020 at-home workouts – and a reminder: We’re stronger together, especially when we stay active!

And those are still available online to help inspire you today.

Sport benefits: Both the physical and mental

While the physical benefits are numerous (more on that below), the UK's National Health Service (NHS) report that people who take part in regular physical activity have up to a 30 percent lower risk of depression.

Additionally, exercise can help lower anxiety, reduce the risk of illness and increase energy levels. Want better sleep? Work up a good sweat!

Exercise can help you fall asleep faster and sleep for longer, research says.

It was in June 2020 that the IOC partnered with the World Health Organization and United Nations to promote the #HEALTHYTogether campaign , which highlights the benefits of physical activity in the face of the pandemic.

Over 50 at-home workouts are searchable across Olympics.com for you, each which help further the idea that moving and challenging the body can only prove beneficial for your physical and mental well-being.

The athletes' perspective: 'I used this strength to survive'

“If I had sat doing nothing, I would have gone crazy,” says Syria's Sanda Aldass , who fled the trauma of civil war in her country, leaving behind her husband and infant child.

Instead, she had judo - and has been selected for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team Tokyo 2020 for the Games in 2021.

“Running around and doing some exercises filled up my time and also kept me in good mental health,” Sanda said of the impact of sport on her life during nine months spent in a refugee camp in the Netherlands in 2015.

The same power of sport goes for Iranian taekwondo athlete Ali Noghandoost.

"When I had to leave my family and my home in Iran, the first things I packed in my bag were my belt, my dobok, my shoes and my mitt for taekwondo," Noghandoost said . "I took some documents that said I was a champion in Iran and in a national team, so I could prove I was a fighter and continue to train in any city I went to."

"Taekwondo did not only help me physically; mentally, it stopped me from thinking about giving up and that we wouldn’t make it. I used this strength to survive," he added.

Noghandoost has worked as a coach for refugees in Croatia, where he has tried to pass the power of sport on to the next generation.

"When you’re living in a refugee camp, it’s a really hard situation, but when you play sport, you can release any negative energy and feel free. It’s a space – a paradise – for them to be themselves."

A member of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team Rio 2016, Yiech Pur Biel says that the team provided a message of hope for those watching around the world.

"We were ambassadors for a message of hope, that anything is possible," Biel said . "A good thing had come out of our situations. The world understood. I am called a refugee, but you never know when someone else might become a refugee, through war or persecution. We wanted to show that we responded positively. So that made me very happy. Through sport, we can unite and make the world better."

Sport as a tool for much - including mental health

Sport is a powerful tool no matter from what angle you look at it, including mental health. The Olympic Refugee Foundation (ORF) has recently launched two different programs that are aimed at helping young refugees dream of a brighter future - through sport.

One of those programs, Game Connect, is a three-year initiative that was launched in August 2020 and aims to "improve the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of young refugees by improving their access to safe sport," as explained on Olympics.com last year.

We are "embarking on a three-year project to improve the psychosocial wellbeing and mental health of young refugees, working together with well-trained community-based coaches to deliver a Sport for Protection program and activities," explained Karen Mukiibi of Youth Sport Uganda, which has partnered with the ORF.

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Essay on Importance of Sports for Students and Children

500+ words essay on importance of sports.

First of all, Sport refers to an activity involving physical activity and skill . Here, two or more parties compete against each other. Sports are an integral part of human life and there is great importance of sports in all spheres of life. Furthermore, Sports help build the character and personality of a person. It certainly is an excellent tool to keep the body physically fit. Most noteworthy, the benefits of Sports are so many that books can be written.  Sports have a massive positive effect on both the mind and body.

Physical Benefits of Sports

First of all, Sports strengthen the heart. Regular Sports certainly make the heart stronger. Hence, Sport is an excellent preventive measure against heart diseases . This certainly increases the life expectancy of individuals. Furthermore, a healthy heart means a healthy blood pressure.

Sports involve physical activity of the body. Due to this physical activity, blood vessels remain clean. Sports reduces the amount of cholesterol and fats in the body. This happens because of the increase of flexibility of the wall of the blood vessels. The flexibility increases due to physical exertion, which is the result of Sports.

Furthermore, the sugar level in blood also gets lower thanks to Sports. The sugar certainly does not accumulate in the blood due to physical activity.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

A person experiences a good quality of breathing because of Sports. Sports strengthen the lungs of the body. Sports certainly escalate the lung capacity and efficiency of the body. Hence, more oxygen enters the blood which is extremely beneficial. Furthermore, there are fewer chances of developing lung diseases due to Sports.

Appropriate body weight is easy to maintain because of sports. A Sports playing person probably does not suffer from obesity or underweight problems. Sports certainly help the body remain fit and slim.

Furthermore, Sports also improves the quality of bones. A person who plays sports will have strong bones even in old age. Several scientific research reports that Sports prevent many diseases. For example, many researchers conclude that Sports prevent the development of cancer.

Other Benefits of Sports

Sport is certainly an excellent tool to build self-confidence . Playing Sports increases confidence to talk properly. A sport certainly improves the skills of communicating with others. Furthermore, the person experiences confidence in sitting, standing, and walking properly. Hence, Sports enriches the social life of an individual.

Sports bring discipline in life. It certainly teaches the values of dedication and patience. Sports also teach people how to handle failure. Furthermore, the importance of following a time schedule is also present in Sports.

Above all, Sports improves the thinking ability of individuals. Sports certainly sharpen the mind. Children who play Sports probably perform better at exams than those who don’t.

Finally, Sports reduces the stress of mind . A Sports playing person would certainly experience less depression. Sports ensure the peace of mind of those playing it. Most noteworthy, Sports brings happiness and joy in the life of individuals.

A sport is an aspect of human life that is of paramount importance. It certainly increases the quality of human life. Sports must be made mandatory in schools. This is because it is as important as education. Everyone must perform at least one Sport activity on a regular basis.

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Essay About Sport Example

10 December, 2020

11 minutes read

Author:  Donna Moores

Physical development plays a critical role in sustaining a healthy living and contributing to wellbeing in the long-term. Various topics on sports are relevant for both the young generation and older individuals at all times. For one, sport is a means of maintaining an excellent physical shape and great mobility; others perceive sports as a way to unwind and get one’s mind together. Alternatively, sport might let oneself learn about self-organization and discipline and experience its positive influence on life.

Regardless of the direction and type of activity, sports always brings out only the best: a team spirit, improved physical health, emotional fulfillment, and psychological relief. Since many youngsters might underestimate the benefits of sports, it is fundamental to emphasize its crucial role in determining one’s personality, health, and wellbeing. 

How to write an essay on sports?

If you so far have a vague idea of an essay about sport but still have enough time for writing, you are on the safe side. Here is what you should do to end up with a marvelous essay about sports.

First of all, try to pick a topic that is both relevant and not boring. By ensuring that the latter is the case, you will prevent yourself from writing meaningless stuff that isn’t even interesting to read. 

There are some tips that will help you stick to an appropriate essay format and save a great deal of time. Here is what you can take into account to take better control of your essay about sport writing:

• Research for a while and make sure you find some sound pieces of literature to back on in your writing
• Draft the main goals of your essay and come up with the question you are about to find answers to 
• Draft an outline and attach comments to each section of your outline. A short comment is a helper in elaborating an idea in each part of your outline
• Pick suitable arguments for each of the body paragraphs. Try to make sure that all the statements are actually reliable and relevant.

Make sure you prepare a piece of paper (or you may use any electronic device as an alternative) to write down your notes. It is always better to keep your drafts in a single place so that you don’t get lost in multiple notes. 

Sports Essay Topics 

If you want your next essay on sports to be an ultimate success, try picking a topic that will sound intriguing and be easy to comprehend at the same time. Below, we’ve listed a few indeed attention-grabbing topics that will be easy for you to elaborate on: 

• How regular sports correlates with a better quality of life 
• Essential skills that any type of sport requires
• Adverse effects of doping in sports 
• An example of a woman/man who went down into the history of sports
• New kinds of sports on the rise in 2021
• Sport has no gender: the women who rocked ‘male’ sports 
• The history of sports in your country
• Reasons for young generations to do sports 
• Arguments for deeming chess a sport 
• The influence of sports on mental health
• Sport and society
• The procedure of college admission for future sports students 

Structure of Essay on Sport 

Whether you are about to compose just a short essay about sport or your teacher expects you to develop a complex paper, the structure always remains similar. If you want to craft a useful outline that will prove its efficiency during the writing process, you first need to learn what the structure of an essay about sport looks like. Below we’ve listed the critical components of such an essay.

Introduction 

At this point, you are free to provide any piece of information that will sound convincing to the reader. This might be some statistical data, a historical fact, or a quote. Remember, your task is to encourage your reader to go through your essay and read it till the end. At the end of your paper, you will need to mention a thesis statement: a sentence that reveals what you will be talking about further.

Body paragraphs

Body paragraphs may contain any information that relates to your topic and a thesis statement. Any fact, statistical data, or a quote will be really welcome. A typical body paragraph follows such a structure:

• The topic sentence with a key idea. 
• Substantiated topic sentence and the main argument
• An example or any fact to make the opinion sound reasonable

In the last paragraph, just summarize the main points of your essay. You may briefly restate your introductory statements and explain how each of the body parts supports your thesis. Usually, there is only one thing you need to avoid in conclusion: repetitions. 

Problems with writing Your Essay About Sport? Try our Professional Essay Writer Service!

Essay Example 

The role of sports in promoting good mental health 

Sports is something that most people cannot imagine their everyday living without. The notion of sport had evolved in ancient times before the Olympic games in Greece started to take place. After the second industrial revolution, sport has become an extensively popular and admired subject in almost any school. As a means of entertainment and, at the same time, a way to relieve tension and move one’s energy in a good direction, the sport has always been associated with individual growth and physical health maintenance. These days, schoolers, students, adults, and older people engage themselves in a variety of sports activities for different reasons. But regardless of the purpose, all of them definitely achieve one target – better mental health. Indeed, performing sports activities regularly contributes to improved mental health by reducing stress, promoting a team spirit and social inclusion, and preventing depression. 

Engaging oneself in a sports activity is positively correlated with better social inclusion. In essence, sport is a team activity, which means that doing a particular kind of sports implies interaction with other individuals. Building social contacts while engaging in sports is exciting and easy: finding common ground with teammates or a sports partner is not complicated since you already share at least one significant interest. A recent study by British scientists suggests that individuals who did sports during their school years show higher social inclusion levels and can easily make new acquaintances in adult age. This means that sport plays a critical role in defining an individual’s future behavior in socializing with other people. And since sports promotes an ability to better engage in social groups and  make new acquaintances, it also contributes to an individual’s mental health. As long as humans live in a community and need communication for a healthy and happy living, sports is the key. 

Regular physical activity does not let stress accumulate and negatively influence one’s mental health. The reason why people experience less stress if they give preference to working out on a regular basis is endorphins production. Endorphins are particular neurotransmitters that a human brain produces as a result of physical activity. Neurotransmitters promote good feelings and make it harder for various stress factors to irritate oneself. Additionally, endorphins produced by a body while performing a sports activity promote a better quality of sleep. The latter, in its turn, leads to significant stress reduction as well. Apart from a guaranteed stress reduction, sports activities reduce the adverse effects of stress. Hence, one can come to the conclusion that since stress is an inevitable and highly annoying phenomenon, it is critical to seek preventative measures, and sports seems to cope with the issue of stress and constant tension brilliantly. Therefore, a moderate workout contributes to one’s mental health in the long term.  

Finally, sport has been proven to be one of the most potent remedies for depression. According to what clinicians claim, depression impacts both mental and physical health way worse than diabetes. Therefore, depression is a condition that needs treatment. However, it is highly possible to prevent depression just by exercising and adding some sport to one’s daily routine. Sports influence the human brain almost in the same way that medical drugs do: it promotes the brain’s better capacity to absorb serotonin. Not less important, sport activities contribute to nerve cell growth and prevent cells in the hippocampus from dying. Besides, physical activity has been found to improve self-esteem, which in turn improves body image and self-perception. Overall, a regular sport activity can not only guarantee depression alleviation but also prevent further disorders that have to do with psyche. 

All in all, sports can reasonably be deemed a natural remedy not only against physical but also multiple mental conditions. Just by performing moderate exercises a few times a week, one can make their life go in a different, healthier direction. Performing sports activities can reasonably promote stress-free life since exercising influences endorphins production in the brain. Additionally, a regular sport promotes better social inclusion and facilitates communication with peers. Finally, regular exercises serve as a solution to depression. It is critical to preserve one’s mental health, so working out is something to begin with straightaway.

Write an Essay with HandmadeWriting

While writing an essay about sport, it is essential to find the balance between the topic’s complexity and reader engagement. In other words, a winning essay about sport neither has a primitive subject, nor it covers a very specific and potentially boring sports topic. If this sounds quite complicated for you or if you merely have other reasons for leaving your writing for better times, you may get your paper done with HandmadeWriting . We are always available to assist you with your paper promptly. All you need to do is go to our website, submit paper instructions, and take care of yourself while we are taking care of your paper. 

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How to Write a Non-Cliche College Essay About Sports + Examples

What’s covered:, what makes a sports essay cliche.

• How To Make Your Sports Essay Unique

Great Examples of College Essays About Sports

Where to get your college essay edited for free, or by an expert.

You’ve been brainstorming essay topics for your college applications, and you think you’ve finally found the right one: an extended metaphor likening your experience on the field with overcoming personal struggles. The problem: many other students have this same thought. 

The purpose of a college essay is to make yourself stand out as a unique individual, but when students write about sports, they often blend in. Because of that, students are usually advised to pick a different topic.

That being said, it is possible to write a non-cliche college essay about sports if you put in a little extra effort. Read along to learn how to make your sports essay different from all the other sports essays.

Sports essays are cliche when they follow a standard trajectory. Some of these trajectories include writing a story about:

• An agonizing defeat
• Forging bonds with teammates
• Overcoming adversity
• Overcoming an injury
• Refusing to quit
• Victory during a big game

Because sports essays have very similar themes and “lessons learned,” it can be difficult to make your story stand out. These trajectories also often focus too much on the sport or storyline, and not enough on the writer’s reflections and personality.

As you write your essay, try to think about what your experience says about you rather than what you learned from your experience. You are more than just one lesson you learned!

(Keep in mind that the sports essay is not the only college essay cliche. Learn about other essay cliches and how to fix them in our complete guide).

How to Make Your Sports Essay Unique

1. focus on a specific moment or reflection..

The college essay is a way for students to humanize themselves to admissions officers. You do not feel human if you are describing yourself as just another player on the field!

