Ten years ago, if you would ask anyone what a sport is, you’d think along the lines of competitive, physical activities you’d take in physical education classes — basketball, football, volleyball, tennis, athletics.
But as the hype and lineups around the Southeast Asian Games and 2020 Olympics have shown, what people would have traditionally considered as simply recreational activities (skateboarding, surfing, rock climbing) are now recognized as sports.
Case in point: the highly competitive scene of esports is making waves as it became an official medal event at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
Which begs the question, when and how does a sport “officially” become a sport?
The international way
Let’s work our way from the top. There is a long document containing the accreditation process mandated by the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, filled with numerous nuances and provisions.
Mickey Ingles, a sports lawyer at Ingles Lauren Calderon and one of the few experts in Philippine sports law, broke down the process into its simplest elements for SPIN Life.
First, it’s important to build your base.
“For example, [if] you want to play a sport or you want to invent a sport, you [have to] get a lot of people playing it and then you give it a name,” he shared to SPIN Life. This community must then become known and played enough around the world that it needs a non-governmental organization called an International Federation (IF) to administer it.
An IF, said Ingles, is necessary, “for a sport to have recognition under the Olympic charter.”
Once the IF of a sport is established, it then petitions for accreditation with the IOC to be recognized as an Olympic sport and to ultimately be part of the Olympics — perhaps the most prestigious sporting event in the world.
Of course, a sport doesn’t need the Olympics. It can continue to operate within its own community even without IOC accreditation. But for those sports aiming for global legitimacy, an Olympic charter could be the worldwide stamp of approval it needs.
Going local
It's also important for a sport to be recognized in the country level.
Take rugby, for example. Jake Letts, general manager of the Philippine Rugby Football Union told SPIN Life in a phone interview about the significance of being accredited locally and also internationally.
“[By] ensuring that we are accredited across all levels, we are able to obtain substantial funding... obtain substantial partnerships in order to develop our sport,” said Letts.
Our country follows a similar process as the global rules. Just swap out the IOC for the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), and an IF for a National Sports Association (NSA), and you’ve got the gist of the legal framework of sports in the local context. (Now, brace yourselves — a lot of acronyms ahead.)
The POC, after all, is the International Olympic Committee's official representative in the Philippines. And it recognizes all sports (and IFs) that are recognized by the IOC.
The National Sports Associations play an important role. “[NSAs] are the ones who manage, regulate, and push to improve a certain sport within a certain country.” explained Ingles. So there is a separate NSA for basketball (we know it as the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas), an NSA for football (the Philippine Football Federation), an NSA for rugby (the Philippine Rugby Football Union), and so on.
As stated in the constitution and by-laws of the POC, regular members of the POC are made up of:
1. All NSAs that are affiliated with their respective International Federation for sports included in the programme of the Olympic Games.
2. Other NSAs affiliated with their respective International Federations for sports that are played (and here you should take note of the frequency) at least once in the Asian Games or twice consecutively in the Southeast Asian Games.
Obviously, it’s easier for established sports to be accredited by the POC. However, for the less popular sports in the country, an NSA has to be established and recognized by its corresponding IF before being accredited by the POC.
What benefits would a sport get if its NSA is accredited with the POC? Support from the government, for one thing. The authorities do their part to promote sports through the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).
“If you look at Republic Act No. 6847, the act that created the Philippine Sports Commission, the PSC is there, number one, for policy making, and, number two, to help a certain sport in the Philippines,” explained Ingles. “The way it chooses who to help is [to determine] the money [that] should go to [a] National Sports Association.”
And so, it’s key for a given sport’s NSA in the country to be recognized as legitimate by the POC in order for them to receive the support of the government, through the PSC.
Letts shared the vital role that the PSC has played in growing a less familiar sport like rugby in the Philippines. “Each and every year they’ve been one of our most loyal partners in terms of growing our sport, not only in the grassroots area, but also in the national team’s arena,” he said. “Without them, we wouldn’t be able to survive.”
With the PSC's support, that NSA will have greater means to invest in the training and equipment needed by the athletes, and as well as promote the continued development and growth of the sport across the archipelago.
To a sports future
Now, you’re probably thinking that nowhere does anyone lay out, in black or white, what is or is not a sport. So, you ask, can anything legally become a sport?
Our laws and policies currently do not contain a legal definition of what a sport is, or what it should be in order for us to recognize its legitimacy. And perhaps that’s a good thing.
As Ingles told SPIN Life, “The good part about it is, if there’s no [one definition], it can open things up to new sports."
He added: “If your definition of a sport would have been so restrictive, it’s like you’re missing out.” Perhaps if both international and local law had set down strict limits on what can be considered a sport, we wouldn’t see the likes of esports come into the fore of the 2019 SEA games.
As technologies continue to evolve and innovations are discovered, who’s to say that one day, virtual reality and augmented reality might become the next evolution of sports? Or that the lesser-known sports of different countries around the world would eventually make their way to the international stage?
But to be “legitimate” in the eyes of these different governing bodies, and ultimately, the general public, is a different story altogether.
Can anything become a sport? Yes. But is it going to be easy? Most certainly not.
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