An exercise of classifying sports

Abstract

The challenge was the following: how to present, in an exhibition of the National Sports Museum, all the diversity of sports, so that no visitor (and especially the one who practices a sport) feels forgotten? The difficulty lay in the great variety of sports. How to put order in the abundance and heterogeneity? What criteria to use? What to communicate about all? And how would this contribute to improve the understanding of what Sport is? The search for a solution made us do an exercise in classifying sports. The classification resulting from the exercise, for which we used three main criteria (space, the direction of action in space and the objective of the action), allowed for an arrangement in seven groups, covering all sports and games and affording a better understanding of certain universal, timeless, and transversal characteristics. Although no classification is perfect, but for this very reason, converting the exercise in the form of an exhibition and interacting with visitors made it possible to continue reflecting on the meaning of Sport.