One important way to make your essay about you (not just about sports) is by focusing on a specific moment in time and inviting the reader to join you in that moment. Explain to the reader what it would be like to be sitting in that locker room as you questioned the values of the other players on your team. Ask your reader to sit with you on the cot in the trainer’s room as your identity was stripped away from you when they said “your body can’t take this anymore.” Bring your reader to the dinner table and involve them in your family’s conversation about how sports were affecting your mental health and your treatment of those around you.

Intense descriptions of a specific experience will evoke emotions in your reader and allow them to connect with you and feel for you.

When in doubt, avoid anything that can be covered by ESPN. On ESPN, we see the games, we see the benches, we even see the locker rooms and training rooms. Take your reader somewhere different and show them something unique.

2. Use sports to point out broader themes in your life.

The main risk when writing about sports is neglecting to write about yourself. Before you get started, think about the main values that you want to express in your sports essay. Sports are simply your avenue for telling the reader what makes you unique. 

As a test, imagine if you were a pianist. Would you be able to talk about these same values? What if you were a writer? Or a chemist? Articulating your values is the end, and sports should simply be your means.

Some values that you might want to focus on:

• Autonomy (you want to be able to set your mind to anything and achieve it on your own)
• Growth (you seek improvement constantly)
• Curiosity (you are willing to try anything once)
• Vulnerability (you aren’t afraid to fail, as long as you give it your all)
• Community (you value the feedback of others and need camaraderie to succeed)
• Craft (you think that with deliberate care, anything can be perfected)
• Responsibility (you believe that you owe something to those around you and perhaps they also owe something to you)

You can use the ESPN check again to make sure that you are using sports as an avenue to show your depth.

Things ESPN covers: how a player reacts to defeat, how injuries affect a player’s gameplay/attitude, how players who don’t normally work well together are working together on their new team.

Things ESPN doesn’t cover: the conversation that a player had with their mother about fear of death before going into a big surgery (value: family and connection), the ways that the intense pressure to succeed consumed a player to the point they couldn’t be there for the people in their life (value: supporting others and community), the body image issues that weigh on a player’s mind when playing their sport and how they overcame those (value: health and growth).

3. Turn a cliche storyline on its head.

There’s no getting around the fact that sports essays are often cliche. But there is a way to confront the cliche head-on. For example, lots of people write essays about the lessons they learned from an injury, victory, and so on, but fewer students explain how they are embracing those lessons. 

Perhaps you learned that competition is overwhelming for you and you prefer teamwork, so you switched from playing basketball to playing Dungeons & Dragons. Maybe, when your softball career ended abruptly, you had to find a new identity and that’s when you became obsessed with your flower garden and decided to pursue botany. Or maybe, you have stuck with football through it all, but your junior-year mental health struggle showed you that football should be fun and you have since started a nonprofit for local children to healthily engage with sports.

If your story itself is more cliche, try bringing readers to the present moment with you and show why the cliche matters and what it did for you. This requires a fair amount of creativity. Ensure you’re not parroting a frequently used topic by really thinking deeply to find your own unique spin.

Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. “Ready spar!” Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped — only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger. 

There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous “Yes, sir” and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the “winners” celebrated their victory with laps as usual. 

Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous. 

The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrée, while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. “Chassé en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.” I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.   

There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: “You might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.” Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers. 

But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesn’t falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of “Dancing Queen” that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, it’s hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet. 

The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappés performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable. 

Why it works:

What’s especially powerful about this essay is that the author uses detailed imagery to convey a picture of what they’re experiencing, so much so that the reader is along for the ride. This works as a sports essay not only because of the language and sensory details, but also because the writer focuses on a specific moment in time, while at the same time exploring why Taekwondo is such an important part of their life.

After the emotional image is created, the student finishes their essay with valuable reflection. With the reflection, they show admissions officers that they are mature and self-aware. Self-awareness comes through with statements like “surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become” and maturity can be seen through the student’s discussion of values “honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet.” These are the kinds of comments that should find their way into a sports essay!

“Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one. 

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we compete with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

In the beginning, you might think this is another cliche sports essay about overcoming adversity. But instead, it becomes a unique statement and coming-of-age tale that reads as a suspenseful narrative. 

The author connects their experience with martial arts to larger themes in their life but manages to do so without riffing off of tried-and-true themes. Through statements like “I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was” we learn about the students values and their desire to be there for those who depend on them. 

The student also brings it full circle, demonstrating their true transformation. By using the “Same, but Different” ending technique , the student places themself in the same environment that we saw in the intro, but experiences it differently due to their actions throughout the narrative. This is very compelling!

“1…2…3…4 pirouettes! New record!” My friends cheered as I landed my turns. Pleased with my progress, I gazed down at my worn-out pointe shoes. The sweltering blisters, numbing ice-baths, and draining late-night practices did not seem so bad after all. Next goal: five turns.

For as long as I can remember, ballet, in all its finesse and glamor, had kept me driven day to day. As a child, the lithe ballerinas, donning ethereal costumes as they floated across the stage, were my motivation. While others admired Messi and Adele, I idolized Carlos Acosta, principal dancer of the Royal Ballet. 

As I devoted more time and energy towards my craft, I became obsessed with improving my technique. I would stretch for hours after class, forcing my leg one inch higher in an effort to mirror the Dance Magazine cover girls. I injured my feet and ruined pair after pair of pointe shoes, turning on wood, cement, and even grass to improve my balance as I spun. At competitions, the dancers with the 180-degree leg extensions, endless turns, and soaring leaps—the ones who received “Bravos!” from the roaring audience—further pushed me to refine my skills and perfect my form. I believed that, with enough determination, I would one day attain their level of perfection. Reaching the quadruple-pirouette milestone only intensified my desire to accomplish even more. 

My efforts seemed to have come to fruition two summers ago when I was accepted to dance with Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet at their renowned New York City summer intensive. I walked into my first session eager to learn from distinguished ballet masters and worldly dancers, already anticipating my improvement. Yet, as I danced alongside the accomplished ballerinas, I felt out of place. Despite their clean technique and professional training, they did not aim for glorious leg extensions or prodigious leaps. When they performed their turn combinations, most of them only executed two turns as I attempted four. 

“Dancers, double-pirouettes only.” 

Taken aback and confused, I wondered why our teacher expected so little from us. The other ballerinas seemed content, gracing the studio with their simple movements. 

As I grew closer with my Moscow roommates, I gradually learned that their training emphasized the history of the art form instead of stylistic tricks. Rather than show off their physical ability, their performances aimed to convey a story, one that embodied the rich culture of ballet and captured both the legacy of the dancers before them and their own artistry. As I observed my friends more intently in repertoire class, I felt the pain of the grief-stricken white swan from Swan Lake, the sass of the flirtatious Kitri from Don Quijote, and I gradually saw what I had overlooked before. My definition of talent had been molded by crowd-pleasing elements—whirring pirouettes, gravity-defying leaps, and mind-blowing leg extensions. This mindset slowly stripped me from the roots of my passion and my personal connection with ballet. 

With the Bolshoi, I learned to step back and explore the meaning behind each step and the people behind the scenes. Ballet carries history in its movements, from the societal values of the era to each choreographer’s unique flair. As I uncovered the messages behind each pirouette, kick, and jump, my appreciation for ballet grew beyond my obsession with raw athleticism and developed into a love for the art form’s emotive abilities in bridging the dancers with the audience. My journey as an artist has allowed me to see how technical execution is only the means to a greater understanding between dancer and spectator, between storyteller and listener. The elegance and complexity of ballet does not revolve around astonishing stunts but rather the evocative strength and artistry manifested in the dancer, in me. It is the combination of sentiments, history, tradition, and passion that has allowed ballet and its lessons of human connection to become my lifestyle both on and off stage.

This essay is about lessons. While the author is a dancer, this narrative isn’t really about ballet, per se — it’s about the author’s personal growth. It is purposefully reflective as the student shows a nice character arc that begins with an eager young ballerina and ends with a reflection on their past. The primary strength of this essay is the honesty and authenticity that the student approaches it with.

In the end, the student turns a cliche on its head as they embrace the idea of overcoming adversity and demonstrate how the adversity, in this case, was their own stereotypes about their art. It’s beautiful!

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite. 

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin. 

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

This essay uses the idea of sports to explore a more profound topic—growing through relationships. They really embrace using sports as an avenue to tell the reader about a specific experience that changed the way they approach the world. 

The emphasis on relationships is why this essay works well and doesn’t fall into a cliche. The narrator grows not because of their experience with track but because of their relationship with their coach, who inspired them to evolve and become a leader.

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Extended Essay: Sciences: Sports, Exercise, and Health Sciences

• Step 1 - Choosing a Subject
• Step 2 - Choosing a Topic
• Step 3 - Draft a Research Question
• Step 4 - Finding Sources
• Step 5 - Evaluating Information
• Step 6 - Bibliography & Citation
• Step 7 - Organizing Information
• The Arts: Visual Arts
• Individuals & Societies: Business Management
• Individuals & Societies: History
• Individuals & Societies: Psychology
• Language Acquisition
• Language and Literature
• Sciences: Biology
• Sciences: Sports, Exercise, and Health Sciences
• Interdisciplinary Papers: World Studies
• Assessment Criteria

Extended Essays in Sports, Exercise, and Health Sciences

Choosing a Topic

All EEs in the sciences should begin with at least one hypothesis based on their research question. An extended essay in sports, exercise, and health sciences  covers a wide range of topics from human physiology to biomechanics. It is an applied science course so an EE in this subject must investigate a sporting or health-related issue using the principles of science .

Extended essays in sports, exercise, and health sciences must have a clear SEHS emphasis. This incorporates knowledge from a variety of fields, in particular biology, chemistry, physics and psychology, but the essay must focus on human health and performance in relation to sport and exercise.

The topic must allow for an approach that relates specifically to:

• human performance in sport or exercise, or
• an understanding of the role of exercise or nutrition in improving or maintaining health and managing disease.

Approaches to Research

Research in SEHS

Then, a student will conduct either primary or secondary research to test their hypothesis by collecting some kind of data. By analyzing their findings a student should be able to find a scientific answer to their research question.

Sports Exercise and Health Sciences Sources

Sports, Exercise, and Health Sciences Sources

Even students doing primary research will still need to reference secondary sources. And students relying entirely on secondary sources will need to find sources not only of written information but also experimental data which they can analyze.

Writing the Essay

An essay in the sciences requires is more than just generating and presenting data. Analysis of the data is also essential. The main body of the essay should consist of an argument or evaluation based on the data or information presented . You can gather your own data through a variety of methods, or rely on secondary data. You should use graphs, tables, or diagrams to point out the significance of your findings.

You should ensure that the main body of the essay is well structured and has an obvious logical progression. You can use numbered and headed paragraphs to impose a clear structure. Your evaluation should show that you understand the the data they have collected and its significance to the world.

In your analysis, you should also describe and explain the limitations imposed on the research by factors such as

• the suitability and reliability of the sources accessed
• accuracy and precision of measuring equipment
• sample size
• validity and reliability of statistics

Students  should also consider biological limitations such as:

• those arising from the problem of repeatability and control when using living material
• the difficulties of generalizing from research based on a single type of organism or environment.

Exceptions for Safety and Academic Honesty

Safety and Ethics in Choosing a Topic

In all cases where human subjects are used as the basis for an investigation, clear evidence of informed consent must be provided in accordance with the IB guidelines.

Some topics may be inadmissible because their means of investigation are unethical. For example, investigations that:

• are based on experiments likely to inflict pain on, or cause stress to, living organisms
• are likely to have a harmful effect on health, eg culturing micro-organisms at or near body temperature (37°C)
• involve access to, or publication of, confidential medical information.

Some topics may be unsuitable because of safety issues. Adequate safety apparatus and qualified supervision is required for experiments involving dangerous substances such as:

• toxic or dangerous chemicals
• carcinogenic substances
• radioactive materials.

Other topics may be unsuitable because the outcome is already well known and documented in standard textbooks.

Assessed Student Work

• A study of the effects of Mindfulness Meditation Therapy (MMT) on accuracy in competitive 10 metre Air Pistol Shooting
• What can influence a better reaction time in martial artists?
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20 Sport, Health, and Well-Being

Parissa Safai is an associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science in the Faculty of Health at York University. Her research interests focus on the critical study of sport at the intersection of risk, health, and healthcare, including the social determinants of athletes’ health. Her interests also center on sport and social inequality, with attention to the impact of gender, socioeconomic, and ethnocultural inequities on accessible physical activity for all.

• Published: 21 September 2022
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Sport is often touted by many as good for one’s health and well-being; in fact, Hippocrates is thought to have once said that “sport is the preserver of health.” And yet there is a substantial amount of scholarly research, across a range of disciplines, that problematizes this commonplace assumption. This chapter explores the central question: Is sport participation healthful for well-being? Organized in three parts, the chapter first examines key conceptual challenges associated with unpacking this question. For example, what do we mean when we refer to the concepts of sport, health, and well-being? The second section explores the challenges faced by critical social scientists in disrupting the commonplace notion of sport as good for one’s health, and the third section highlights the questions: Can contemporary sport be good for one’s health, and if so, how?

At the risk of stating a cliché, the world is currently in the midst of the most unprecedented public health, social, political, economic, and human rights crisis in human history. According to data from Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 Dashboard, and at the time of reviewing this chapter proof (mid-April 2022), over 504 million cases and nearly 6.2 million deaths have occurred around the world as a consequence of COVID-19. These figures are widely recognized as underestimates of the actual number of cases and deaths as effective, reliable, and sustained testing in countries around the world has been virtually absent, at best variable, and highly dependent on trust and cooperation (or lack thereof) between governments, the medico-scientific community, and the public at large (e.g., see Balmford, Annan, Hargreaves, Altoè, & Bateman, 2020 ).

There have been other global pandemics over the course of human history (e.g., the 1918 influenza [H1N1] pandemic). Yet the complexities and complications of the COVID-19 pandemic have proven to be much more pronounced due to a range of factors. For example, the ease and speed of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) within and across regions as well as within and among particular groups of individuals (e.g., the elderly, Black and Indigenous people of color, those in poverty) has rendered COVID-19 particularly virulent. Another confounding issue is the host of still relatively unknown factors that shape the epidemiological patterns and clinical presentations of those infected and suffering with COVID-19. Simply put, despite huge advances in our scientific understanding of the virus and the disease in a relatively short span of time, we still do not know why some infected individuals are asymptomatic, why some are viral super-spreaders, and why some are long-haulers and suffer extraordinarily long aftereffects of the disease. And unlike other pandemics, the impact of COVID-19 has been unmatched given the near complete disruption of heightened and more intensive interdependencies that exist between populations, cultures, and economies in our contemporary globalized world.

