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A typical wushu competition, here represented by the 10th All-China Games.

Part of the series on Chinese martial arts
List of Chinese martial arts
Terms
Kung fu (功夫) Wushu (武術) Qigong (氣功)
Historical places
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺) Wudang Mountains (武當山) Mount Hua (華山) Mount Emei (峨嵋山) Kunlun Mountains (崑崙山)
Historical people
Yue Fei (岳飛) Yim Wing-chun (嚴詠春) Hung Hei-gun (洪熙官) Fong Sai-yuk (方世玉) Dong Haichuan (董海川) Yang Lu-ch'an (楊露禪) Wu Quanyou (吳全佑) Ten Tigers of Canton (廣東十虎) Chen Fake (陳發科) Chan Heung (陳享) Wong Fei-hung (黃飛鴻) Sun Lu-t'ang (孫祿堂) Huo Yuanjia (霍元甲) Yip Man (葉問) Wang Zi-Ping (王子平)
Famous modern actors
Bruce Lee (李小龍) Jackie Chan (成龍) Sammo Hung (洪金寶) Yuen Biao (元彪) Jet Li (李連杰)
Legendary figures
Bodhidharma (菩提達摩) Zhang Sanfeng (張三丰) Eight immortals (八仙) Five Elders (五祖)
Related
Hong Kong action cinema Wushu (sport) Wuxia (武俠)
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The sport of wushu is both an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts.^[1][2] It was created in the People's Republic of China after 1949, in an attempt to nationalize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts.^[3] Most of the modern competition forms (套路 taolu) were formed from their parent arts (see list below) by government-appointed committees.^[3] In contemporary times, wushu has become an international sport through the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), which holds the World Wushu Championships every two years; the first World Championships were held in 1991 in Beijing and won by Yuan Wen Qing.^[4]

Competitive wushu is composed of two disciplines: taolu (套路; forms) and sanda (散打; sparring).^[5] Taolu involve martial art patterns and maneuvers for which competitors are judged and given points according to specific rules. The forms comprise basic movements (stances, kicks, punches, balances, jumps, sweeps and throws) based on aggregate categories of traditional Chinese martial art styles and can be changed for competitions to highlight one's strengths. Competitive forms have time limits that can range from 1 minute, 20 seconds for some external styles to over five minutes for internal styles. Modern wushu competitors are increasingly training in aerial techniques such as 540 and 720 and even 900 degree jumps and kicks to add more difficulty and style to their forms.^[6]

Sanda (sometimes called sanshou or Lei tai) is a modern fighting method and sport influenced by traditional Chinese boxing, Chinese wrestling methods called Shuai jiao and other Chinese grappling techniques such as Chin Na. It has all the combat aspects of wushu. Sanda appears much like Kickboxing or Muay Thai, but includes many more grappling techniques. Sanda fighting competitions are often held alongside taolu or form competitions.

History[link]

In 1958, the government established the All-China Wushu Association as an umbrella organization to regulate martial arts training. The Chinese State Commission for Physical Culture and Sports took the lead in creating standardized forms for most of the major arts. During this period, a national Wushu system that included standard forms, teaching curriculum, and instructor grading was established. Wushu was introduced at both the high school and university level. This new system seek to incorporate common elements from all styles and forms as well as the general ideas associated with Chinese martial arts. Stylistic concepts such as hard, soft, internal, external, as well as classifications based on schools such as Shaolin, Taiji, Wudang and other were all integrated into one system. Wushu became the government sponsored standard for the training in martial arts in China. ^[7] The push for standardization continued leading to wide spread adaptation. In 1979, the State Commission for Physical Culture and Sports created a special task force to teaching and practice of Wushu. In 1986, the Chinese National Research Institute of Wushu was established as the central authority for the research and administration of Wushu activities in the People's Republic of China.^[8]

Changing government policies and attitudes towards sports in general lead to the closing of the State Sports Commission (the central sports authority) in 1998. This closure is viewed as an attempt to partially de-politicize organized sports and move Chinese sport policies towards a more market-driven approach.^[9] As a result of these changing sociological factors within China, both traditional styles and modern Wushu approaches are being promoted by the Chinese government.^[10]

Events[link]

A Jian dual event (choreographed)

Wushu events are performed using compulsory or individual routines in competition. Compulsory routines are those routines that have been already created for the athlete, resulting in each athlete performing basically the same set. Individual routines are routines that an athlete creates with the aid of his/her coach, while following certain rules for difficulty.

