INTRODUCTION

HISTORY

The documented history of sports goes back at least 3,000 years. In the beginning,
sports often involved the preparation for war or training as a hunter, which explains why so
many early games involved the throwing of spears, stakes, and rocks, and sparring one-on-one
with opponents.
With the first Olympic Games in 776 BC—which included events such as foot and chariot
races, wrestling, jumping, and discus and javelin throwing—the Ancient Greeks introduced
formal sports to the world. The following by no means exhaustive list takes a look at the
beginnings and evolution of some of today's most popular sporting pastimes.

MEDIEVAL PERIOD

MEDIEVAL SPORTS
Religion and the church
may have played a central role in
Medieval history, but the
inhabitants of that time period also
knew how to entertain themselves.
Aside from festivals, acrobatics,
dancing, and music, people from
Medieval times enjoyed playing a
wide variety of games and sports.
Many of the sporting events we
know and play at present can be
traced back to the Middle Ages.
However, due to vague rules,
many Medieval sports took on
deadly proportions. Not only were they physically demanding but there were little to zero
emphasis on safety. Animals were sometimes involved such as in the case of hawking and
hunting. Despite the hazards that came with some sports, many Medieval residents were still
eager to join in the fun.
Popular Early Medieval Sports
Archery contests were particularly popular in the Middle Ages. Not only was it a sport
but it was also a skill that every Englishman between the age of 15 and 60 had to acquire in
accordance with the law.
Formerly called Butts, the bow and arrow played a pivotal role in England’s heroic
victory over the French army in the 14th century Battle of Crecy.

ANCIENT ORIGINS

PREHISTORIC TO CLASSICAL ERA

Sports have been part of
human history since prehistoric
times. Early humans engaged in
physical activities that laid the
foundation for later sports. These
activities included running,
jumping, wrestling, and various
forms of martial arts, often used
for hunting and survival. As
societies developed, sports took
on more organized forms in
ancient civilizations like
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
Ancient Greece, in particular, had a profound influence on sports culture. The Olympic
Games, first held in Olympia around 776 BC, became the most prestigious athletic event in the
ancient world, uniting Greek city-states and promoting physical prowess, camaraderie, and
cultural exchange. Other Greek city-states organized their own games, such as the Pythian
Games and the Isthmian Games.

MIDDLE AGES TO RENAISSANCE

 With the fall of the Roman Empire, organized sports declined during the Middle Ages in
Europe. However, forms of athletic contests continued in various regions, often linked to
religious festivals or celebrations. Archery, jousting, and various combat sports were popular
during this time.
During the Renaissance, interest in classical antiquity resurged, and sports began to
regain popularity. Innovations in education and printing helped spread knowledge and ideas,
including those related to sports and physical fitness. The emergence of modern sports started
taking shape.

BIRTH OF MODERN SPORTS

18TH TO 19TH CENTURY

The 18th and 19th
centuries marked a significant
period of transformation in
sports. Industrialization and
urbanization led to increased
leisure time, enabling people to
participate in recreational
activities. Organized sports clubs
and associations were
established, and standardized
rules for various sports were developed.
In England, the formation of modern football (soccer) rules in the mid-19th century led
to the rapid global spread of the sport. In the United States, modern sports like baseball,
basketball, and American football were developed. Additionally, the revival of the Olympic
Games took place in 1896, under the leadership of Pierre de Coubertin, which further
popularized the pursuit of physical excellence on an international scale.

MODERN-DAY SPECTACLES

20TH CENTURY TO PRESENT

The 20th century
witnessed a tremendous
growth in sports, both in terms
of participation and
commercialization.
Advancements in technology,
mass media, and
transportation made sports
more accessible to global
audiences. Sports became
major entertainment events,
attracting large crowds and generating significant revenue. The rise of professional leagues, the
Olympic Games' expansion, and the birth of mega-sporting events like the FIFA World Cup and
the Summer and Winter Olympics showcased the universal appeal of sports.
Additionally, new sports were invented, such as skateboarding, snowboarding, and
extreme sports, catering to evolving tastes and interests. Furthermore, sports have been used
as a platform for social and political movements, promoting values like equality, diversity, and
fair play.
In recent times, digital technology and the internet have revolutionized sports
consumption, providing global audiences with instant access to live events, statistics, and
analyses. Esports, competitive video gaming, has also emerged as a major industry, attracting
millions of fans worldwide.
In conclusion, the evolution of sports reflects the story of human civilization itself. From
ancient survival activities to modern global spectacles, sports continue to shape societies and
serve as a powerful force in bringing people together.