There is no avoiding the metaphoric “elephant in the room” with this chapter—exploring the relationships between sport, health, and well-being during this time of a global pandemic is, simply put, weird. On one hand, at a time when so many people are sick or dying, and even more are trying to simply survive lockdowns and isolation, staggering job losses and economic instability, social unrest and political protest, increased food insecurity, interrupted education, and exponential increases in anxiety, depression, and stress, unpacking the common belief that sport is good for you feels like an exercise (no pun intended) in futility. And yet, on the other hand, there may be no more opportune time to do so, as the profound disruption of our daily lives as a consequence of COVID-19 demands of us to take fuller and more critical stock of the real or imagined sport-health dyad. In so doing, we may open and shift thought and praxis to re-create our beliefs, associations, and practices about sport and health. We may, in fact, take up Arundhati Roy’s (2020) call to conceptualize the pandemic as “a portal, a gateway between one world and the next” and as providing the impetus to “break with the past and imagine [our] world anew.”

This chapter explores the central questions: Is sport healthy, and can it contribute to well-being? Organized in three parts, the chapter will first examine key conceptual challenges associated with answering this question. For example, what do we mean when we refer to the concepts of sport, health, and well-being? The second section will explore the challenges faced by critical social scientists in disrupting the commonplace notion of sport as good for one’s health, and the third section will highlight the wicked questions: Can contemporary sport be good for one’s health, and if so, how?

Famous quotes about the healthfulness of sport are plentiful. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates is credited with saying that “sport is the preserver of health,” while American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1883 , p. 204) once wrote, “Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health.” It should be no surprise that famous athletes and sport leaders have oft made a causal link between sport and health. For example, Indian cricketer Kapil Dev enthused, “Apart from education, you need good health, and for that, you need to play sports,” and English decathlete Daley Thompson declared, “Sport and health are so important to our nation that they deserve to be right at the front of people’s minds” (quoted in Bryant, 2008 ). And one could be forgiven for thinking that sport is the magical cure for all of humanity’s problems when the president of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch, in his address during the Opening Ceremony of the 1996 Olympic Games, espoused, “Sport is friendship, sport is health, sport is education, sport is life, sport brings the world together.”

Such quotes can be easily dismissed as just fodder for motivational posters or inspirational greeting cards. What is of much greater concern, however, is the way such rhetoric is routinely woven into the policies and resource-distributing decisions of national and international governments and public-, private- and third-sector organizations (see the 2016 special issue of the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics on “sport, physical activity and public health” ( Mansfield & Piggin, 2016 ) for a range of national and international examples). Certainly, the website for sportanddev.org (2020) , an online platform dedicated to resources and communications on sport and development, is rife with sport-health associations, including such definitive statements as the following:

There is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence on the positive effects of sport and physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. The positive, direct effects of engaging in regular physical activity are particularly apparent in the prevention of several chronic diseases, including: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression and osteoporosis. (para. 1)

Sport and physical activity can make a substantial contribution to the well-being of people in developing countries. Exercise, physical activity and sport have long been used in the treatment and rehabilitation of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Physical activity for individuals is a strong means for the prevention of diseases and for nations is a cost-effective method to improve public health across populations. (para. 5)

In 2003, the United Nations adopted Resolution 58/5, Sport as a Means to Promote Education, Health, Development and Peace, “[noting] that sport and physical education are a major tool not only for health and physical development but also for acquiring values necessary for social cohesion and intercultural dialogue” (para. 8). More recently, and right in the midst of the pandemic, the World Health Organization (2020 , para. 1) formalized its partnership with the IOC, signing “an agreement to work to promote health through sport and physical activity.” The press release for the partnership hails the WHO-IOC collaboration as especially relevant for the following reason:

The current COVID-19 pandemic is particularly affecting people with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The agreement has a special focus on preventing NCDs through sport. Physical activity helps lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and various types of cancer (including breast cancer and colon cancer). (para. 3)

Where Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director-general, states that “physical activity is one of the keys to good health and well-being” ( World Health Organization, 2020 , para. 2), IOC President Thomas Bach notes, “Over the last few months in the current crisis, we have all seen how important sport and physical activity are for physical and mental health. Sport can save lives” (para. 6). He goes further to state, “The IOC calls on the governments of the world to include sport in their post-crisis support programmes because of the important role of sport in the prevention of NCDs, but also of communicable diseases” (para. 6).

Although it is premature to know if or how governments will “include sport in their post-crisis support programmes,” current national legislation and sport policies give us insight into existing understandings of the sport-health relationship and suggest the possible (perhaps even likely) directions in which sport systems in pandemic/postpandemic times may head (cf. Misener & Misener, 2016 ). For example, in Canada, the very first statement in the preamble to the Physical Activity and Sport Act states, “[T]he Government of Canada recognizes that physical activity and sport are integral parts of Canadian culture and society and produce benefits in terms of health, social cohesion, linguistic duality, economic activity, cultural diversity and quality of life” (Government of Canada, 2003, para. 5). The 2012 Canadian Sport Policy ( CSP), which operationalizes the Act and was endorsed by federal and provincial-territorial ministers of sport until 2022, frames “improved health and wellness” as a societal outcome of participation in sport: “Canadians participate in sport activities in a manner that strengthens their personal development, provides enjoyment and relaxation, reduces stress, improves physical and mental health, physical fitness and general well-being, and enables them to live more productive and rewarding lives” ( Sport Information Resource Center, 2012 , p. 4). In addition, and of particular note for this chapter, as will be discussed below, the CSP also draws linkages between sport, personal health, and the economy. “Increased economic development and prosperity” is identified as another societal outcome of sport participation among Canadians, “where sport delivers benefits, for increasing numbers, to individual health and well-being, and contributes to socio-economic outcomes” (p. 5). In sum, the CSP aims to advance a vision of sport whereby “Canadians improve their standard of living and economic well-being through sport; communities benefit from healthier citizens and the reduction of health care costs; and the sport and tourism sectors benefit from legacies of hosting of local, regional, national and international sport events” (p. 4).

For critical sport scholars, red flags with these statements, legislative acts, and policies abound—not just with the loftiness and presumptuousness of these suggested connections between sport and health, but also with the discursive slipperiness embedded in these texts and the implications of such fuzzy definitions for the ways in which material resources are distributed (cf. Piggin, 2020 ). It has been well recognized by sport scholars that sport is routinely yoked together and used interchangeably with such terms as physical activity, physical literacy, physical education, exercise, fitness, tourism, and play (for example, and not an exhaustive list, Bloyce & Smith, 2009 ; Coalter, 2007 ; Green, 2004 ; Grix & Carmichael, 2012 ; Malcolm, 2016 ; Mansfield & Malcolm, 2014 ; Oliver, Hanson, Lindsey, & Dodd-Reynolds, 2016 ; Waddington, 2000 ; Weed, 2016 ). The challenge in collapsing these terms together is captured well by Safai and Malcolm (2016 , p. 159):

Sport is a physical activity; sport is often used in physical education curricula; it incorporates exercise; and may even involve an element of play. However, this does not mean that sport is the same as physical education, exercise or play. The conflation of sport with physical education, exercise and play obscures its differences in intensity, frequency and duration of participation from other forms of physical activity. We must be cognisant of these differences since the institutionalised, competitive, rigorous and complex nature of sport has markedly different consequences for health than physical education, exercise or play.

To be clear, critical sport scholars do not suggest that organized and competitive sport is completely incapable of being healthful for individuals, groups, or communities. Rather, concerns have been and are being raised about the seemingly wholescale promotion of such definitive sport = health statements (i.e., sport is healthful for all, as is implicit in many national “sport for all” programs) that poorly distinguish between and yet still blend together sport, physical activity, physical literacy, physical education, exercise, fitness, tourism, and play in the service of health.

Similar conceptual concerns arise with the terms “health” and “well-being” or “wellness,” which are routinely used synonymously and interchangeably in public consciousness and in public or social policy- and program-making circles (alongside “healthcare” and “medicine,” which are also often used as though identical to one another) (see Dodge, Daly, Huyton, & Sanders, 2012 ). There are numerous examples of the tautological quality in definitions of “health” and “well-being.” For example, in efforts to move away from the more narrow biomedical understanding of health (as the absence of disease), the World Health Organization’s (1948) canonized definition of health situates it as a state of well-being (specifically, “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”). In the Oxford English Dictionary , health is defined in part as “[w]ell-being, welfare, safety; deliverance” ( “Health,” 2020 ), and well-being is defined as “the state of being healthy, happy, or prosperous; physical, psychological, or moral welfare” ( “Well-being,” 2020 ). It is important to note that even the term “welfare” poses similar challenges as it too is often employed synonymously with health and well-being. In the following, we can see Melanie Lang, editor of the 2021 Routledge Handbook of Athlete Welfare fall back on using these concepts to define each other even though she is attempting to disentangle them from one another (personal communication, March 2018):

Well-being is a quality or emotional state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy and is linked to being satisfied with a particular thing/aspect of life. Welfare is a broader term that comprises health, safety, happiness, prosperity etc. and that relates to the overall quality of life and concerns about this. As such, well-being is a component of the broader concept of welfare, with well-being being a contributing factor in an individual’s overall welfare.

There are not enough pages in this chapter to be able to properly, or perhaps even adequately discuss the attempts to define health and well-being. Scholars from a multitude of disciplinary areas across the range of humanities and natural, medical, and social sciences have dedicated tomes to different interpretations of what is and is not health and well-being (e.g., see Godlee, 2011 ; Huber et al., 2011 ; La Placa, McNaught, & Knight, 2013 ; Larson, 1999 ; Wiseman & Brasher, 2008 ). With tongue in cheek, Smith (2008) captures his dissatisfaction with the WHO’s unrealistic definition of health as a state of “complete” well-being when he writes, “It’s a ludicrous definition that would leave most of us unhealthy most of the time.” The key takeaway from this discussion on this confusing state of affairs is that such discursive slipperiness “may set the limits to what it is possible to think, and thus the understandings of the choices that can be made’ ( Newman, 2005 , p. 128) and leaves wide open the opportunity for governing bodies (whether governments, health agencies, sport organizations, or corporations) to manipulate such fuzzy language to suit specific agendas at specific times ( Grix & Carmichael, 2012 ).

The good news for critical sport and health scholars is that more nuanced characterizations of health and well-being are multidimensional (i.e., from the health of our cells to the health of our planet) in conceptualization and much more sensitive to the wider and intersectional determinants of health and the material conditions of social life that constrain or facilitate health and well-being for individuals and groups (cf. Marmot & Wilkinson, 1999 ; Naci & Ioannidis, 2015 ; Raphael, Bryant, & Rioux, 2010 ). For example, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (2020) defines well-being thus:

The presence of the highest possible quality of life in its full breadth of expression focused on but not necessarily exclusive to: good living standards, robust health, a sustainable environment, vital communities, an educated populace, balanced time use, high levels of democratic participation, and access to and participation in leisure and culture.

In this example, we can see—via the association to standards of living, the environment, education, and engaged citizenship—well-being (and health) situated as a collective and political issue. These attempts to understand health and well-being as one’s capacity to cope, adapt, and manage life (cf. Huber et al., 2011 ), as helped or hindered by broader social structures and processes, challenge the more individualistic and inward-looking focus of extant definitions as well as the over-/medicalization of social life, which some suggest is stimulated by the pathologization of “incomplete” states of well-being (see Godlee, 2011 ). In this vein, health and well-being are not limited to lifestyle choices, or the consequences of biological advantage conferred upon someone by their good genes, or even access to good healthcare services. Rather health and well-being are political because they are resources of power that possess dimensions of quality and quantity, they can be shaped by political institutions and interventions (or their lack), they are linked to social relations such that some enjoy more health and well-being than others, and they are elements of our human rights (cf. Bambra, Fox, & Scott-Samuel, 2005 ). The bad news, however, is that these more diverse, interconnected, multidimensional, and power-sensitive understandings of health and well-being do not necessarily translate into the ways health and well-being—and even sport—are being promoted and lived in the day-to-day. The following section expands on these points.

Despite the availability of fresher and more refined notions of health and well-being—ones that connect the personal to the communal and to the political—mainstream approaches to the operationalization or enacting of health and well-being (and even sport, as will be discussed below) in our daily lives remain quite entrenched in individualistic ideologies of good health as personal responsibility and as evidence of good moral conduct. This approach is commonly referred to as “healthism” ( Crawford, 1980 ), whereby health is wholly conceived as a product of individual choice and practice, and where such “concepts as willpower, self-discipline and lifestyle operate to define health as a personal trouble rather than public issue” ( Safai, Johnson, & Bryans, 2016 , p. 271). Poor health is not understood as a result of or even a symptom of systemic or structural disadvantage and inequity between individuals and/or groups, but rather as a product of an individual’s inability to be disciplined, hard-working, in control, or to “do the right thing” ( Crawford, 1977 ; Greenhalgh & Wessely, 2004 ; Howell & Ingham, 2001 ).

Healthism flourishes within neoliberalism, which is defined in this chapter in the broadest terms possible—from a concretized political economic approach to governance in many nation-states to a governing rationality and “an everyday experience” ( Hamann, 2009 , p. 39) that cuts across social and cultural dimensions of life. Both healthism and neoliberalism encourage individuals to think and act solely about and through themselves (particularly through their wallets and bank accounts) and encourage the hollowing out of public government and the public sector in the name of fiscal responsibility and/or the need to stimulate and protect business and industry above all ( Ingham, 1985 ). In so doing, healthism (as situated within and buttressing neoliberalism) minimizes a government’s capacity to equitably foster and be responsible for the health and well-being of its citizens and, perhaps more profoundly, undermines the belief that the determinants of health and well-being are connected to and derive from social relations and the ways in which power and material resources are distributed (or not) among individuals and/or groups in our communities ( Armstrong, Armstrong & Coburn, 2001 ; Skrabanek, 1994 ). In a healthist approach to health, it doesn’t matter if you vote for or against racist and fascist political regimes in national elections; it matters only that you purchase and use a membership to the fitness club without question ( Wiest, Andrews, & Giardina, 2015 ). And it doesn’t matter whether the fitness club and its instructors encourage patrons to ask critical questions about access, privilege, and health inequalities; it matters only that muscles are kept toned and that fat is controlled (see Markula & Chikinda, 2016 ).