In addition to events for individual routines, some wushu competitions also feature dual and group events. The dual event, also called duilian (对练), is an event in which there is some form of sparring with weapons, or without weapons or even using bare hands against weapons. The dual event is usually spectacular and actions are choreographed beforehand. The group event, also known as jiti (集体), requires a group of people to perform together and smooth synchronization of actions are crucial. Usually, the group event also allows instrumental music to accompany the choreography during the performance. The carpet used for the group event is also larger than the one used for individual routines.

Previously, international wushu competitions most often used compulsory routines, while high-level competitions in China most often used individual routines. However, after the 2003 Wushu World Games in Macau it was decided to opt for individual routines in international competition with nandu (难度; difficulty movements) integrating a maximum 2 point nandu score into the overall maximum score of 10.

There is some controversy concerning the inclusion of nandu in wushu because many of the movements created for the specific events are not originally movements used in those styles. In addition the number of injuries which have resulted from the inclusion of these nandu have caused many people to question their inclusion.

Those who support the new difficulty requirements follow the assertion that they help to progress the sport and improve the overall physical quality of the athletes.

Barehanded[link]

Changquan (長拳 or Long Fist) refers to long-range extended wushu styles like Chaquan (查拳), Huaquan (華拳), Hongquan (洪拳; "flood fist"), and Shaolinquan (少林拳), but this wushu form is a modernized style derived from movements of these and other traditional styles. Changquan is the most widely-seen of the wushu forms, and includes speed, power,accuracy, and flexibility. Changquan is difficult to perform, requiring great flexibility and athleticism, and is often practiced from a young age.

Nanquan (南拳 or Southern Fist) refers to wushu styles originating in south China (i.e., south of the Yangtze River, including Hongjiaquan (Hung Gar) (洪家拳), Cailifoquan (Choy Li Fut) (蔡李佛拳), and Yongchunquan (Wing Chun) (詠春拳). Many are known for vigorous, athletic movements with very stable, low stances and intricate hand movements. This wushu form is a modern style derived from movements of these and other traditional southern styles. Nanquan typically requires less flexibility and has fewer acrobatics than Changquan, but it also requires greater leg stability and power generation through leg and hip coordination. This event was created in 1960.

Taijiquan (太極拳, T'ai chi ch'uan) is a wushu style famous for slow, relaxed movements, often seen as an exercise method for the elderly, and sometimes known as "T'ai chi" in Western countries to those otherwise unfamiliar with wushu. This wushu form is a modern recompilation based on the Yang (楊) style of Taijiquan, but also including movements of the Chen (陳), Wu (吳), Wu (武), and Sun (孫) styles.

Short Weapons[link]

Dao (刀 or knife) refers to any curved, one-sided sword/blade, but this wushu form is a Changquan method of using a medium-sized willow-leaf-shaped dao (柳葉刀).

Nandao (南刀 or Southern Style knife) refers a form performed with a curved, one sided sword/blade based on a the techniques of Nanquan. The weapon and techniques appears to be based on the butterfly swords of Yongchunquan, a well known Southern style. In the Wushu form, the blade has been lengthened and changed so that only one is used (as opposed to a pair). This event was created in 1992.

Jian (劍 or double-edged sword) refers to any double-edged straight sword/blade, but this wushu form is a Changquan method of using the jian.

Taijijian (太極劍 or Taiji double-edged sword) is an event using the jian based on traditional Taijiquan jian methods.

Long Weapons[link]

Gun (棍 or staff) refers to a long staff (shaped from white wax wood) as tall as the wrist of a person standing with his/her arms stretched upwards, but this wushu form is a Changquan method of using the white wax wood staff.

Nangun (南棍 or Southern cudgel) is a Nanquan method of using the staff. This event was created in 1992.

Qiang (槍 or spear) refers to a flexible spear with red horse hair attached to the spearhead, but this wushu form is a Changquan method of using the qiang.

