Participation Gender participation [icon] This section requires expansion.

(March 2012) See also: Women's sports Female participation continues to rise alongside the opportunity for involvement and the value of sports for child development and physical fitness. Despite gai ns during the last three decades, a gap persists in the enrollment figures betwe en male and female players. Female players account for 39% of the total particip ation 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 [icon] This section requires expansion. (March 2012) 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 edu cational participation and to fight the illegal drug trade. According to the Cen ter 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.[19] Spectator involvement Spectators at the 1906 unofficial Olympic Games Main article: Spectator sport 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 s port venue, and through broadcast mediums including radio, television and intern et broadcast. Both attendance in person and viewing remotely can incur a sometim es substantial charge, such as an entrance ticket, or pay-per-view television br oadcast. 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 certai n fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hund reds of millions; the 2006 final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million and the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final attracted an esti mated audience of 135 million in India alone .[20] In the United States, the championship game of the NFL, the Super Bowl, has beco me one of the most watched television broadcasts of the year.[citation needed] S uper 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 Amateur and professional Modern sports have complex rules and are highly organized. See also: professional sport and amateur sport Sport can be undertaken on an amateur, professional or semi-professional basis, depending on whether participants are incentivised for participation (usually th rough payment of a wage or salary). The popularity of spectator sport as a recreation for non-participants has led t o sport becoming a major business in its own right, and this has incentivised a high paying professional sport culture, where high performing participants are r ewarded with pay far in excess of average wages, which can run into millions of

dollars.[21] Some sports, or individual competitions within a sport, retain a policy of allow ing only amateur sport. The Olympic Games started with a principle of amateur co mpetition with those who practiced a sport professionally considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practiced it merely as a hobby.[22] Following th e 1988 games, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes eligible 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 s port at lower levels, normally without pretension towards higher achievement, an d is in line with the "sport for all" mentality, where enjoyment is the primary reason for participation.[2][23] Technology Technology plays an important part in modern sport, with it being a necessary pa rt of some sports (such as motorsport), and used in others to improve performanc e. 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 te chnique, or to equipment, such as improved running shoes or competitive swimwear . Sports engineering emerged as a discipline in 1998 with an increasing focus not just on materials design but also the use of technology in sport. In order to control the impact of technology on fair play, governing bodies freq uently have specific rules that are set to control the impact of technical advan tage between participants. Politics This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve th is article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be ch allenged and removed. (May 2010) Main article: Politics and sports Sports and politics can influence each other greatly. The 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin was an illustration, perhaps best recogn ised in retrospect, where an ideology was developing which used the event to str engthen its spread through propaganda. Berlin Olympics August 1936 is a classica l example of the symbiosis of the politics and sports. Berlin Olympics propagand a value to the Nazi Germany was high. The Berlin Olympics August 1936 smoothed t he way to the racist anti-Semitism and the war. Germany wanted to give of itself in the world and nationally a peaceful image while it was very actively prepari ng the war. The games were used as shield to the aggressive military goals. . Th e lack of human rights was a dark shadow. The fascist were in power: In February 1933 10,000 work activists were taken in prison. In April 1933 was the first ho locaust. The Sachsenhausen concentration camp was opened in 12.7.1936 near the O lympic stadium. In total there were 200,000 persons in prison during its operati ons.[24] When apartheid was the official policy in South Africa, many sports people, part icularly in rugby union, adopted the conscientious approach that they should not appear in competitive sports there. Some feel this was an effective contributio n to the eventual demolition of the policy of apartheid, others feel that it may have prolonged and reinforced its worst effects.[25] In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were connected with cultural nationalis m. Until the mid 20th century a person could have been banned from playing Gaeli c football, hurling, or other sports administered by the Gaelic Athletic Associa tion (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 t o allow football and rugby to be played in Croke Park while Lansdowne Road was r edeveloped into Aviva Stadium. Until recently, under Rule 21, the GAA also banne d members of the British security forces and members of the RUC from playing Gae lic games, but the advent of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the eventu

al removal of the ban. Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sports, or in its reporting: peop le compete in national teams, or commentators and audiences can adopt a partisan view. On occasion, such tensions can lead to violent confrontation among player s or spectators within and beyond the sporting venue, as in the Football War. Th ese 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 collided was the 1972 Olympics in Mu nich. Masked men entered the hotel of the Israeli olympic team and killed many o f their men. This was known as the Munich massacre. A study of US elections has shown that the result of sports events can affect th e results. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Scien ce showed that when the home team wins the game before the election, the incumbe nt candidates can increase their share of the vote by 1.5 percent. A loss had th e opposite effect, and the effect is greater for higher-profile teams or unexpec ted wins and losses. The study authors concluded that the win made voters feel b etter about society, boosting votes for the incumbent, whil