Within the logics of these neoliberal times, well-being is similarly influenced by healthism and its ideology of personal responsibility. Conservative estimates of the global wellness movement suggest it is a multitrillion-dollar industry annually, with devotees paying for such things as detoxifications, juice cleanses, coffee enemas, specialized fitness classes, biometric technologies, silent meditative spa retreats, controlled diets, life coaching, beauty regimes, chakra healing, customized tonics and skin oils, healing crystals, and the list goes on ( Global Wellness Institute, 2018 ). Critics of the modern wellness movement offer scathing assessments of the ways in which false and at times outright dangerous misinformation is peddled to people, especially women, in the pursuit of “health, happiness, and prosperity.” Gunter (2018) routinely attacks the wellness-industrial complex for “grifting off desperate women” looking for health information, care, or even just validation of their health concerns, by reproducing long-ingrained patriarchal beliefs that women’s bodies are impure, flawed, and in need of help from outside experts ( Wiseman, 2019 , para. 15). In an editorial that is as much about the rise of anti-intellectualism as it is about the dangers of the cult of wellness, McCartney (2019) similarly notes:

Of course, the ultimate irony of the wellness industry is that it is aimed at the people least likely to benefit from it. It is not the well-off people with gym memberships, fitness trackers and a regular Whole Foods habit who are most likely to die young. It is the people whose social disadvantage make it more likely that they will smoke, to suffer more of the adverse consequences of alcohol, who have less access to green spaces to exercise, have jobs with less control and often more stress. It is citizens who are most wealthy, and healthy, who are invited to spend their money on accumulating interventions that don’t work. Yet they can paradoxically be harmed and easily become anxious patients as they accumulate the side effects of too much medicine. Marketing and advertising can make people into patients unnecessarily, while people who really could benefit from becoming a patient are left with less resource to do so. This paradox makes everyone sicker.

The cult of wellness implies that people can make their own “health, happiness, and prosperity” if only they believe enough and buy enough—an approach that seamlessly dovetails with consumer capitalism and neoliberalism. Healthism deflects attention away from the health-compromising determinants of social life that are often beyond the control of the average individual to focus only on seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses or a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality ( Tirado, 2015 ). In her exploration of the dangers of relentlessly pushing people to think, feel, and act optimism and happiness, Ehrenreich (2009 , p. 8) writes:

[P]ositive thinking has made itself useful as an apology for the crueler aspects of the market economy. If optimism is the key to material success, and if you can achieve an optimistic outlook through the discipline of positive thinking, then there is no excuse for failure. The flip side of positivity is thus a harsh insistence on personal responsibility: if your business fails or your job is eliminated, it must be because you didn’t try hard enough, didn’t believe firmly enough in the inevitability of your success.

For example, the rise of precarious labor markets and the gig economy results in many workers not being able to enjoy health and dental benefits that accompany stable, permanent, and full-time jobs—let alone enough disposable income or free time to pursue sport or any form of physical activity. This holds dangerous consequences in the event of illness or injury for many individuals and communities, and yet there is seemingly little critical or sustained attention paid to this issue in the public sector as governments shift toward new public management and the embrace of an entrepreneurial ethos ( Connell, Fawcett & Meagher, 2009 ; Diefenbach, 2009 ; McSweeney & Safai, 2020 ; Vosko, 2006 ). In other words, the answer to addressing the precarity of the contemporary job market is not in enacting and enforcing labor policies and workplace legislation that ensures material and health stability for workers but, rather, encouraging workers to work harder and to persevere. As Bambra, Smith, Garthwaite, Joyce, and Hunter (2011 , p. 403) note, however, such approaches and such policies “attempt to tackle health inequalities by trying to ‘empower’ people or encouraging them to feel happier, more confident or more responsible, without necessarily addressing the key, underlying issue.”

Sport is implicated in the promotion of this ideology of personal responsibility as it is most typically posed as a lifestyle choice that morally good people should adopt. In large part, the weaving of sport in healthist doctrine is facilitated by the easy conflation of physical activity, physical literacy, physical education, exercise, fitness, tourism, and such with sport. As noted earlier, the blurring of sport with any and all forms of physical culture renders sport, as one specific form of physical culture and as one area of social or public policy, amenable to manipulation by those who want to fit it into their agendas—including those who are trying to advance or reinforce neoliberal, healthist agendas. Mansfield (2016 , p. 714) makes this point clear when she states, “Sport can also be thought of as a relatively cheap and malleable policy tool which helps to explain its continued appeal as a simple solution to complex, deeper-seated social problems like health inequalities.” Yet, just as it is problematic to equate sport to physical activity, play, exercise, and so on, it is bizarre to suggest that sports participation will adequately address or redress serious personal and/or social health issues. If we set aside COVID-19 for a moment, the top causes of death globally are chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes, cancers, malnutrition, heart disease) that are multifactorial in causation and treatment ( Roser & Ritchie, 2016 ). Proponents of the social determinants of health (SDOH) paradigm know that there is no way that playing rugby can solve such conditions. Rather, critical sport and health scholars urge attention to the cleanliness of the air in which the rugby pitch is located, to the aesthetic appeal to and safety of green spaces for local citizens, to the accessibility of public transit to get a player to and from practice, and to the stability and sensitivity of the job market so that people can eat regularly, live in a safe home, and have time to play football.

Furthermore, as many critical sport sociologists note, conflating physical activity, physical education, exercise, fitness, and so on with sport results in everything getting operationalized as sport, with its heightened focus on performance and competition (e.g., Green, 2007 ; Kirk, 2010 ; Murphy & Bauman, 2007 ; Ressler, Richards, & Wright, 2016 ). Critical sport scholars have long known that the performance principle and the culture of risk (i.e., a culture that produces and reproduces the tolerance of health-compromising beliefs, behaviors, and practices) that underpin organized, competitive sport often endanger good health (see the chapter in this volume by Dominic Malcolm and Emma Pullen for a fuller discussion). The potential public health benefits that may be seen from getting individuals and communities engaged at some level of active living or physical activity more broadly (i.e., not in just organized, competitive sport) get taken up in extraordinarily functionalist ways. There is no shortage of dose-response studies that attempt to ascertain how many minutes of physical activity at what level of intensity and frequency are needed for some beneficial physiological effect on the body. Indeed, in the Canadian context, guidelines from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (n.d.) on movement, sleep, and screen time dominate public health messaging. Parents are repeatedly told that their children should be getting at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day and that they themselves should be logging at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week!

My intent is not to suggest that these guidelines are inappropriate or lacking in scientific rigor or credibility, or even that sport cannot be healthful for individuals and communities. Rather, I want to draw attention to how unquestioningly sport, organized in the narrow terms of performance and competition, gets taken up as healthful for all, as well as how broader physical activity guidelines are reductive and disconnected from well-established and long-standing insights on the impact of the material conditions of life on health ( Kay, 2016 ). In the guidelines from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, which seem to have a remarkably sticky and enduring quality given how long and how well they have been taken up by all levels of Canadian government and in the public sector more broadly (cf. Bercovitz, 2000 ), it is the number of minutes one sleeps, watches a screen, and moves that seem to matter the most. Absent in these guidelines is the fact that the minutes in our days are contained and structured by broader social, cultural, political, and economic institutions, forces, and processes that operate to the advantage of some more than others. More critical relational analyses that foreground power between individuals and groups need to be layered into these prescriptive guidelines, and to this end, there must be more engagement with and input from critical sport and health scholars who advance an SDOH approach to the study and operationalization of sport, health, and well-being in the service of public/population health. Kay (2016 , p. 555) states:

Social scientists within the academic sport science community can help bridge this chasm, by contributing social scientific theories, methodologies and knowledge to this area. Such offers must be constructive: to dismiss health behaviourists as not addressing “context” is not adequate, when their theoretical frameworks do; to argue that they do not address it “properly” is not sufficient without elucidation and to elucidate by only offering grand theory is not only unhelpful but actively counterproductive, reinforcing the notion that “social influences” exist only as some abstraction that is beyond translation into practice. Tangible specifics are required to demonstrate how social science knowledge can enhance understanding of health behaviour and efforts to enhance it.

Kay’s words are prescient, but calling on just the “academic sport science community” to mobilize is limiting. Advancing the critical sociocultural study of sport, health, and well-being so as to make a difference in public-sector guidelines, policies, and programs is about advancing a “relevant and engaged” public sociology of sport that

can contribute to “the terms of the debate,” not just by adding to the body of knowledge, but also by having researchers who specifically draw the connections between their work and the larger debates and problems, and by seeking ways to engage various publics when disseminating that research. ( Donnelly, 2015 , p. 422; see also Bairner, 2009 ; Cooky, 2017 ; Ingham & Donnelly, 1990 )

This represents a prime, albeit challenging opportunity for critical sport and health scholars. It is one, however, that is certainly not supported by the functionalist, positivist, and managerial paradigms of the moving body and classic and healthist health promotion prescriptions that dominate the research and teaching agendas of many (if not most) kinesiology departments in higher education—departments where more critical social, cultural, and historical interrogations of sport, health, and well-being are increasingly being pushed to the wayside ( Safai, 2016 ; see Andrews, Silk, Francombe, & Bush, 2013 ).

This section will explore the questions: Can sport be good for one’s health, and if so, how? Such questions “exhibit the characteristics of ‘wicked problems,’ in that they are difficult to define/interpret, are based in competing/uncertain causes, and generate further issues when solutions are applied” ( Sam, 2009 , p. 499). It is important to note that any attempts I offer here to answer these questions must begin with my own admission that I like sport, as do most (if not all) sport sociologists, even those who engage a critical standpoint. I think it is safe for me to suggest, on behalf of the wider sociology of the sport community, that we are not “anti-sport” as much as we are uncomfortable with and resistant to the current ways in which the sport system—from grassroots to the highest levels of national and international competition—is predominantly structured, organized, and delivered. We are extraordinarily concerned by how the mainstream sport agenda is set in ways that do not adequately attend to remediating the conditions that make sport inaccessible or unhealthy for some individuals and groups, or that do not legitimately develop or sustain humane and healthy sport for all.

In some cases, it is blatantly clear why the “sport is healthful for all people all the time” message is misleadingly and inappropriately trotted out by individuals and groups. When former FIFA president Sepp Blatter is the first author of a peer-reviewed paper in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports titled “Football for Health—Science Proves That Playing Football on a Regular Basis Contributes to the Improvement of Public Health” ( Blatter & Dvorak, 2014 ), we know that the unspoken yet obvious agenda of the piece is to promote FIFA and its version of football, not public health. For critical sport and health scholars, it is not that football holds no potential to contribute to the improvement of public health but that corrupt sport leaders such as Blatter, and the sport governing bodies and governments that have been shown to be in cahoots with these criminals, fail to safeguard the health and lives of people around the world ( Jennings, 2011 ; Masters, 2015 ). The deaths of numerous migrant construction workers involved in the building of venues for the Qatar FIFA World Cup scheduled for 2022—the exact number of which still remains shrouded in mystery to this day, but ranging anywhere from 34 to over 1,200 depending on the source ( Gibson & Pattison, 2014 ; Ingraham, 2015 ; Pattison, 2020 )—negate any “proof” of football’s ability to contribute to public health as public health is far more dependent upon sound and enforced labor laws, occupational health regulations, workplace safety standards, and labor reform when needed than on playing a game of football or hosting a sporting mega-event.

The Blatter example is admittedly sensational, but questioning how sport-health agendas get set is vital for our better understanding of if and how sport can be good for one’s health. As noted earlier, functionalist, positivist, and managerial approaches dominate much of government and public-sector discourse on sport and health. Such approaches endure not because of nefarious backroom wheeling and dealing between, for example, exercise physiologists and policymakers, but because of such factors as the capacity for individuals and groups to define key issues and put forth persuasive “evidence” that supports their definitions in ways that capture and hold the attention and support of key government actors; the presence and strength of advocacy coalitions and their successful (or not) lobbying of government decision-makers; the opening of “policy windows” amid welcoming political environments; or even just the heightened capacity of some individuals and groups to take advantage of circumstantial geopolitical or economic opportunities to advance their vision of the “ways things should be” ( Bundon & Hurd-Clarke, 2015 ; Green, 2004 , 2007 ; Green & Houlihan, 2004 ; Milton & Grix, 2015 ; Mansfield, 2017 ; Misener & Misener, 2016 ; Weiss, 1989 ).

A prime example of the way such factors play out in the setting of sport-health agendas is close to home for me, as colleagues from my own academic department were recruited by a coalition of the Canadian Off-Highway Vehicle Distributors Council, the All Terrain Quad Council of Canada, the Motorcyclists Confederation of Canada, and the Government of Nova Scotia to determine if riding all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and off-road machines (ORMs) offered fitness and health benefits to participants. The research team found that “off-road riding was found to impose a true physiological demand that would be expected to have beneficial effects on health and fitness according to current [physical activity] recommendations” and that the “metabolic demand of off-road riding is at an intensity level associated with health and fitness benefits in accord with the guidelines of both Health Canada and the [American College of Sports Medicine]” ( Burr, Jamnik, Shaw, & Gledhill, 2010 , pp. 1350, 1353). The authors conclude:

[O]ff-road vehicle riding is similar in aerobic demand to many other recreational, self-paced, sporting activities such as golf, rock climbing, and alpine skiing. This examination of off-road vehicle riding is valuable for understanding the physical demands of this alternative mode of recreational [physical activity] in the context of potential health-related fitness outcomes. (p. 1353)

And in yet another publication, the authors suggest that ATV and off-road riding may even positively influence one’s sense of well-being:

[I]t is possible that the higher levels of vitality, general happiness and [quality of life] of recreational off-road vehicle riders is a consequence of participation in the sport and thus further research is warranted to determine if this type of alternative activity should be recognized as a means to increase the health and [quality of life] of Canadians. ( Burr, Jamnik, & Gledhill, 2010 , p. 10)

Not surprisingly, these findings have also been challenged (see Bissix, MacCormick, & Milburn, 2013 ), but, also not surprisingly, these types of findings have been welcomed and robustly taken up by proponents of ATV and ORM riding as the evidence that such activities boost health and as the evidence that such activities should be supported more by government through, at minimum, the establishment of more trails for ATV and ORM use. However, more critical sociocultural readings of the setting of the pro-ATV/ORM agenda highlight a range of issues that rub against the supposed fitness and health benefits, including the exclusionary nature of off-road riding (in general, riders tend to be middle- to upper-class men), injury concerns arising from off-road riding accidents and traumas (especially among youth riders), and risks to the environment (e.g., see Muller, 2016 ).

This example highlights the point that we must acknowledge, a priori : that the question “Can sport be good for one’s health and, if so, how?” can be answered only when we have a clear understanding of who is posing the question and what agenda they hope to advance. In his exploration of the Kieran Pathways Society, a human-powered active transportation (i.e., walking, cycling, skiing, canoeing, using a wheelchair, etc.) group in Nova Scotia struggling to advance the development of trails/corridors that exclude motorized vehicles and to push back against their provincial government’s collaborations with off-highway vehicle groups, Pitter (2009 , p. 347, emphasis added) states:

The dynamics surrounding the production and consumption of space in this case study illustrate how the state, civil society, and commercial institutions play various roles in the creation of recreational sport spaces. The commercial manufacturers and distributors of [off-highway vehicles] have played a significant role through corporate funding/sponsorship. Their influence appears to have been greatest through their collective actions via the Canadian Off-Highway Vehicle Distributors Council that works to legitimize the sport through various public relation initiatives and research .