Other routines[link]

The majority of routines used in the sport are new, modernized recompilations of traditional routines. However, routines taken directly from traditional styles, including the styles that are not part of standard events, may be performed in competition, especially in China. These routines generally do not garner as many points as their modern counterparts, and are performed in events separate from the compulsory routine events. Among these, the more commonly seen routines include:

• Baguazhang (八卦掌) – Eight-Trigrams Palm
• Bajiquan (八極拳) – Eight Extremes Fist/Boxing
• Chaquan (查拳) – Cha Fist/Boxing
• Changquan (长拳)- Long fist
• Chuojiao (戳腳) – Poking Feet
• Ditangquan (地躺拳) – Ground-Prone Fist/Boxing
• Fanziquan (翻子拳) – Tumbling Fist/Boxing
• Houquan (猴拳) – Monkey Fist/Boxing
• Huaquan (華拳) – Hua Fist/Boxing
• Nanquan (南拳）-Southern Fist
• Paochui (炮捶) – Cannon Punch
• Piguaquan (劈掛拳) – Chop-Hitch Fist/Boxing
• Shequan (蛇拳) – Snake Fist/Boxing
• Tantui (弹腿）- Spring Leg
• Tanglanghushi (螳螂虎势) – Praying Mantis and Tiger Style
• Tanglanquan (螳螂拳) – Praying Mantis Fist/Boxing
• Tongbeiquan (通背拳) – Through-the-Back Fist/Boxing
• Wing Chun (Yongchunquan) – Eternal Spring
• Xingyiquan (形意拳) – Shape-Intent Fist/Boxing
• Yingzhuaquan (鷹爪拳) – Eagle Claw Fist/Boxing
• Zuiquan (醉酒拳) – Drunken Fist/Boxing

Similarly, there is also a traditional weapons category, which often includes the following:

• Changsuijian (長穗劍) – Long-Tasseled Sword
• Shuangshoujian (雙手劍) – Two-Handed Sword
• Jiujiebian (九節鞭) – Nine Section Whip
• Sanjiegun (三節棍) – Three Section Staff
• Shengbiao (繩鏢) – Rope Dart
• Dadao (大刀) – Great Sword
• Pudao (撲刀) – Pu Sword
• Emeici (峨嵋刺) – Emei Daggers
• Shuangdao (雙刀) – Double Broadsword
• Shuangjian (雙劍) – Double Sword
• Shuangbian (雙鞭) – Double Nine Section Whips
• Shuanggou (雙鈎) – Double Hooksword

Competitions[link]

List of major international and regional competitions featuring wushu:

• World Wushu Championships
• World Junior Wushu Championships
• Asian Games
• East Asian Games
• Southeast Asian Games
• European Wushu Championships, organised by the European Wushu Federation
• National Games of the People's Republic of China

Notable practitioners[link]

For Sanda competitors, see the article on Sanshou.

