RECREATIONAL, COMPETITIVE AND ELITE SPORT
Recreational sport is also called sport for all and is done for various purposes, but mainly for fun and entertainment in leisure time. An increasing number of people are becoming health-conscious and do recreational sport activities and various keep-fit exercises to maintain or improve their physical as well as mental fitness and health, to affect their flexibility, to strengthen their muscles and shape the body, to delay ageing symptoms, etc. Some people desire to learn new skills or experience new feelings through sport activities. Some people might have social reasons for their participation in sport including the need of integration, friendship, team work, support, recognition etc.
Competitive sport is done mainly for performance, for achieving good results in competitions, defeating opponents and becoming the winner or record holder. People who do competitive sport train hard and regularly and participate in various forms of competition. They are organised and belong to different sport teams, clubs, associations or federations. The highest level of competitive sport is elite sport (top performance sport). Elite athletes must sacrifice almost everything to their sport. It lasts many years to become an excellent sportsman. Such a process means years of hard everyday training, effort and drudgery, years of pain and stress as well. Financial and social background is a necessity. Elite athletes are often professionals who make living through sport. They follow principles of sport training to make progress, including various regeneration programmes. The elite sport is linked with a serious problem – doping, the use of illegal substances to improve performance.
AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL SPORT
Amateur sportsmen take part in sport because of the enjoyment and satisfaction gained from the activity. They train and compete in their leisure time, usually after work or at weekends. They are not paid for that.
Professional sport is a paid form of participation in sport events. Professional athletes make living through sport, do sport as a job, are paid to compete in sport. Winning and success are the most important things. The more successful professionals are the more money they earn. They usually train full-time and devote themselves to their sport. They sign contracts with different organisations or firms, have to train properly, participate in competitions, promote the employer or his/her products, take part in press conferences, advertising campaigns, etc.
The international governing bodies of each sport draw up rules to decide who is amateur in their sport. They decide if professionals may compete with amateurs.
SPORT COMPETITION
It is an organized sport event in which participants – competitors want to become winners, strive to achieve the best possible results, to show an excellent performance, to beat opponents, to set or break records, or want to test their abilities and skills and compare them with those of the other competitors. Those who enter for a competition are obliged to keep (observe) the rules. Breaking (violating) the rules is penalized or punished in various ways.
Officials are people who conduct competitions, assess performances of competitors, referee games, decide the result of a competition. They are called different names, such as referees, judges, or umpires. The referee is used in connection with e.g. basketball, boxing, football, hockey, rugby, squash, and wrestling. The umpire acts in badminton, baseball, cricket, swimming, tennis, and volleyball. There is a panel of judges in sports like gymnastics or figure skating.
Competitions have various forms with respect to particular sport areas. We speak about races in athletics, cycling or skiing, players and teams play matches, participate in tournaments, leagues, or cups, horse riders or motor-bikers have their trophies, motor racers compete in rallies, windsurfers, yachtsmen and rowmen take part in regattas, boxers fight in bouts, the name combat or contest is used in some combat sports, etc. Major competitions are calledchampionships.