The movement (if we can call it that) promoting ATV riding for health highlights the breadth and depth of the lobbying and persuasive efforts of specific stakeholders—who tap into and call upon particular forms of sport science and scientific evidence that favor their interests—on governments that, in the context of public roadways and community trails, “have an implicit duty of care to manage risks prudently to reduce harm, and to mitigate financial and reputational impairment to its corporate body” ( Bissix, 2015 , p. 346). The wicked problem permeating the question “Can sport be good for one’s health, and if so, how?” arises, in part, from how such concepts as sport, health, well-being, risk, and harm get defined and whose definition gets understood as most legitimate; these are problems of power and social relations. As such, and continuing in the context of leisure and recreation, Tink, Peers, Nykiforuk, and Mayan’s (2019 , pp. 454–455) observations are particularly poignant:

Paying attention to the ways expert discourses of science, medicine, and public health have supported, and continue to support, various forms of institutionalized governance, conversations between philosophers and practitioners of leisure and recreation could begin by interrogating the relationship between the governors and the governed. That is, philosophers and practitioners of leisure and recreation could interrogate how particular knowledge(s) and power relations have resulted in recreation spaces being oriented toward certain bodies or subjects.

For many critical sociologists, sport, health, and well-being are issues of equity, related more to access and opportunity than to measures of performance, biological processes, or lifestyle choice. In this line of argument, sport can be healthy for individuals and communities only if the social, cultural, political, and economic conditions necessary for personal and community health have been met. As such, any sport program that is disconnected from the social and material conditions of life and one’s political right to health has limited potential to positively influence health and well-being (cf. Safai, Johnson, & Bryans, 2016 ). Take for example, one of Sport Canada’s recent initiatives to increase sport participation among girls and women, LGBTQ2+ identifying individuals and groups, persons with disabilities, and newcomers to Canada: the Sport Support Program—Innovation Initiative (SSP-II). Fully embracing an entrepreneurial ethos, the SSP-II provides financial support to individuals or organizations for the development and testing of “innovative quality sport approaches in order to develop evidence-based solutions to improve sport participation” (Government of Canada, 2019, para. 5). This attempt to improve sport participation for these commonly underrepresented groups is commendable, but as McSweeney and Safai (2020 , p. 12) note, the federal government’s turn to public entrepreneurship (PE) and new public management (NPM) to advance accessibility in sport is problematic for Canadians:

NPM and PE, as embedded in and reproductive of neoliberalism, assume that all individuals are equally motivated and have equal opportunity and means with which to navigate through and be successful in society while, at the same time, hollowing out the very public supports and services that ensure some degree of safety for those who struggle to survive or thrive in neoliberal regimes.

The SSP-II’s focus on girls and women is particularly worrisome given that it attempts to employ tactics that are informed by neoliberal and market-centric modes of thinking in efforts to address the consequences of problems very much created by a neoliberal and market-centric political economy:

The SSP-II may encourage initiatives to boost girls’ and women’s participation in sport, but it does [so] in a political economic system that continues to depend upon the unpaid labour of girls and women outside of the formal economy, and the inequitable social relations that arise from this arrangement. ( McSweeney & Safai, 2020 , p. 14)

Just knowing and stating that these paradoxes exist is insufficient for critical sport and health scholars. In this vein, let us heed Kay’s (2016) call to better translate and communicate our perspectives and our evidence to the relevant decision-making bodies and to the public at large. In so doing, we move forward our research and advocacy for accessible, equitable, humane, and healthy sport for all outside of “a Phantom Zone of irrelevance,” “divorced from everyday public policy activity, media discourse and public awareness” ( Raphael, 2009 , p. 193).

In this chapter, I have endeavored to unsettle the commonplace notion that sport is good for one’s health and well-being all the time by examining key conceptual challenges embedded in the associations made between sport and health, by exploring the challenges faced by critical social scientists in disrupting this widely held belief, and by questioning whether contemporary sport can be good for one’s health and, if so, how? I prefaced this work, however, by acknowledging the surreal feel of writing about sport and health amid the unprecedented and most consequential global health crisis of our times. This concluding section returns to the issue of COVID-19 as there can be no doubt that the pandemic will impact and set the sport and health research agenda for years to come. In fact, it takes but a fraction of a second on any good search engine to see that it already has. Special issues in top-tier journals are in the process of being crafted, edited book collections are being proposed, virtual colloquia are being dedicated to the topic, and calls on what should be the focus for critical sport sociologists are already being offered (e.g., Evans et al., 2020 ).

In the critical sociocultural study of sport scholarship, researchers from all over the world are already actively interrogating the ways in which people, communities, organizations, and government have been impacted by and are responding to COVID-19 in sport, specifically, and in social life more broadly. Researchers are making plain both (1) the ways in which the pandemic and the response to the pandemic contribute to the continued (if not amplified or accelerated) marginalization and disempowerment of already vulnerable groups and communities that, de facto, disproportionately suffer higher levels of illness and death (e.g., Malcolm & Velija, 2020 ) and (2) the ways in which people—especially athletes—are mobilizing together against irresponsible governing bodies that value their own vested interests over human lives. In describing the ways in which Canadian Olympic athletes banded together in the early months of the pandemic to push back against the IOC’s indecision about postponing the Tokyo Olympic Games, Donnelly (2020 , p. 39) states, “We all hope that the pandemic is creating the possibility of new alternatives for societies, for a new social contract. And we hope that athletes’ voices have now been released from the culture of control to continue their demands for fairness, equity, and human and labour rights” (see also Mann, Clift, Boykoff, & Bekker, 2020 ).

COVID-19 has forced many people to step out of their taken-for-granted routines and to critically examine—from a “social distance”—those sport norms, behaviors, and practices that were commonly accepted without question. Rowe (2020 , p. 7) explains:

[I]t is in the general interest for sport to resume service. But that does not mean repeating its mistakes—as in other areas of social life, the pandemic provided an opportunity for reflection. If sport is, as so many have loudly proclaimed, a vital part of social life, then it must bend to the will of the social, not override it.

Sport and health scholars play a vital role here. “Creating the possibility of new alternatives for societies” requires information, advocacy, and action from vocal and engaged critical sport and health scholars committed to offering and insisting upon conceptual clarity; advancing health paradigms sensitive to the wider social, political, and economic determinants of health; recognizing health as a political right of all people; and working with and through government and public sector policy circles. Rowe (2020 , p. 7) writes, “It is unlikely that sport after the pandemic will be transformed, but it will certainly be changed.” At the risk of stating the obvious, we must do all that we can to ensure that it will change for the better of all.

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Health Promotion — Sport As A Public Health Issue

Sport as a Public Health Issue

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Published: Jul 15, 2020

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Physical Activity Is Good for the Mind and the Body

Health and Well-Being Matter is the monthly blog of the Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

Everyone has their own way to “recharge” their sense of well-being — something that makes them feel good physically, emotionally, and spiritually even if they aren’t consciously aware of it. Personally, I know that few things can improve my day as quickly as a walk around the block or even just getting up from my desk and doing some push-ups. A hike through the woods is ideal when I can make it happen. But that’s me. It’s not simply that I enjoy these activities but also that they literally make me feel better and clear my mind.

Mental health and physical health are closely connected. No kidding — what’s good for the body is often good for the mind. Knowing what you can do physically that has this effect for you will change your day and your life.

Physical activity has many well-established mental health benefits. These are published in the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and include improved brain health and cognitive function (the ability to think, if you will), a reduced risk of anxiety and depression, and improved sleep and overall quality of life. Although not a cure-all, increasing physical activity directly contributes to improved mental health and better overall health and well-being.

Learning how to routinely manage stress and getting screened for depression are simply good prevention practices. Awareness is especially critical at this time of year when disruptions to healthy habits and choices can be more likely and more jarring. Shorter days and colder temperatures have a way of interrupting routines — as do the holidays, with both their joys and their stresses. When the plentiful sunshine and clear skies of temperate months give way to unpredictable weather, less daylight, and festive gatherings, it may happen unconsciously or seem natural to be distracted from being as physically active. However, that tendency is precisely why it’s so important that we are ever more mindful of our physical and emotional health — and how we can maintain both — during this time of year.

Roughly half of all people in the United States will be diagnosed with a mental health disorder at some point in their lifetime, with anxiety and anxiety disorders being the most common. Major depression, another of the most common mental health disorders, is also a leading cause of disability for middle-aged adults. Compounding all of this, mental health disorders like depression and anxiety can affect people’s ability to take part in health-promoting behaviors, including physical activity. In addition, physical health problems can contribute to mental health problems and make it harder for people to get treatment for mental health disorders.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the need to take care of our physical and emotional health to light even more so these past 2 years. Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General highlighted how the pandemic has exacerbated the mental health crisis in youth .

The good news is that even small amounts of physical activity can immediately reduce symptoms of anxiety in adults and older adults. Depression has also shown to be responsive to physical activity. Research suggests that increased physical activity, of any kind, can improve depression symptoms experienced by people across the lifespan. Engaging in regular physical activity has also been shown to reduce the risk of developing depression in children and adults.

Though the seasons and our life circumstances may change, our basic needs do not. Just as we shift from shorts to coats or fresh summer fruits and vegetables to heartier fall food choices, so too must we shift our seasonal approach to how we stay physically active. Some of that is simply adapting to conditions: bundling up for a walk, wearing the appropriate shoes, or playing in the snow with the kids instead of playing soccer in the grass.

Sometimes there’s a bit more creativity involved. Often this means finding ways to simplify activity or make it more accessible. For example, it may not be possible to get to the gym or even take a walk due to weather or any number of reasons. In those instances, other options include adding new types of movement — such as impromptu dance parties at home — or doing a few household chores (yes, it all counts as physical activity).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I built a makeshift gym in my garage as an alternative to driving back and forth to the gym several miles from home. That has not only saved me time and money but also afforded me the opportunity to get 15 to 45 minutes of muscle-strengthening physical activity in at odd times of the day.

For more ideas on how to get active — on any day — or for help finding the motivation to get started, check out this Move Your Way® video .

The point to remember is that no matter the approach, the Physical Activity Guidelines recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (anything that gets your heart beating faster) each week and at least 2 days per week of muscle-strengthening activity (anything that makes your muscles work harder than usual). Youth need 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day. Preschool-aged children ages 3 to 5 years need to be active throughout the day — with adult caregivers encouraging active play — to enhance growth and development. Striving toward these goals and then continuing to get physical activity, in some shape or form, contributes to better health outcomes both immediately and over the long term.

For youth, sports offer additional avenues to more physical activity and improved mental health. Youth who participate in sports may enjoy psychosocial health benefits beyond the benefits they gain from other forms of leisure-time physical activity. Psychological health benefits include higher levels of perceived competence, confidence, and self-esteem — not to mention the benefits of team building, leadership, and resilience, which are important skills to apply on the field and throughout life. Research has also shown that youth sports participants have a reduced risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Additionally, team sports participation during adolescence may lead to better mental health outcomes in adulthood (e.g., less anxiety and depression) for people exposed to adverse childhood experiences. In addition to the physical and mental health benefits, sports can be just plain fun.

Physical activity’s implications for significant positive effects on mental health and social well-being are enormous, impacting every facet of life. In fact, because of this national imperative, the presidential executive order that re-established the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition explicitly seeks to “expand national awareness of the importance of mental health as it pertains to physical fitness and nutrition.” While physical activity is not a substitute for mental health treatment when needed and it’s not the answer to certain mental health challenges, it does play a significant role in our emotional and cognitive well-being.

No matter how we choose to be active during the holiday season — or any season — every effort to move counts toward achieving recommended physical activity goals and will have positive impacts on both the mind and the body. Along with preventing diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and the additional risks associated with these comorbidities, physical activity’s positive effect on mental health is yet another important reason to be active and Move Your Way .

As for me… I think it’s time for a walk. Happy and healthy holidays, everyone!

Yours in health, Paul

Paul Reed, MD Rear Admiral, U.S. Public Health Service Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Director, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

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• Essay On Importance Of Sports

Essay on Sports

500+ word essay on the importance of sports.

Sports keep us healthy and active. We can have a healthy mind only when we have a healthy body. We can achieve anything in our lives if we have a healthy body and a peaceful mind. Physical and mental well-being comes naturally when we involve ourselves in sports activities. Sports help in improving our overall personality and make us more active and attentive. Here, students can find a 500+ Words Essay on the Importance of Sports where we will be discussing how important a role sports plays in our life.

Essay on the Importance of Sports

The topic of sports is very broad. It can serve as a form of therapy and a tool in different aspects of life, which can help change the world. Through sports, children develop physical skills, exercise, be team players, and improve their self-esteem. Sports play a significant role in advancing education and in enhancing knowledge.

Playing sports means regular exercising, jogging, going to the fitness centres or playing any game. There are different types of games involved in sports activities. Each game has its own specific rules. These sports activities are done either by individuals or teams for leisure, and entertainment as well as to compete against one another. Playing sports improves the physiological functions of the body organs and improves the functionality of the entire body system. Through sports, we learn different skills like leadership, patience, coordination, motivation, and team effort.

Sport has great importance in building personality, too. For some people, it is not only the body movement or playing strategy, but it’s a life philosophy. In the modern world, a positive attitude to sports is becoming a trend and style. Young people try to look sporty, fit and full of energy. A sports career in India was considered less lucrative in the past. However, now it has become one of the gainful professional options for students. Sometimes students take an interest in sports merely for adventure and a tension-free life. Now, sports games are gaining popularity. Various sports competitions are played at the international level, such as the Olympics. Apart from it, multiple matches and inter-city competitions are organised to promote the field of sports.

Benefits of Sports and Games

Nowadays, we can see problems related to unhealthy lifestyles. We sit more and more on the couch, surrounded by modern technologies. We don’t realise the importance and benefits of sports and physical activities. The lack of physical activity in our body leads to obesity and many other health problems such as heart disease and so. It has become a necessity of today’s world that all of us do daily physical activities or play any sports for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Regular physical activity benefits health in many ways. It helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints, controls weight, reduces fat, and prevents high blood pressure. Children who participate in physical activities such as sports, experience positive health benefits. These health benefits include a decreased risk of high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Also, these children are less likely to smoke or use drugs and alcohol than children who don’t participate in sports.

Keep learning and stay tuned with BYJU’S for the latest update on CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive Exams. Also, download the BYJU’S App for interactive study videos.

Frequently asked Questions on the Importance of Sports Essay

Why is playing sports important for us.