OLYMPICS

ORIGIN
The ancient Olympic Games were primarily a part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus,
the father of the Greek gods and goddesses. The festival and the games were held in Olympia, a
rural sanctuary site in the western Peloponnesos.
The Greeks that came to the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia shared the same religious
beliefs and spoke the same language. The athletes were all male citizens of the city-states from
every corner of the Greek world, coming from as far away as Iberia (Spain) in the west and the
Black Sea (Turkey) in the east.
The sanctuary was named in antiquity after Mt. Olympos, the highest mountain in
mainland Greece. In Greek mythology, Mt. Olympos was the home of the greatest of the Greek
gods and goddesses.
The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos, a cook from the
nearby city of Elis, won the stadion race, a foot race 600 feet long. The stadion track at Olympia
is shown here. According to some literary traditions, this was the only athletic event of the
games for the first 13 Olympic festivals or until 724 BC. From 776 BC, the Games were held in
Olympia every four years for almost 12 centuries.
Contrary evidence, both literary and archaeological, suggests that the games may have
existed at Olympia much earlier than this date, perhaps as early as the 10th or 9th century BC.
The first Olympic Games had achieved major importance in Greece by the end of the 6th
century BCE. They began to lose popularity when Greece was conquered by Rome in the 2nd
century BCE, and the Games were officially abolished about 400 CE because of their pagan
associations. The Olympics were revived in the late 19th century, with the first modern Games
being held in Greece is 1896.

FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN

Although the ancient Games were staged in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BC through 393
AD, it took 1503 years for the Olympics to return. The first modern Olympics were held in
Athens, Greece, in 1896. The man responsible for its rebirth was a Frenchman named Baron
Pierre de Coubertin, who presented the idea in 1894. His original thought was to unveil the
modern Games in 1900 in his native Paris, but delegates from 34 countries were so enthralled
with the concept that they convinced him to move the Games up to 1896 and have Athens
serve as the first host.

THE OLYMPIC FLAME

The idea of the Olympic torch or Olympic Flame was first inaugurated in the 1928
Olympic Games in Amsterdam. There was no torch relay in the ancient Olympic Games. There
were known, however, torch relays in other ancient Greek athletic festivals including those held
at Athens. The modern Olympic torch relay was first instituted at the 1936 Olympic Games in
Berlin.
The Olympic Oath was introduced in 1920.

ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES

Just how far back in history organized athletic contests were held remains a matter of debate,
but it is reasonably certain that they occurred in Greece almost 3,000 years ago. However
ancient in origin, by the end of the 6th century BCE at least four Greek sporting festivals,
sometimes called “classical games,” had achieved major importance: the Olympic Games, held
at Olympia; the Pythian Games at Delphi; the Nemean Games at Nemea; and the Isthmian
Games, held near Corinth. Later, similar festivals were held in nearly 150 cities as far afield as
Rome, Naples, Odessus, Antioch, and Alexandria.