• An Tian Rong (安天荣) – having graduated from Changchun Physical Education and Sports College, An Tian Rong is a former national (China) champion and wushu pioneer. He was approved as a national (China) and international level judge in 1980, has taught at numerous universities throughout China, and authored more than 50 books on internal and external martial arts. Among the national/international champions he's coached, while on Wu Bin's coaching staff for the Beijing Wushu Team, he provided guidance to the international celebrity, Jet Li and his student, Jinzhao Au, won the Japanese national champion title in 1986.
• Jon Foo – Learned Kung Fu when he was 8 years old, but didn't begin serious training in Wu Shu until he was 15. Starred as Jin Kazama in the film adaptation of Tekken.
• Jiang Bang Jun – a well-respected international Wushu Champion. He was the Mens All Around Wushu Champion in 1996 and 1998. Personally invited to the Beijing Wushu Team by Wu Bin, he became the lead Athlete and Coach for the Beijing Wushu Team. Today, he has opened a Wushu school in Virginia Called PMAA (Professional Martial Arts Academy).
• Jet Li (李連杰) – possibly the most famous wushu practitioner in the world. He started wushu as a competition sport and gained fame as he took the National Wushu Champion of China title five times as an original member of the Beijing Wushu Team, he was later selected to demonstrate his wushu on the silver screen in the worldwide hit film Shaolin Temple. Many of his old teammates have also appeared on-screen with him, especially in his older movies.
• Lu Xiaolin – won the 1985 National Martial Arts Open Championship in China. She also was the youngest to receive a seventh duan from the International Wushu Federation. She was a judge for the U.S. in the 1997 and 1999 World Wushu Championships. She is also the current Vice President of the United States of America Wushu Kungfu Federation.^[11]
• Liu Yu is an author, former Head Coach of the U.S. Wushu Team from 1997-99. She is now now teaching at the Wushu Taichi Center is located in San Luis Obispo, CA.^[12]
• Ray Park – Showcased his skills in wushu in several major films, including his portrayal of Darth Maul in 1999's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, as well as Toad in the film X-Men (2000) and as stunt-double for Robin Shou and James Remar in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.^[13][14] He also heavily retrained prior to filming G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, in which he portrayed the martial arts expert Snake Eyes.^[15]
• Wu Bin – Jet Li's coach in the Beijing Wushu Team, training more wushu champions than any other coach in China.^[16]
• Wu Jing (吳京) – Chinese actor who was sent to the Beijing Sports Institute at Shichahai in Beijing when he was 6 years old. Like Jet Li he competed as a member of the Beijing Wushu Team in national level wushu competitions in China. Both his father and grandfather were also martial artists ^[17]
• Donnie Yen – Chinese martial artist and actor, trained with the Beijing Wushu Team.^[18]
• Yuan Wen Qing (原文庆) – One of the most famous, successful, and skilled wushu practitioners in the world who has won countless of gold medals on Chinese, World, and Asian Championships. He is a former Shanxi wushu team athlete trained by the coaches Pang Lin Tai and Zhang Ling Mei. He is most famous for his ChangQuan, DaoShu, GunShu, ShuangDao, and DiTangQuan. A number of his routines (TaoLu) became the official standard competition routines (GuiDing) for a number of years until the new GuiDing TaoLu's were introduced.^[19]
• Zhao Qing Jian – Started learning martial arts at the age of 7, and was a standout member of the Beijing Wushu Team. Retained his #1 ranking at the 2009 All China Games.^[18]

Wushu as an Olympic event[link]

The IWUF placed a bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have wushu included in future Olympic Games, but did not meet with success. However, the IOC allowed China to organize an international wushu event during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, but this event is not one of the 28 official Olympic sports, nor is it a demonstration event. Instead, it was called the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Wushu Tournament.^[20] Wushu is one of 8 sports that will be considered for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Olympics. ^[21][22]

Criticism[link]

Wushu has been criticized by some traditional martial artists for being inauthentic, too commercialized, and potentially threatening to old styles of teaching martial arts. Such critics argue that contemporary wushu helped to create a dichotomy between form work and combat application.^{[23][24][25] [26] [27] [28]}

Footnotes[link]

Training books[link]

• Mastering WUSHU by Jiang Bangjun and Emilio Alpanseque, ISBN 978-1-933901-31-2.
• Fundamentals of High Performance Wushu: Taolu Jumps and Spins by Raymond Wu, ISBN 978-1-4303-1820-0.
• Kung Fu Elements, Liang, Shou-Yu and Wu, Wen-Ching, ISBN 1-889659-17-7

See also[link]

• Chinese martial arts
• Beijing Wushu Team
• Eighteen Arms of Wushu
• List of Chinese martial arts
• Floor (gymnastics)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wushu (sport)

• International Wushu Federation – Official Website
• The Web's Most Comprehensive Wushu Site Covering the Beijing Wushu Team, US Wushu and Wushu in the Olympics. Contains pictures, videos, animation, articles and competition results and resources.
• FM – Wushu – A list of Techniques and free animated tutorials for Contemporary Wushu Techniques
• What is Wushu – Contains information about the history of wushu
• http://www.nardis.com/~twchan/liang.html – Info about the history of wushu

Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which also provides opportunities to nurture physical fitness and social interaction skills.

Sport (or, in the United States, sports) is all forms of competitive physical activity which,^[1] through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants.^[2] Hundreds of sports exist, from those requiring only two participants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals.

Sport is generally recognised as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition,^[3] and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports.^[2] However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as bona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports,^[4][5] although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.^[1]

Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, and allow consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can by determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first, or by the determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression.

In organised sport, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. In addition, sport is a major source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sports drawing large crowds to venues, and reaching wider audiences through sports broadcasting.