Playing sports not only helps in the active functioning of our body but also helps in flexibility and reduces the chances of falling sick.

Which was the first sport to be played in the world?

Wrestling is said to have been the first sport played in the world, depictions of the same can be found in the caves of France.

Which is the most famous sport in the world?

Football is ranked as the top sport with 3.5 billion followers, seconded by Cricket.

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US - Extended Essay Guide: Sports, Exercise, and Health Science

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Sports, Exercise and Health Science Overview

• Sports, Exercise and Health Science: Subject Specific Guidance An extended essay (EE) in sports, exercise and health science (SEHS) provides students with an opportunity to apply the wide range of skills in the field of sports, exercise and health science to research into a topic of personal interest. SEHS covers a wide range of topics from human physiology to principles of biomechanics and the nature of skill acquisition. It is an applied science course so its EE investigates a sporting or health-related issue using the principles of science.
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• School Education /

Essay on Importance of Sports

• Updated on  
• Oct 7, 2023

Sports are an integral part of life. Sports are exciting activities which are not only fun to play but also promote physical fitness. But do you know the benefits of playing sports both mentally and physically? Well, we have come to your rescue. In this blog, you will read about the importance of sports and how it can help one learn several new qualities. These qualities will help one to be ahead in their life. We will also be discussing more on this topic through essays. 

This Blog Includes:

Physical benefits, mental benefits, essay on importance of sports in 200 words, essay on importance of sports in 300 words, essay on importance of sports in 400 words, importance of sports .

Sports are essential to every student’s life. Almost every parent believes their child should be involved in sports during their growing years. Moreover, playing sports keeps us fit, healthy and active. Sports teach essential life skills such as discipline, perseverance, teamwork, and time management. Here are all the benefits one gets by playing sports. 

• By playing sports, one gets to be physically active and at the same time maintain discipline. 
• By involving oneself in sports, it reduces the risk of obesity and other chronic health issues. 
• Playing sports leads to muscle development, promotes strong bones and lastly reduces the risk of osteoporosis.

The benefits of sports are not limited to physical enhancement, they also help in brain functioning and mental activities.

• Playing in team sports, helps one to learn to work together leading to achieving a common goal – leadership skills, teamwork and several other qualities. 
• Sports also improve one’s decision-making skills and boost self-confidence.
• Lastly, sports help one to reduce stress, depression and other mental issues.

Also Read: Essay on My Aim in Life

Sports are essential because they promote social, mental, and physical well-being. They are not only a source of amusement but also play a huge role in many facets of life.

To begin with, sports encourage physical fitness. Sports participation helps people maintain a healthy lifestyle by enhancing their stamina, strength, and cardiovascular fitness. The risk of obesity, diabetes, and other lifestyle-related disorders is reduced by regular exercise in sports.

Secondly, sports improve mental health. It encourages self-control, tenacity, and goal-setting. At the same time, athletes gain the ability to manage stress, develop resilience, and cultivate a solid work ethic. While team sports can foster interpersonal, communication, and teamwork skills.

Sports also help to maintain societal harmony. They give people from various backgrounds a place to interact, fostering friendship and harmony. Sporting events frequently foster a sense of belonging and pride among viewers.

Sports in the classroom impart important life lessons including cooperation, initiative, and sportsmanship. For gifted athletes, they can also result in scholarships and educational possibilities.

Also Read: Essay on Waste Management

The development of the body, mind and social structure are all considerably aided by sports in human society. They have a special and complex significance that goes much beyond simple competition or entertainment.

Sports are crucial for physical health in the first place. People who participate in sports and physical activity can keep up a healthy lifestyle. Sporting activity regularly enhances physical endurance, muscular strength, and cardiovascular health. It works well to combat the rising obesity pandemic, lower the likelihood of developing chronic illnesses like diabetes, and improve general health.

Sports are essential for mental health in addition to physical health. Athletes learn to be disciplined, determined, and have a strong work ethic. They get knowledge on how to set and accomplish goals, manage stress, and develop resilience. These life skills learned via sports are transferable to many facets of success on both a personal and professional level.

Sports also encourage social growth. They give people from various backgrounds a place to interact, fostering social cohesiveness and harmony. Sporting activities foster a sense of community by inspiring people to interact, find common ground, and form enduring friendships.

Sports in education provide a distinctive learning opportunity. They impart characteristics like leadership, sportsmanship, and teamwork, which are crucial in both academic and professional environments. Many students find that participating in athletics paves the way for scholarships and other educational opportunities that might not otherwise be possible.

Sports are economically significant as well. They open up positions in the sports sector for everyone from athletes and coaches to event planners and sports medical specialists. Major athletic events can promote local economies, increase income, and create jobs by boosting tourism.

In conclusion, sports are more than just amusement; they are essential to leading a balanced existence. Sports have an enormous value that goes well beyond the pitch or court, making them an essential component of human society.

Sports plays a crucial role in our lives, promoting our physical and mental health as well as our social and economic development. Sports provide entertainment and recreation for both participants and spectators. They offer an escape from daily routines, a source of excitement, and a sense of shared experience.

First off, sports are essential for fostering physical wellness. People can keep up an active lifestyle by participating in sports. It improves muscle strength, total physical endurance, and cardiovascular health. Regular exercise dramatically lowers the risk of lifestyle disorders like diabetes, obesity, and heart problems. These health advantages help people live longer and with higher quality.

Second, engaging in athletics is crucial for mental health. Athletes learn valuable life lessons including self-control, tenacity, and goal-setting. They gain skills for dealing with stress, developing resilience, and upholding a solid work ethic. These mental skills developed via sports are transferable to many facets of life and can promote success and overall well-being.

Additionally, sports encourage social growth and unity. They bridge gaps in class, age, gender, and ethnicity by bringing people together. Sporting occasions foster a sense of belonging and camaraderie, inspiring people to interact, discover similar interests, and form enduring connections. This social component of sport fosters harmony and understanding between various groups.

Sports offer a special educational opportunity. They provide characteristics like leadership, sportsmanship, and teamwork, which are crucial in both academic and professional situations. Sports are given a high priority in the curriculum of many educational institutions, which recognise the benefits they provide for students’ all-around growth.

Sports are economically significant as well. They open up positions in the sports sector for everyone from athletes and coaches to event planners and sports medical specialists. Major athletic events have the potential to increase tourism, fire up local economies, bring in money, and provide jobs.

Sports also support a sense of national identity and pride. International sporting success may bring a nation together by fostering a sense of achievement and patriotism. Athletes serve as ambassadors for their nations, representing the commitment and labour of the populace.

To conclude, sports are more than just amusement; they provide the basis of a full existence. They encourage mental toughness, social harmony, physical fitness, and practical life skills. Sports participation should be promoted as a top priority by everyone—individuals, educational institutions, and governments. Sports are important for reasons that go beyond the physical, contributing to human society as a whole.

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Sports teaches one several values. These include discipline, elegance, sacrifice, instills leadership qualities which help people to lead a successful life.

When people participate together in a sport, they know that they competing against each other. This helps them to come together as a team.

As they keep kids physically fit and engaged, sports have a direct link to a healthy physique.

For more information related to such interesting topics, visit our essay-writing page and make sure to follow Leverage Edu . 

Malvika Chawla

Malvika is a content writer cum news freak who comes with a strong background in Journalism and has worked with renowned news websites such as News 9 and The Financial Express to name a few. When not writing, she can be found bringing life to the canvasses by painting on them.

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Guest Essay

Tired of Sucking It Up as a Climber, I’ve Embraced a Softer Strength

By Beth Rodden

Ms. Rodden is a professional climber and the author of the forthcoming memoir, “A Light Through the Cracks.”

I don’t know what time it was when my husband at the time, the rock climber Tommy Caldwell, finally scrambled over the summit. The sun had risen sometime during the first part of the climb and had set again hours later. I squinted up at him, tired eyes burning as I watched his shadow moving in the beam of my headlight. He had just completed the second free ascent of the Direct Route on the northwest face of Half Dome, a 2,000-foot climb in Yosemite National Park.

We were elite professional climbers, and this was what we did best. Sometimes we made history together; other times I supported him in his feats, belaying and carrying all the gear. Either way, the days were long and hard.

The climber Todd Skinner spent 61 days in 1993 working to establish the Direct Route, then considered the most difficult big wall climb in the world, before reaching the top. On our climb in 2007, our 2 a.m. wake-up, more than 24 hours earlier, hadn’t even felt all that early to me. Sleeping in past midnight? That meant what I was getting up for wasn’t that rad, that hard core. Tommy made it to the top in a day, adding a move that made the climb more difficult than the one Mr. Skinner had pioneered. It felt routine.

Hanging in the middle of Half Dome was an ordinary thing. Ascending ropes with bloody knuckles and a heavy pack thousands of feet off the ground was as conventional to me as grabbing the bananas and apples in the produce section: just part of my day. Climbers pride themselves on being better than normal people. Not just in the “I climbed a mountain and you didn’t” type of way, but in the fabric of how we approach life. How we eat, where we sleep, the stories we walk away with: It’s all better.

By the time I was in my mid-20s, I was a walking archetype of how to succeed in that world because of the belief system I followed: suck it up, persevere, win. I was used to pushing the level of climbing further, used to doing things that no other women had done — and even, a couple of times, things that no guys had done.

I specialized in free climbing, a particular (and particularly challenging) discipline that requires a climber to rely on her gear only for protection from a fall, not for any assistance in moving up the rock. I had free-climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan three times, by three independent routes. Elsewhere in Yosemite, I had established a new route in 2008, Meltdown , that was widely viewed then as the hardest traditional climb in the world, not repeated until 2018. (“Traditional” meaning I depended on a rope suspended by gear I placed myself, rather than on bolts permanently installed in the rock.) For a decade, I had appeared in climbing films and on the pages of climbing magazines. Pushing through the pain, sacrificing my body, shoving my fear away: It’s all what made me better than the rest. I liked being better than the rest.

As we stumbled to the car after that daylong effort on the Direct Route, my arms and legs felt tired, my mouth parched. I was good at this. I didn’t need to eat much food, drink much water. I was a low-maintenance girl. I always got patted on the back for not taking up too much space and being able to suffer with the best of them. There were times when I was climbing that I wept with fear, with fatigue, with regret. But when I did, I tried to hide it. I’d had that instinct from my earliest climbing days, even before I survived a days-long kidnapping during an expedition to Kyrgyzstan. After I made it home (Tommy had pushed one of the armed kidnappers off a cliff — a fall we later learned he had survived — enabling our group of four climbers to escape), I had more than doubled down. Scorning and hiding my feelings, shoving them down, felt admirable to me then. I’d been told it was strength. It felt like strength.

There wasn’t much room for women or feelings at the top of the sport back then. A handful of us were landing on the covers of magazines or vying to be the token featured woman at a climbing film festival, but I learned early on that as good as I was at actually climbing, I needed to be able to suffer to stand out. Climbing through a broken foot? Amazing, here’s a raise. Did you hear how many hours they went without food and water for the summit? Make a feature movie about them. As much as logistics and physical prowess, subscribing to the bravado was part of the job description in climbing. And for years, I was all in.

I can’t say there was one moment, a specific event that made me start to question the “suck it up, Rodden” theme song I had lived by for so long. I got divorced, and eventually remarried; I got injured over and over. After years of injuries I had a child, and that led to relearning my body. Maybe it was the scale of all those changes in my life that forced me to reconsider the way I’d always done things, or maybe I just got fed up with the facade. Why was it noble to climb through cracks on El Cap soaked with climbers’ urine, but leaking while jogging postpartum was something to be ashamed of?

Gradually, I began to question the old mentality. I began to be more open about what I found value in, and learned to share my pain and my fears with friends instead of hiding them behind a perma-smile. I started to be kinder to myself, and to be frank that, as effective as it had been for me and my career, I just didn’t see the point in suffering for the sake of a climb anymore. In letting go of that, I was surprised to find a new kind of strength — something perhaps truer and more durable than the ability to just plow through.

I am still a professional climber, though I haven’t been at the peak of the sport in a very long time. I still have goals, and I still love the feeling of trying hard and succeeding, but I love easy days at the crag with a group of girlfriends just as much. My sponsors have found value in partnering with me beyond the number grade assigned to a climb that I’ve done. Instead, we’ve realized together that none of these topics that have plagued the community for so long will go away if left in silence. Making the sport more inclusive, speaking about the ways that climbing can and should evolve as it grows in popularity, is my current project.

This past winter found me injured and on the sidelines yet again. But this time, instead of hobbling around with a crutch and a cast on my leg or having a finger splinted up, I was carrying a foam pad wherever I went, so that I could easily get into a horizontal position. Ten years after I’d given birth, my postpartum bladder prolapse symptoms had returned. Naturally, people would ask why I wasn’t climbing. Years earlier, I would have been mortified. But now I answered bluntly: “I blew out my pelvic floor .” To my surprise, most everyone would sit down, ask what that meant, how it happened, what the symptoms were, what recovery would look like.

I’m not the only one who’s changed. Climbing has come so far in the 30 years since I started in the sport. Today, instead of getting dropped by their sponsors, women can continue their careers with vigor after having children. Mental health awareness and therapy are widely accepted (which is imperative in a community that experiences so much death and trauma), and now, perhaps even conversations about vulnerabilities like perimenopause and prolapse don’t have to be hidden. I like to think we’re starting to embrace a softer kind of strength. Maybe taking care of ourselves, whatever that looks like, can now be as celebrated as dodging death for a summit.

Beth Rodden is a professional climber and the author of the forthcoming memoir, “A Light Through the Cracks.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Pulling together: how Cambridge came to dominate the Boat Race – a photo essay

The race along the River Thames between England’s two greatest universities spans 195 years of rivalry and is now one of the world’s oldest and most famous amateur sporting events. Our photographer has been spending time with the Cambridge University Boat Club over the past few months as they prepare for 2024’s races

T he idea of a Boat Race between the two universities dates back to 1829, sparked into life by a conversation between Old Harrovian schoolfriends Charles Merivale, a student at the time at St John’s College Cambridge, and Charles Wordsworth who was at Christ Church Oxford. On 12 March that year, following a meeting of the newly formed Cambridge University Boat Club, a letter was sent to Oxford.

The University of Cambridge hereby challenge the University of Oxford to row a match at or near London each in an eight-oar boat during the Easter vacation.

From then, the Cambridge University Boat Club has existed to win just one race against just one opponent, something Cambridge has got very good at recently. Last year the Light Blues won every race: the open-weight men’s and women’s races, both reserve races, plus both lightweight races – six victories, no losses, an unprecedented clean sweep. Cambridge women’s open-weight boat, or blue boat, has won the last six Boat Races while the men’s equivalent have won five out of the last seven. In such an unpredictable race, where external factors can play a large part, this dominance is startling.