THE MODERN OLYMPIC MOVEMENT

REVIVAL OF THE OLYMPICS
The ideas and work of several people led to the creation of the modern Olympics. The best-
known architect of the modern Games was Pierre de Coubertin, born in Paris on New Year’s
Day, 1863. Family tradition pointed to an army career or possibly politics, but at age 24
Coubertin decided that his future lay in education, especially physical education. In 1890 he
traveled to England to meet Dr. William Penny Brookes, who had written some articles on
education that attracted the Frenchman’s attention. Brookes also had tried for decades to
revive the ancient Olympic Games, getting the idea from a series of modern Greek Olympiads
held in Athens starting in 1859. The Greek Olympics were founded by Evangelis Zappas, who, in
turn, got the idea from Panagiotis Soutsos, a Greek poet who was the first to call for a modern
revival and began to promote the idea in 1833. Brookes’s first British Olympiad, held in London
in 1866, was successful, with many spectators and good athletes in attendance. But his
subsequent attempts met with less success and were beset by public apathy and opposition
from rival sporting groups. Rather than give up, in the 1880s Brookes began to argue for the
founding of international Olympics in Athens.
When Coubertin sought to confer with Brookes about physical education, Brookes talked more
about Olympic revivals and showed him documents relating to both the Greek and the British
Olympiads. He also showed Coubertin newspaper articles reporting his own proposal for
international Olympic Games. On November 25, 1892, at a meeting of the Union des Sports
Athlétiques in Paris, with no mention of Brookes or these previous modern Olympiads,
Coubertin himself advocated the idea of reviving the Olympic Games, and he propounded his
desire for a new era in international sport when he said:
He then asked his audience to help him in “the splendid and beneficent task of reviving the
Olympic Games.” The speech did not produce any appreciable activity, but Coubertin reiterated
his proposal for an Olympic revival in Paris in June 1894 at a conference on international sport
attended by 79 delegates representing 49 organizations from 9 countries. Coubertin himself
wrote that, except for his coworkers Dimítrios Vikélas of Greece, who was to be the first
president of the International Olympic Committee, and Professor William M. Sloane of the
United States, from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), no one had any real
interest in the revival of the Games. Nevertheless, and to quote Coubertin again, “a unanimous
vote in favour of revival was rendered at the end of the Congress chiefly to please me.”

It was at first agreed that the Games should be held in Paris in 1900. Six years seemed a long
time to wait, however, and it was decided (how and by whom remains obscure) to change the
venue to Athens and the date to April 1896. A great deal of indifference, if not opposition, had
to be overcome, including a refusal by the Greek prime minister to stage the Games at all. But
when a new prime minister took office, Coubertin and Vikélas were able to carry their point,
and the Games were opened by the king of Greece in the first week of April 1896, on Greek
Independence Day (which was on March 25 according to the Julian calendar then in use in
Greece).
 ENCLOSURE

PHILIPPINE ARENA

Philippine Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena that can host large-scale events such as
national sports, and concerts/performances. The arena has already become a landmark in the
Philippines and famous in Korea thanks to the many K-pop artists who have performed there.
The architecture marvel was completely designed and built by Hanwha Corporation E&C
Division using a method that is referred to as the Design and Build method.

SINGAPORE NATIONAL STADIUM

The National Stadium is much more than a place for sporting events. It is the nation’s
centrepiece for sporting, entertainment, lifestyle and national events.
The 55,000 capacity stadium provides spectacular views of the waterfront and Singapore city
skyline and features the world’s largest free-spanning dome, a retractable roof and comfort
cooling technology for spectators – design elements that complement Singapore’s humid
climate. The retractable roof also features an innovative lighting system that is embedded with
20,000 LEDs and can acts as a giant screen with the projection visible from both inside and
outside the stadium.
BEIJING NATIONAL STADIUM

The National Stadium is situated in the north of Beijing, on a gentle rise in the center of the
Olympic complex. From the beginning of the project, the purpose was to create an urban site
with the capacity to attract and generate public activities and to bring new life to this part of
the city, even after the 2008 Olympic Games. Significantly, the Chinese nicknamed the Stadium
‘Bird’s Nest’ in the early stages of the project, making it their own before it had even left the
drawing board.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU STADIUM

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is a multi-sports stadium located in New Delhi, India. It is named
after the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Primarily a venue for football
and athletics, it is an all-seated 60,254 capacity stadium, designed and constructed to meet the
international standards for stadiums set by the International Federation of Association Football
(FIFA), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the International Association of Athletics
Federations (IAAF). It is the fourth largest stadium in India, 27th largest stadium in Asia and the
103rd largest stadium in the world, in terms of seating capacity.

SEOUL WORLD CUP STADIUM

Seoul World Cup Stadium got built to serve as one of the playing venues for the 2002 World
Cup. It was constructed between 1998 and 2001, and officially opened on 10 November 2001.

JAPAN NATIONAL STADIUM

The national stadium has a capacity of 68,000 and has kept the running track around the
perimeter of the pitch so it can be used for future athletics events including the 2025 World
Championships.
It is also used as the home for the Japan national team in rugby union as well as football.