Meaning and usage[link]

Etymology[link]

Look up sport in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

"Sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning "leisure", with the oldest definition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans find amusing or entertaining".^[6]

The French word for sport is based on the Persian word bord, meaning "winning" or "win".^{[citation needed]} The Chinese term for sport, tiyu (体育; 體育) connotes physical training. The modern Greek term for sport is Αθλητισμός (athlitismos), directly cognate with the English terms "athlete" and "athleticism".

Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.^[7] Roget's defines the noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation.^[8]

Nomenclature[link]

The singular term 'sport' is used in most English dialects to decribe the overall concept (e.g. "children taking part in sport"), with 'sports' used to describe multiple activities (e.g. "football and rugby are the most popular sports in England"). American English uses 'sports' for both terms.

Definition[link]

Show Jumping, an equestrian sport

The precise definition of what separates a sport from other leisure activities varies between sources, with no universally agreed definition. The closest to an international agreement on a definition is provided by SportAccord, which is the association for all the largest international sports federations (including association football, american football, cycling, equestrian sports, baseball and more), and is therefore the de facto representative of international sport.

SportAccord uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:^[1]

• have an element of competition
• be in no way harmful to any living creature
• not rely on equipment provided by a single supplier (excluding proprietary games such as arena football)
• not rely on any 'luck' element specifically designed in to the sport

They also recognise that sport can be primarily physical (such as rugby or athletics), primarily mind (such as chess or go), predominantly motorised (such as Formula 1 or powerboating), primarily co-ordination (such as billiard sports) or primarily animal supported (such as equestrian sport).^[1]

There has been an increase in the application of the term 'sport' to a wider set of non-physical challenges such as electronic sports, especially due to the large scale of participation and organised competition, but these are not widely recognised by mainstream sports organisations.

Competition[link]

There are opposing views on the necessity of competition as a defining element of a sport, with almost all professional sport involving competition, and governing bodies requiring competition as a prerequisite of recognition by the IOC or SportAccord.^[1]

Other bodies advocate widening the definition of sport to include all physical activity. For instance, the Council of Europe include all forms of physical exercise, including those completed just for fun.

In order to widen participation, and reduce the impact of losing on less able participants, there has been an introduction of non-competitive physical activity to traditionally competitive events such as school sports days, although moves like this are often controversial.^[9][10]

History[link]

Roman bronze reduction of Myron's Discobolos, 2nd century AD.

There are artifacts and structures that suggest that the Chinese engaged in sporting activities as early as 2000 BC.^[11] Gymnastics appears to have been a popular sport in China's ancient past. Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt.^[12] Other Egyptian sports included javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as the traditional Iranian martial art of Zourkhaneh had a close connection to the warfare skills.^[13] Among other sports that originate in ancient Persia are polo and jousting.

Motorized sports have appeared since the advent of the modern age

A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia.^[14]

Sports have been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of the ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialisation has brought increased leisure time to the citizens of developed and developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans began following the exploits of professional athletes through radio, television, and the internet—all while enjoying the exercise and competition associated with amateur participation in sports.

Fair play[link]

Sportsmanship[link]

Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.^[15][16][17]

Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake. The well-known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice, that it's “not that you won or lost but how you played the game", and the modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing... is not winning but taking part" are typical expressions of this sentiment.

Cheating[link]

Key tenets of sport include that the result should not be predetermined, and that both sides should have equal opportunity to win. Rules are in place to ensure that fair play to occur, but participants can break these rules in order to gain advantage.

Participants may choose to cheat in order to satisfy their desire to win, or in order to achieve an ulterior motive. The widespread existence of gambling on the results of sports fixtures creates the motivation for match fixing, where a participant or participants deliberately work to ensure a given outcome.

Doping and drugs[link]

The competitive nature of sport encourages some participants to attempt to enhance their performance through the use of medicines, or through other means such as increasing the volume of blood in their bodies through artificial means.

All sports recognised by the IOC or SportAccord are required to implement a testing programme, looking for a list of banned drugs, with suspensions or bans being placed on participants who test positive for banned substances.

Violence[link]

Violence in sports involves crossing the line between fair competition and intentional aggressive violence. Athletes, coaches, fans, and parents sometimes unleash violent behaviour on people or property, in misguided shows of loyalty, dominance, anger, or celebration. Rioting or hooliganism are common and ongoing problems at national and international sporting contests.