Thames trials

Rough water as the two women’s boats make their way along the River Thames near Putney Embankment during the Cambridge University Boat Race trials.

It’s a mid-December day by the River Thames. The sky and water merge together in a uniform battleship grey and the bitter north wind whips the tops off the waves. Outside a Putney boathouse two groups of tense-looking women dressed in duck-egg blue tops and black leggings with festive antlers in their hair are huddling together, perhaps for warmth, maybe for solidarity. The odd nervous bout of laughter breaks out. For some of them this is about to be their first experience of rowing on the Tideway, a baptism of fire on the famous stretch of London water where the Boat Race takes place. “Perfect conditions,” remarks Paddy Ryan, the head coach for Cambridge University women, for this is trial eights day, when friends in different boats duel for coveted spots in the top boat.

A couple of hours later these women along with their male equivalents will have pushed themselves to the absolute limit, so much so that several of the men are seen trying to throw up over the side of their boats at the finish under Chiswick Bridge. This may be brutal but it’s just the start. For these students the next few months are going to be incredibly tough, balancing academic work with training like a professional athlete. Through the harshest months of the year they will be focused on preparing for the end of March and a very simple goal: beating Oxford in the Boat Race.

Agony for one of the men’s boats after the finish of the race near Chiswick Bridge during the Cambridge University Boat Race trials.

Ely early mornings

Two of the women’s boats head out in the early morning for a training session on the Great Ouse.

Early winter mornings on the banks of the Great Ouse, well before the sun has risen, can be pretty bleak. In the pitch black a batch of light blue minivans drop off the men and women rowers together at the sleek Ely boathouse that was opened in 2016 at the cost of £4.9m – it’s here that all Cambridge’s on-water training takes place. Very soon a fleet of boats carrying all the teams takes to the water for a training session that may last a couple of hours. Then it’s a quick change, a lift to the train station and back to Cambridge for morning lectures.

The women’s squad head into the Ely boathouse after a 6am drop-off.

As a rower descends the stairs to the bays where the boats are stored, there is a clear indication of why it was built and why they are there. “This is where we prepare to win Boat Races,” a sign says. Since this boathouse was built, Cambridge have won 30 of the 37 races across all categories.

Top: The men’s squad stretch in the boathouse before an early morning training session and a member of the men’s blue boat descends the stairs into where the boats are kept. Below: One of the men’s teams set off for early morning training and the women’s blue boat rows past the women’s lightweight crew during a training session.

It’s a far cry from the old tin sheds with barely any heating and no showers. These current facilities are impressive, enabling the entire men’s and women’s squads to be there at the same time and get boats out.

Top: The men’s blue boat prepare to derig their boat at their Ely training site. Above: The women’s blue boat put their vessel back in the boathouse after a training session on the Great Ouse.

But it’s not just the boathouse that has contributed so much, it’s also the stretch of water they train on. In a year when floods have affected so many parts of the country it has really come into its own. Paddy Ryan, the chief women’s coach, explains: “Along this stretch the river is actually higher than the surrounding land. The water levels are carefully managed by dikes and pumps. As a result we haven’t lost a single session to flooding. That’s not the case for Oxford. I believe their boathouse has been flooded multiple times this year, unable to get to their boats. We’ve had multiple storms but we’ve been able to row through them all.”

The men’s third boat practises on the Great Ouse.

It’s a flat, unforgiving landscape, especially in midwinter, definitely not the prettiest stretch of water, but Cambridge don’t care. Ryan says: “It might be a little dull on the viewing perspective but we could row on for 27km before needing to turn round. We have a 5km stretch that is marked out every 250m. We are lucky to have it.”

The men’s blue boat practise their starts on the long straight on the Great Ouse.

The sweat box

Members of the men’s squad check on their technique with the use of a mirror at the Goldie boathouse.

The old-fashioned Goldie boathouse is right in the centre of Cambridge perched on the banks of the River Cam. Built in 1873, its delicate exterior belies what goes on inside. This is the boat club’s pain cave, where the rowers sweat buckets, pushing themselves over and over again; it’s a good job the floor is rubberised and easy to wipe clean.

A wreath to Charles Merivale, the founder of the Boat Race, and wood panelling in the upstairs room at the Goldie boathouse which commemorates Cambridge crews that have competed in the Boat Race from 1829.

(Top) Seb Benzecry, men’s president of the Cambridge University Boat Club, and (above) Martin Amethier, a member of the reserve Goldie crew, sweat during sessions on ergo machines.

Iris Powell of the women’s blue boat (above) performs pull-ups during a training session.

Above left: Hannah Murphy, the cox of the women’s blue boat, urges on four of her crew (left to right) Gemma King, Megan Lee, Jenna Armstrong and Clare Hole, as they undertake a long session on the ergo machines. Above right: Kenny Coplan, a member of the men’s blue boat crew, looks exhausted then writes in his times after his session on an ergo machine (below).

Brutal sessions on the various ergo machines, where thousands of metres are clocked and recorded, are a staple of the training regime set in place. If there is any slacking off the students just need to look up at one of the walls where a map of the Boat Race course hangs. The “S” shape of the Thames has been carefully coloured in the correct shade of blue and record timings for various key points on the course have been written in for both men and women. All but one record, and that one is shared, is held by Cambridge.

Paddy Ryan, the women’s chief coach, talks to the women’s blue boat during a training session on the River Great Ouse in February.

A key ingredient in any successful team is the coaching. Cambridge’s setup is stable and well established. Paddy Ryan is the chief women’s coach, a genial, tall Australian, he has been part of the women’s coaching team since 2013. The care and devotion to his squad is perfectly clear. “I have my notebook next to my bed so I can jot things down. I wake up in the middle of the night going: am I making the right decisions? I care about them as people and I need to manage them … We joke as coaches that we are teaching some of the smartest people on the planet how to pull on a stick.”

Rob Baker, the chief men’s coach, has Cambridge rowing in the blood. Born and bred in the city, his father was a university boatman for 25 years. He even married into the sport – his wife, Hayley, rowed for Cambridge as a lightweight – so it was no surprise that he became part of the coaching setup way back in 2001. He was the first full-time women’s coach in 2015 then moved to take over the men in 2018.

Rob Baker, the men’s chief coach, talks to his blue boat at their Ely training site.

Apart from an obvious role in the development of rowing skills, a key part of their job is making sure there is a balance for their student athletes. They understand they have to juggle training needs. “Every week we have a general plan,” says Baker, “but then someone might have an extra class or supervision they’ve got to do so we have to move around it. They are studying at one of the most competitive universities in the world with the highest standards so you’ve got to give them space to do that properly.” He goes on: “But when they get on the start line for their race, they’ll be just as competitive as if they were professionals.”

The presidents

Jenna Armstrong and Seb Benzecry discuss their plans in the Great Hall at Jesus College.

Every year one man and one woman are elected presidents to represent Cambridge University Boat Club. They are the captains and leaders, not only responsible for helping design the training programme in conjunction with the coaches but also making budgetary and tactical decisions along the way. This year both of them, Jenna Armstrong and Seb Benzecry, are from the same college, Jesus, which helps the communication between the two of them. They share ideas and knowledge, thoughts and worries. Their lives, for these intense few months, are a juggling act.

Armstrong is a 30-year-old from New Jersey, and doing a PhD in physiology. Once a very keen competitive junior skier she was forced to abandon her hopes of a career on the slopes after a number of serious knee injuries. She only started rowing in 2011 and only became aware of the Boat Race when she saw it on TV a couple of years later.

Jenna Armstrong, cycling down the Chimney, the grand entrance to Jesus College, to go to the other side of the city to carry out more of her PhD research at the department of physiology, development and neuroscience.

The research she carries out at the university labs could be turn out to be life-saving. “I study mitochondrial function in placentas from women from all over the world to learn how genetic and environmental factors during pregnancy can influence placental metabolism and impact the health of both mother and baby. I’m particularly interested in growth restriction which affects about 10% of babies worldwide. That can have lifelong implications for these babies and currently we don’t have any treatment for this.”

Benzecry, 27, is studying for a PhD in film and screen studies, and comes from a completely different rowing background. He grew up just a stone’s throw from the Boat Race course and went to a school on the banks of the Thames. This will be his 14th year of competitive rowing but his fourth and last Boat Race.

“ I remember one year my birthday fell on race day and we watched after my birthday party. Because we live fairly close to the course, I’ve always felt connected to the race.”

Seb Benzecry stands next to an Antony Gormley statue in the Quincentenary Library at Jesus College as he conducts research for his dissertation which forms part of his PhD in film and screen studies.

Talking about how hard it is to get the right balance between academic student life and rowing, Benzecry says: “I guess you have to accept there are many, many things you can’t do, you just don’t have time for during the season. You have to put the blinkers on.”

Armstrong says: “I have to be very prepared, very strategic and organised. I pack everything the night before, and then once I leave my room in the morning, I don’t go back. That allows me to go to training, go to the lab, go to training again. It’s surreal actually, to come to a place like Cambridge, have one of the best educations in the world on top of the most incredible rowing experiences in the world. We have a thing now in the boat, when we are doing something incredibly hard, I say this is my ideal Saturday, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I would rather be here than in bed or on a date. And I make everyone else say it with me too. I’d rather be nowhere else.”

Benzecry states: “When it’s really bad, when training is so hard, we say Oxford aren’t doing this, they could never do this. It’s an incredibly powerful thing to be thinking we work harder than them, our culture is better than them. They don’t want to go hard as we do – they might think they do but they don’t, they just don’t have it.”

Integration

The men’s and women’s blue boats during a training session on the River Great Ouse in February.

Until 1 August 2020, there were three separate university boat clubs in Cambridge: one for open-weight men, one for lightweight men, and one for open-weight and lightweight women. Since they merged to become one club, it has undoubtedly helped with everyone sharing the same resources and motivating and inspiring one another. No one is more important and everyone has a key part to play in the result. This year, Oxford have followed suit.

Baker says: “I definitely feel, for the athletes themselves, it makes a big difference. They all feel like they’re contributing to one common goal. Every cog in the wheel has to do its job but for sure it feels like one big team on a mission.”

Benzecry explains: “We’re seeing each other train, we’re all out on the water at the same time, we’re supporting each other throughout the season, building a sense of momentum for the whole club towards the races. Everyone’s just inspiring each other all the time and I think that’s been such a sort of cultural shift for Cambridge.”

The men’s blue boat pack their craft on to a trailer at their Ely training site ready for the trip down to London for the Boat Race.

Siobhan Cassidy, the chair of the Boat Race, knows from first-hand how the integration has helped. She rowed for the Light Blues in 1995 and had a key role in the transition. “We could see the advantages of working together, collaborating as a bigger team, the positive impact we felt that could have on performance. But not just the output, actually the whole experience for the young people taking part.”

Siobhan Cassidy, the chair of the Boat Race, pictured at the Thames Rowing Club at Putney Embankment.

This Saturday, if the weather holds, an estimated 250,000 people, the vast majority of whom have no allegiance to one shade of blue or the other, will pack the banks of the Thames to see these races. It’s one of the largest free events in Britain. Broadcast live on BBC One, the race is also beamed to 200 countries across the world.

The starting stone for the University Boat Race and pavement inscription: “The best leveller is the river we have in common” at Putney Embankment.

A map of the Boat Race course at the Goldie boathouse, with the Thames coloured in Cambridge blue and record timings written in for men and women showing almost total Cambridge dominance.

A sporting pinnacle being contested on a fast-flowing, unpredictable river by two teams of university students – it’s pretty bizarre. But maybe it’s that quirkiness that keeps the race, after almost two hundred years, still going strong. And even more bizarre to think that Cambridge, the current dominant force in the Boat Race, a sporting event that can’t shrug off its elitist stereotype, owes so much of that success to such egalitarian principles.

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Five things the Rangers need to repeat as World Series champions: Health, rookie success, luck and more

The last team to win consecutive rings was the 1998-2000 yankees.

Major League Baseball has not had a repeat World Series champion in more than two decades. In fact, the most recent team to lift the Commissioner's Trophy in consecutive Octobers, the New York Yankees , did so as part of a three-peat from 1998 to 2000. 

In all likelihood, the Texas Rangers are not going to end the drought.

We write that not to dismiss or belittle these Rangers, but rather to acknowledge that reality: while it's never been easier for a team to reach the playoffs, it's never been harder to win the World Series. Postseason expansion has created more opportunity -- to crack the bracket, and to be eliminated before you can make it to the Fall Classic.

Even so, we wanted to conduct a thought experiment by asking ourselves: just what would have to happen for the Rangers to make history and repeat? Below, we've identified five factors and developments that would likely need to be met.

1. Aces return to health

Earlier this spring, we identified the Rangers as one of the playoff teams from last year that was most likely to miss the 2024 tournament . Again, that wasn't to insult the Rangers. They're just entering with a highly compromised rotation. The Rangers will be without aces Jacob deGrom (Tommy John surgery) and Max Scherzer (back surgery) to begin the season. Free-agent signing Tyler Mahle (Tommy John surgery) is likely to miss the entire season, or close to it, as well.

The Rangers' uncertain local television broadcast deal meant they didn't add much to their rotation over the offseason. That leaves them hoping and praying that nothing happens to Nathan Eovaldi , Jon Gray , and Andrew Heaney . In our estimation, that's not a great place to be in. Consider what we wrote back in February: "Mind you, all three are coming off good (or great, in Eovaldi's case) years, but go back to 2022 and they averaged fewer than 20 starts apiece."

Say Eovaldi, Gray, and Heaney do make it through the year unscathed. And say that Dane Dunning and Cody Bradford are tolerable back-end options. The Rangers could still really use their aces, deGorm and Scherzer, returning to health and effectiveness. 

Max Scherzer's 1st K. pic.twitter.com/SYIYibSOwr — Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 31, 2023

Unfortunately, it's fair to have reservations about both: deGrom is 35 and trying to return from a second Tommy John operation, while Scherzer is 39 and hoping his back is improved. No one wants to acknowledge the left-tail outcomes because those pitchers have been so great and deserve to go out in their own terms, but they exist; there's no guarantee either will be able to find their old form.

If they can though, boy, will the Rangers ever be a nightmare of a postseason foe.

2. Young outfielders excel

We don't think we need to waste space writing about the charms and merits of Corey Seager , Marcus Semien , and Texas' other veteran hitters. Instead, we'll note that the Rangers might improve over last year's unit (the fourth best in the majors once park-adjusted) if two of the league's best young outfielders deliver on their promise.

We're talking about Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford , CBS Sports' Nos. 3 and 4 prospects . They're both 22 years of age or younger, and they're both ready for big roles.

