There are artifacts and structures that show that China is engaging in sporting activities as early as 2000 BC. Gymnastics appears to have been a popular sport in the ancient Chinese had. Monument to Pharaohs showed that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, well developed and organized several thousand years ago in ancient Egypt. Other sports included javelin throwing Egypt, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as traditional martial art of Zourkhaneh had Iran close relationship to the skills of warfare. Among other sports that originate in the old Persian is the polo and jousting.
Aspects of the sport, along with an increase in the mass media and leisure, has led to the “professionalism” in the sport. This has resulted in some conflict, where salaries are more important than recreational aspects, or where the sport changed simply to make them more profitable and popular, thereby losing certain valued traditions.
Sports have a lot of affinity with the arts. For example, figure skating, skateboarding, drum corps, artistic gymnastics, dancesport, and T’ai chi may be considered artistic glasses. Similarly, there are other activities that have elements of sport and art in their execution, such as bodybuilding, free running, martial arts, professional wrestling, performance art, yoga, dressage, and culinary arts. Perhaps the best example in the battle of the bull, that Spain was reported in the art newspaper page.