Participation[link]

Gender participation[link]

This section requires expansion.

Female participation continues to rise alongside the opportunity for involvement and the value of sports for child development and physical fitness. Despite gains during the last three decades, a gap persists in the enrollment figures between male and female players. Female players account for 39% of the total participation in US interscholastic athletics. Gender balance has been accelerating from a 32% increase in 1973–74 to a 63% increase in 1994–95. Hessel (2000)^{[Full citation needed]}.

Youth participation[link]

This section requires expansion.

Youth sports present children with opportunities for fun, socialization, forming peer relationships, physical fitness, and athletic scholarships. Activists for education and the war on drugs encourage youth sports as a means to increase educational participation and to fight the illegal drug trade. According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the biggest risk for youth sports is death or serious injury including concussion, with the highest risk coming from running, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer, and gymnastics.^[18]

Spectator involvement[link]

Spectators at the 1906 unofficial Olympic Games

The competition element of sport, along with the aesthetic appeal of some sports, result in the popularity of people attending to watch sport being played. This has led to the specific phenomenon of spectator sport.

Both amateur and professional sports attract spectators, both in person at the sport venue, and through broadcast mediums including radio, television and internet broadcast. Both attendance in person and viewing remotely can incur a sometimes substantial charge, such as an entrance ticket, or pay-per-view television broadcast.

It is common for popular sports to attract large broadcast audiences, leading to rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the rights to show certain fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million and the 2007 Cricket World Cup attracted about 2.3 Billion worldwide viewers.^{[citation needed]}

In the United States, the championship game of the NFL, the Super Bowl, has become one of the most watched television broadcasts of the year.^{[citation needed]} Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America; the viewership being so great that in 2007 advertising space was reported as being sold at $2.6m for a 30 second slot.^{[citation needed]}

Issues and considerations[link]

Amateur and professional[link]

Modern sports have complex rules and are highly organized.

Sport can be undertaken on an amateur, professional or semi-professional basis, depending on whether particpants are incentivised for participation (usually through payment of a wage or salary).

The popularity of spectator sport as a recreation for non-participants has led to sport becoming a major business in its own right, and this has incentivised a high paying professional sport culture, where high performing participants are rewarded with pay far in excess of average wages, which can run in to millions of dollars.^[19]

Some sports, or individual competitions within a sport, retain a policy of allowing only amateur sport. The Olympic Games started with a principle of amateur competition with those who practiced a sport professionally considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practiced it merely as a hobby.^[20], but following the 1988 games, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes elgible for the Olympics, with only boxing and wrestling still competed on an "amateur" basis, although this revolves around rules, and not payment.

Grassroots sport is a popular phrase which covers the amateur participation in sport at lower levels, normally without pretension towards higher achievement, and is in line with the "sport for all" mentality, where enjoyment is the primary reason for participation.^[21][2]

Technology[link]

Technology plays an important part in modern sport, with it being a necessary part of some sports (such as motorsport), and used in others to improve performance.

Sports science is a widespread academic discipline, and can be applied to areas including athlete performance, such as the use of video analysis to fine tune technique, or to equipment, such as improved running shoes or competitive swimwear.

In order to control the impact of technology on fair play, governing bodies frequently have specific rules designed to control the impact of technical advantage between participants.

Politics[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Sports and politics can influence each other greatly.

When apartheid was the official policy in South Africa, many sports people, particularly in rugby union, adopted the conscientious approach that they should not appear in competitive sports there. Some feel this was an effective contribution to the eventual demolition of the policy of apartheid, others feel that it may have prolonged and reinforced its worst effects.^[22]

The 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin was an illustration, perhaps best recognised in retrospect, where an ideology was developing which used the event to strengthen its spread through propaganda.

In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were connected with cultural nationalism. Until the mid 20th century a person could have been banned from playing Gaelic football, hurling, or other sports administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) if she/he played or supported football, or other games seen to be of British origin. Until recently the GAA continued to ban the playing of football and rugby union at Gaelic venues. This ban is still enforced, but was modified to allow football and rugby to be played in Croke Park while Lansdowne Road was redeveloped into Aviva Stadium. Until recently, under Rule 21, the GAA also banned members of the British security forces and members of the RUC from playing Gaelic games, but the advent of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the eventual removal of the ban.

Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sports, or in its reporting: people compete in national teams, or commentators and audiences can adopt a partisan view. On occasion, such tensions can lead to violent confrontation among players or spectators within and beyond the sporting venue, as in the Football War. These trends are seen by many as contrary to the fundamental ethos of sports being carried on for its own sake and for the enjoyment of its participants.

A very famous case when sports and politics colided was the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Masked men entered the hotel of the Israeli olympic team and killed many of their men. This was known as the Munich massacre.

See also[link]

Sports and games portal

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• Outline of sports
• List of sportspeople
• List of sports attendance figures
• List of professional sports leagues

Related topics

References[link]

• European Commission (2007), The White Paper on Sport.
• Council of Europe (2001), The Europien sport charter.

Further reading[link]

• The Meaning of Sports by Michael Mandel (PublicAffairs, ISBN 1-58648-252-1).
• Journal of the Philosophy of Sport

Alfred Hsing
Chinese name	邢思傑 (Traditional)
Chinese name	邢思杰 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Xíng Sījié (Mandarin)
Born	(1983-11-23) November 23, 1983 (age 28) San Jose, California
Occupation	Actor Martial artist Stuntman

Alfred Hsing (born November 23, 1983), is a Chinese martial artist, actor, and stuntman born in San Jose, California.^[1] After over a decade of intensive training in both America and China, Hsing won the first American gold medal in wushu taolu history at the 2009 World Wushu Championships held in Toronto, Canada. Earlier that year he made the US National Wushu Team where he was ranked 1st in the nation.^[1] Along with his career in martial arts, Hsing is also recognized as the Shaolin Expert on Spike TV's show Deadliest Warrior.

Martial arts career[link]

As a child Hsing always loved martial arts and would play fight with his brother. At the age of 15 he started formal training in Shaolin kung fu and wushu.^[1] Soon after he began learning wushu Hsing quickly won gold at his first local tournament. Some accomplishments include:

• 2000 Martial Arts World Cup Grand Champion
• 2001 CMAT Grand Champion (13-17 Division)
• Gold at the 2005 US Wushu Nationals
• 2007 US Wushu C Team^[2]
• First place in straight sword and spear Taiwan National Qualifiers
• 2008 San Diego Grand Internationals Grand Champion
• 2008 CMAT Tournament Grand Champion (All-Around)^[3]
• 2009 US Wushu A Team^[4]
• Gold at the 2009 Tiger Claw Shark City Nationals
• Gold at the 2009 10th World Wushu Championships^[5]

Though Alfred Hsing has learned many styles of martial arts through his years of training, his main events are Changquan (Longfist), Jianshu (Straight Sword), and Qiangshu (Spear). He is also proficient in drunken fist, drunken sword, whip chain, emei daggers, fan, broadsword, staff, t'ai chi, and t'ai chi sword.

Hsing has been featured in Kung Fu Magazine and Masters Magazine (Winter 09) for his significant accomplishments in martial arts.^[6][7]

Business career[link]

After graduating from UCLA with a degree in Economics, Computer Specialization,^[1] and minor in East Asian Languages, Hsing began work at Big 4 accounting firm KPMG. After gaining professional experience at KPMG, Hsing moved on to get a job in finance at City National Bank.

Finally in late 2009 Hsing quit his job to focus on training for the World Wushu Championships^[8] which rewarded in his winning the first US gold medal. Upon his return from the World Wushu Championships, Hsing turned his focus to acting, stunt work, and teaching martial arts.

Acting career[link]

Hsing has appeared on TV shows and films such as CSI: NY, Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior, and even in a Bollywood movie called Aakhari Decision.^[9]

Hsing has worked with Jet Li in The Sorcerer and the White Snake^[10], Stephen Chow (whom he interviewed for MTV for the release of Kung Fu Hustle^[11]), MMA star Cung Le (whom he interviewed at the LA film festival for Bodyguards and Assassins),^[12] and Jackie Chan (whom he demoed for at the premiere of The Spy Next Door^[13]).

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikinews has related news: Interview with Alfred Hsing

• Alfred Hsing Official Website
• Alfred Hsing at the Internet Movie Database
• Film producer Steve Nguyen profiles Alfred Hsing, YouTube