Carter proved as much last fall, batting .306/.413/.645 (182 OPS+) with five home runs and three stolen bases in 23 games. He then reached base in all 17 of the Rangers' playoff games, amassing a .917 OPS just over a month into his big-league career.

SIX homers for @langford_wyatt this spring. 💪 pic.twitter.com/fo1DfW9Dx1 — Texas Rangers (@Rangers) March 20, 2024

Langford, the No. 4 pick last summer, hit .360/.480/.677 with 10 home runs and 12 stolen bases in 44 games split across four levels. He earned a spot on the Opening Day roster this spring, posting a 1.242 OPS in 17 games while facing competition that was, on average, roughly Triple-A level, according to Baseball Reference.

Nothing against Travis Jankowski , Robbie Grossman , Mitch Garver , and the other Rangers who took their turns in the corner outfield and at DH for the 2023 Rangers, but we think the Rangers will gladly take a full season of Carter and Langford in their place.

3. Lineup health holds

The Rangers were one of the healthiest teams in the majors last season. According to Spotrac's data, Texas missed the eighth fewest days to injury . Most of their top hitters avoided missing much, if any action. Marcus Semien played in every single game; Nathaniel Lowe appeared in 161 contests; and Adolis García, Leody Taveras , and Jonah Heim each cleared 130 games. 

The Rangers, predictably, were one of eight teams who had at least seven players appear in 120 contests. Only four teams had more: the Philadelphia Phillies , Los Angeles Dodgers , Atlanta Braves , and Toronto Blue Jays notched eight apiece. You may have noticed that all of those teams made the playoffs. That's no coincidence: it's a lot easier to be good when your players' health works in your favor.

2-for-2 spring debut for @coreyseager_5 . 😎 pic.twitter.com/jMZmW9kGwJ — Texas Rangers (@Rangers) March 23, 2024

Alas, player health is, at best, a black box. Even the teams don't know for sure who will or won't stay hearty and hale. If they did, the seasons would be easier to predict. 

What, exactly, awaits the Rangers and their position player health is anyone's guess. One thing is for sure: they've already had their share of issues this spring. Not only with the pitching staff, but the lineup. Both left-side infielders, Corey Seager and Josh Jung , missed time during spring training with various injuries (Seager is coming off an offseason sports hernia surgery and Jung suffered a low-grade calf strain). Lowe, meanwhile, will be out to start the season because of a strained oblique.

Is that a sign of trouble to come, or merely a bump in the road? We'll find out.

4. Astros , Mariners slip

You needn't break out a calculator or open a spreadsheet to accept the following statement as fact: the fewer series you have to win during the playoffs, the better your chances of reaching the World Series. It's self-evident. The Rangers did it the hard way last season, bumping off the 99-win Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card Series before they even got to the ALDS. If they want to repeat as champions, they should prioritize taking the easy road: securing a top-two seed.

The only way to do that is to win the American League West -- something the Rangers have not done since 2016. That means scaling the Houston Astros, who they tied with last season, only to then lose the division on account of the tiebreaker. (The expanded postseason means that all playoff-related ties are settled mathematically.)

In turn, the Rangers need to play well, and they need the Astros and the Seattle Mariners, the other serious playoff contender in the division, to slip up. That can mean playing worse than expected; that can mean having more injuries than expected; or, in the vein of last season, it can mean the Rangers win the head-to-head season series, giving themselves the ultimate edge in tie-breaking scenarios. 

For an idea of how the three teams stack up, here's a look at various forecast models: SportsLine , Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA , and FanGraphs' ZiPS . 

Each model agrees: the Astros look like the best team on paper, and it's not even close. Interestingly, ZiPS has the Rangers below the Mariners; the other two models have the Rangers and Mariners close enough that you could see it going either way. (Bear in mind that the standard error bar for even the best forecast models is about five games.)

Clearly the Rangers aren't in a scholarship year; they're going to have to play well and maybe even overperform to avoid needing another four playoff series victories. Even if they can win the division, they're still going to need the following trait to close the deal.

You had to know this was coming -- even with how much we've touched on health. Even if the Rangers enter October healthy and as a top seed in the American League, thereby allowing them to bypass the wild-card round, they still need fortune to smile upon them in order to avoid an elimination in a best-of-five Division Series matchup. 

The same would then need to be true in the subsequent best-of-seven League Championship and World Series. There are a lot of ways to fail in October.

Yes, talent and preparation factor into these things, too. But you can do everything right in baseball and fall short of the desired, perhaps even deserved, goal. That's part of why those champagne showers are so sweet: it's not just a case of hard work meeting opportunity; it's that, and the cosmos aligning in a beautiful syzygy.

Maybe the Rangers will find their way back to the podium at the end of another season. There's no shame in it if they don't.

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Kings complete season sweep of Jazz

Harrison Barnes and Keegan Murray combined for 49 points, DeAaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis registered double-doubles and the Sacramento Kings broke a third-quarter tie with a 15-0 flurry that produced a runaway, 127-106 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz on Sunday night.

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Utah health group launches study to identify, manage growing medical costs

By jamie lampros - special to the daily herald | mar 31, 2024.

Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press

As rising health care costs further pinch Utah families, a nonprofit group announced Thursday the first statewide study of ways to control factors driving those increases.

Jaime Wissler, executive director of One Utah Health Collaborative, said in an interview that insurance companies and others have bought into the first-of-its-kind statewide effort to gather data showing where costs are rising and what issues are involved.

Dr. Sri Bose, the collaborative’s director of research, said health care spending is rising and continues to take up a larger proportion of state, employer and family budgets.

“The average annual family premium employee contribution in Utah increased by 35% from 2017 to 2022,” Bose said in a press release. “While average hourly wages only increase by 25%. For Utah’s employers, families and economy to thrive, we need to measure spending and its trends to ensure we have a sustainable and affordable healthcare system for all.”

In 2022, Gov. Spencer Cox launched the One Utah Health Collaborative, a community-owned nonprofit whose goal is to improve the trajectory of health care in Utah. Last week, the collaborative formed a Technical Advisory Group representing more than 95% of insured Utahns. Participating insurers include Aetna/CVS Health, Cigna, Molina Healthcare of Utah, Public Employment Health Plan, Regence Bluecross BlueShield of Utah, Select Health, United Healthcare, Utah Medicaid and University of Utah Health Plans.

The advisory group is a subset of the Healthcare Spending Task Force, which along with the collaborative’s Stakeholder Community Board, decided to start collecting data throughout the state with the goals of establishing a health care spending baseline, analyzing the state’s total health care expenditures and identifying trends in spending growth.

“We have heads of state from every major payer group, providers and (the) community as part of the board, and we hope after the data is gathered we’ll be able to begin planning ways to get everyone working together to find ways to paddle in the same direction so we can get the needle moving,” Wissler said.

“Not only is understanding the rate of health care spending growth critical, but to change its course, we also need to understand what is driving costs at a statewide level,” she added. “We will evaluate and analyze this and additional data with our stakeholders to better achieve our missions of affordable and accessible health care that improves the quality of life for all. We are grateful for all of the support we’ve received and all of those involved in this project.”

According to the press release, Utah Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, who also serves as executive director of the National Association of Health Data Organizations, said at a conference in March that it’s important to collect data statewide on what is being provided in health care so “we can do cost benchmarking and call out hotspots.”

“We are appreciative of DHHS (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) and the One Utah Health Collaborative, who are ensuring we watch what is happening in our state,” he said. “Without this comparative analysis, we won’t make change. We need to bring together our data to tell the full story.”

The results are expected to be completed by the end of the year, at which time they will be released to the public, Wissler said.

To learn more, go to uthealthcollaborative.org .

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Horror moment woman gets her leg trapped in train door before being dragged along platform at Moscow station

• Woman was leaving the train in Moscow when doors jammed shut on her left leg  
• She started hitting doors to try to free her leg but was unable to get them open 
• Onlookers ran over to help but they could not prise the doors open 
• Woman was dragged along the platform with her leg still trapped inside train
• She was found on train tracks by emergency services and taken to hospital 
• It is unclear what her injuries are and what condition she is in  

By Isabella Nikolic For Mailonline

Published: 11:04 EDT, 21 April 2022 | Updated: 12:50 EDT, 21 April 2022

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This is the horrifying moment a woman's leg became trapped in the door of a train before she was dragged down the length of the platform. 

The woman, in her twenties, was stepping out of the last set of doors of the Moscow -Pushkino electric train at Yaroslavsky railway station on April 18 when the doors jammed shut on her left leg. 

Footage shows the woman stumbling as the doors close on her leg, trapping her. She hits the doors in a frantic bid to get them to open. 

The woman, aged in her 20s, was leaving the last door of the last carriage of the Moscow-Pushkino electric train at Yaroslavsky railway station on April 18 when the doors jammed shut on her leg

Onlookers sprint over to desperately try and help the woman and try and prise the doors open

One of the onlookers falls over as he tries to release the woman from the moving train 

At least six onlookers then notice what's going on and sprint over to try and help. 

They desperately claw at the train doors to try to open them and release the woman. 

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But they are unable to free her and as the train starts moving off one of the men who is trying to help ends up being dragged and falls over the woman. 

The trapped woman is helplessly pulled along the platform as other onlookers try and get the attention of someone who can stop the train. 

The trapped woman is helplessly pulled along the platform as other onlookers try and get the attention of someone who can stop the train 

Footage cuts out before the woman gets her leg out of the train and she was later found on the tracks by emergency services, according to Interfax . 

She was taken to hospital and was being treated for injuries which were not believed to be life-threatening.  

Investigators are checking how the train was allowed to leave the station without ensuring that everyone had safely got off.  

The Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor's Office is also conducting its own checks.

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Share or comment on this article: Woman gets leg trapped in train door before being dragged along platform at Moscow station [Video]

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Pushkino, Moscow

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Papers: Newcastle to conduct review into injury crisis

The top stories and transfer rumours from Monday's newspapers... I SPORT

Newcastle United will conduct a thorough review of injuries at the end of the season after a series of significant losses to their squad in recent weeks.

The Premier League has written to clubs to warn them of the potential of a terror attack after the sickening assault on a Moscow concert hall that killed at least 137 people.

Manchester City supporters unveiled a banner complaining at further increases in season-ticket prices during Sunday's 0-0 draw with Arsenal at the Etihad.

A Brazilian magazine planning a documentary about Dani Alves has been revealed as having paid the €1m bail to get the disgraced former Barcelona defender out of prison while he appeals his conviction for rape.

Frank Leboeuf says Chelsea's current owners are "unprofessional" and accused them of destroying the club he represented with great success.

FC Seoul manager Gi-Dong Kim has offered a scathing review of Jesse Lingard's spell in South Korea so far and has accused him of not fighting and not working. He is also considering removing Lingard from his first-team plans.

Campbell Hatton, son of boxing legend Ricky, has parted company with his trainer - uncle Matthew Hatton - after suffering a shock defeat against James Finch last week.

Sunderland have put Paul Heckingbottom at the top of their wanted list to replace Michael Beale as manager if he will work under their conditions, which include making use of the club's younger players and retaining some of their current coaching staff.

England's footballs WAGs are planning to splash out more than £100,000 on private ex-military security for Euro 2024 instead of using the FA-appointed guards.

A match in Spain's third division was abandoned on Saturday after Rayo Majadahonda goalkeeper Cheikh Kane Sarr stormed into the crowd behind his goal to confront a Sestao River fan who had allegedly racially abused him. Sarr's team-mates walked off the pitch in protest at his treatment.

Last year's Champion Hurdle winner Constitution Hill will not run again this season after trainer Nicky Henderson revealed his star gelding is under supervision for colic in an equine hospital.

Chelsea are preparing to sell homegrown stars Reece James and Conor Gallagher this summer to bring the club's Profit & Sustainability position into line.

Sunday's Ukraine Premier League clash between Dynamo Kyiv and Vorskla had to be delayed following two air raid sirens in the area, which led to Kyiv branding Russia a "terrorist state" - they went on to win the match 5-3.

Manchester United defender Raphael Varane settled fears over the injury which forced him off at half-time against Brentford and says it is "not too bad".

Galatasaray are closing on a deal to sign Rangers outcast Ianis Hagi, according to reports in Turkey.

Celtic are waiting to find out if they will secure a lucrative sell-on fee as Manchester United and Manchester City could potentially battle to sign Bayer Leverkusen's former Bhoy Jeremie Frimpong this summer.

Sam Lammers says he struggled during his time at Rangers because he was not played in his preferred role as an out-and-out striker, the position he is now impressing in on loan at Utrecht.

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Msnbc’ host’s nicole wallace tosses script on air, slams trump for calling out judge’s daughter on social media.

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MSNBC host  Nicole Wallace  threw her script in the air during a live broadcast Friday while she railed against Donald Trump for calling out a judge’s daughter.

Wallace said it was “time to do something different” when she went off script to discuss a scathing social media post from the former president targeting the Democratic-connected daughter of the judge overseeing a hush money case against Trump.

“Like, we’re not going to have this conversation again!” Wallace said. “I have come on the air with breaking news about requests for gag orders because of threats for judges and their kids more times than I could count today before I got ready.

“Donald Trump brazenly and repeatedly attacks not just judges. Judges don’t have Secret Service protecting them,” she continued. “What are we going to do differently, because Donald Trump sure as hell isn’t changing.”

One of her guests, former federal Judge Michael Luttig, said Trump’s goal was to “delegitimize” courts so if a negative ruling came his way, his fans would dismiss it. 

“We all have to understand that from the first time that the former president began his attacks — vicious attacks — on the federal courts and the state courts and their judges, his objective was to delegitimize those courts so that when and if they ruled against him in the various matters that he’s been charged with, then at least his followers, if not a good part of the nation, would dismiss those rulings against him as having been politically inspired and motivated,” he said.

A judge was asked by Manhattan prosecutors to clarify  a gag order that was placed on the former president  earlier this week following his posts about New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Mechan’s daughter, political consultant Loren.

Trump wrote Thursday: “Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately. His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me.”

Merchan imposed the gag order on the presidential candidate in his hush-money case due to the fact that Trump had “prior extrajudicial statements” and saying that he posed a “a sufficient risk to the administration of justice.”

The judge ordered Trump or others to make direct or public statements about witnesses, such as his former fixer Michael Cohen and the porn star at the center of the case, Stormy Daniels. Trump is accused of doctoring financial records related to hush money payments to Daniels and Karen McDougal.

However, Trump suggested Merchan’s daughter’s  interests as a Democratic political consultant  has worked against him, aiding President Joe Biden and other Democrats. 

He accused Loren of having an “obvious goal” to see him jailed. 

He has also accused Merchan of “hating’ him. 

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 35 felony counts of falsifying business records in the case and has denied having an affair with Daniels. 

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