JAKARTA NATIONAL STADIUM

JIS has an area of 22.1 hectares with 82,000 capacity. JIS has three levels, namely the lower,
middle, and upper stands. Unlike the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium (GBK), JIS is specially designed
for football matches, so that the audience can see the action on the field more closely.

SEOUL OLYMPIC STADIUM

The Seoul Olympic Stadium also known as Jamsil Olympic Stadium (formerly romanised as
Chamshil) is located in Seoul, South Korea. It is the main stadium built for the 1988 Summer
Olympics and the 10th Asian Games in 1986. It is the centrepiece of the Seoul Sports Complex
in the Songpa-gu District, in the southeast of the city south of the Han River. It is multi-purpose
stadium was designed by Kim Swoo-geun. The lines of the stadium's profile imitate the elegant
curves of a Korean Joseon Dynasty porcelain vase.

KING FAHD INTERNATIONAL STADIUM

The King Fahd International Stadium, also nicknamed ‘The Tent’ or ‘Pearl of Stadiums’, is a
multipurpose stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Seating 58,398 spectators, it is currently used
mostly for football matches as the home of Al Hilal SFC and the Saudi national team, as well as
for hosting athletics events.

NATIONAL STADIUM BUKIT JALIL

National Stadium is the central and most prominent sports center and building at the National
Sports Complex in Bukit Jalil. The elliptical outdoor stadium has a total area of 76,000 square
meters and its classical bowl shape is enhanced by the dramatic overlapping of three spectator
tiers.
The construction of the Bukit Jalil National Stadium began in March 1994 and was fully
completed in 1998 with the opening of the biggest event, the XVI Commonwealth Games -
Kuala Lumpur '98.

YELLOW DRAGON SPORTS CENTER STADIUM

The center, built between 1997 and 2003, includes an association football stadium with a
running track, an indoor arena, outdoor track and field practice facility, a sports hotel, a press
center, and other facilities for sports such as rhythmic gymnastics, tennis, diving and chess.
The stadium is one of the main sports venues in Hangzhou, together with the 14,000-capacity
Jianggan District Culture and Sports Center Stadium and the 80,000-capacity Hangzhou Sports
Park Stadium.

BALKANABAT STADIUM
Balkanabat Stadium or Balkanabat sport toplumy in Turkmen is a multi-purpose sports arena
which is primarily used to host the football matches of FC Balkan. It’s official capacity today sits
at 10,000 although it has hosted larger crowds in the past.

WUHAN SPORTS CENTER

This stadium in southern Wuhan was built between 1999 and 2002 as part of one of China’s
new sports centers. Announced initially to hold 60,000 people, it proved to be significantly
smaller, but still sufficient for domestic football needs. Almost constantly with a league club as
anchor tenant, this ground also hosted games of the 2007 Women’s World Cup.

THAILAND NATIONAL STADIUM

Supachalasai Stadium, width 72 meters, length 110 meters (football field width 68 meters,
length 105 meters), with 8 synthetic running tracks for organizing athletic competitions used for
important sporting events, has a roof on one side with an amphitheater surrounding it.
Currently, there is a total spectator capacity of 19,615 seats, with 4 athlete rooms, 1 referee
room, 1 press room, 1 VIP lounge, 1 nursing room, and 1 press conference room (capacity of 50
people).
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http://stadiumdb.com/stadiums/chn/wuhan_sports_center_stadium

https://footballtripper.com/turkmenistan/balkanabat-stadium/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Dragon_Sports_Center#: .

https://www.stadium.gov.my/index.php/venues/kuala-lumpur-sports-city/national-stadium#:.

https://www.coliseum-online.com/king-fahd-stadium-comprehensive-development/.

https://architectuul.com/architecture/olympic-stadium-seoul

https://www.mancity.com/news/mens/10-things-to-know-about-the-japan-national-stadium

https://smartcity.jakarta.go.id/en/blog/fakta-unik-jakarta-international-stadium/

https://www.stadiumguide.com/seoulworldcupstadium/

https://www.sportshub.com.sg/venues-facilities/national-stadium

https://arquitecturaviva.com/works/estadio-nacional-en-pekin-6

https://www.hwenc.com/majorprojects/philippine-arena.do
 CHAPTER III
SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF BICOL REGION (REGION V)