How did sport become so popular?

The ancient history of a modern obsession

- BY KONSTANTINE PANEGYRES Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, The University of Western Australia

It's almost impossible to go a day without seeing or hearing about sport.

Walk around any city or town and you will almost always catch a glimpse of people playing sports in teams or participating solo.

Turn on the TV or radio and you'll be able to find some kind of sport being played at international or national level.

Why do people love sport so much?

To answer this question, it's worth a dive back into ancient history.

An ancient person's perspective

One of the most famous figures from the ancient world, Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), once wrote that when he was a boy he was obsessed with playing sports:

I liked to play ball as a boy and my playing slowed my progress in learning to read and write.

In fact, Saint Augustine was so preoccupied with playing ball that his teacher was said to sometimes beat him for it. His teacher said it was bad to waste one's youth on such things - it's better to study hard.

Why was Saint Augustine obsessed with ball games? He loved to win:

I loved to play games [...] in these games I was overmastered by my vain desire to excel, so I used to strive to win, even by cheating.

Plenty of people today probably share Saint Augustine's view that winning is one of the things that make sport enjoyable.

Of course, there are many other reasons why people might like to play sport.

What sports did they play?