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This is something that people have been arguing over for a long, long time. It’s a bit of a holy war with entrenched sides.
From wikipedia, this is the definition of Sport
Sport is a form of physical activity or game. Often competitive and organized, sports use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills.
My take is that, especially with the introduction of esports, we should have a more formal definition, so that we can categories these activities unambiguously.
I’ve always thought about the problem via this matrix.
| Physical | Nonphysical | |
|---|---|---|
| Sport | Physical Sport | Non-physical Sport |
| Competition | Physical Competition | Non-physical Competition |
Physical vs Nonphysical is pretty intuitive. If an increase in physical strength corresponds to an increase in game performance, it is a physical game. But what does Sport vs Competition mean in this context?
I define Sports as activities that can be won, where the actions of one team directly affect the actions of another. Whereas, competitions are also activities that can be won, but actions of one team are measured in isolation.
The definition comes closer to that of game theory describing sports but not competitions.
In short yes, but they are conservative about how they label nonphysical sports, preferring to approve them one by one.
a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee who oversee the Olympic Games recognises both chess and bridge as sports. SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports: chess, bridge, draughts, Go and xiangqi.
There are already examples of similar definitions about
Physical Sport
Physical Competition
Nonphysical Sport
Nonphysical Competition