“Is there any major sporting event in 2025?”, asked Jack when they were sitting down for the 5th gathering of The Foreign Land’s Explorers.

“What do you mean by ‘major’? All sports have major events annually”, replied Leo.

“Like the Olympics and the Football World Cup”, specified Jack.

“You mean, MEN’s Football World Cup? Because, you know, there’s the WOMEN’s Football World Cup too. It’s high time we all make the distinction for both events”, said Sophia.

Everyone stared at Sophia in awe.

“Yes”, she added, “women’s competitions are as good or even better than men’s competitions. Besides, men’s competitions are now more about money than sport. Anyway, answering your question: not really. Some sports have their World Cups or Worlds Championships, which will be major for their fans. But, in case you’re interested, this year the Women’s Football European Championship will be held in Switzerland, between 2 and 27 July.”

“Well, after I’ve been put in my place in terms of sport ignorance, how about we talk about sports around the world? For starters, how do you say ‘sport’ in different languages?”, said Jack, with a slightly hurt voice.

“Hey, no hurt feelings, I didn’t mean to offend, ok?”, said Sophia. “So, sport in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish is the same as English, but with a slightly different pronunciation.

“I think Sophia is right in distinguishing which competition we are talking about (men’s or women’s). About the French word for sport, it is ‘sport’ too, with a different pronunciation. Same situation as Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish”, said Elizabeth.

“Same in German. And, yes, I also agree with Sophia”, said Michael.

“Aye, aye, Sophia! And in Italian it is also the same. However, it is slightly different in Spanish (‘deporte’) and in Portuguese (‘desporto’). Nevertheless, they probably have the same root”, concluded Leo.

“Right, thank you everyone. And I also agree with Sophia, no offence taken. I’ve just never thought about it until now. We are used to refer to a certain sport event as it is only a men’s event and make the distinction only in women’s events. It’s wrong, indeed, we should all correct it. Now, the origins of sports! Obviously, many sports had their origin in war, or rather, in preparation for war, for example: archery, fencing, wrestling…”, said Jack.

“Martial arts, like judo, karate, kung fu, taekwondo, were also preparation for fighting, whereas to defend and attack or just to defend. Later, it became a path to personal development”, said Michael. “Actually, Judo is mandatory in Japanese schools”.

“Different ways to fight and make war gave birth to different sports. By the way, biathlon came about when the military border patrollers of Norway and Sweden decided to compete between themselves. They patrolled the border on skis and had their rifles at hand in case of need”, said Sophia. “One day, they thought it would be fun to make a competition between countries”.

“All skiing events come from daily life in Nordic countries. Telemark skiing is a style that was ‘invented’ in a Norwegian region called… Telemark!”, said Elizabeth.

“However, Alpine skiing was developed as a sport in Switzerland”, added Sophia.

“Other winter sports also came from daily life in countries where it snows. For example, it was usual for people in the Netherlands to skate the canals as a way of travelling between villages, hence speed skating. Figure skating was probably a variant”, said Elizabeth.

“Hunting was also a fertile ground for sporting activities, like shooting and equestrian. Archery also, I suppose”, said Leo. “Running is as old as human beings, probably. First, they run away from predators, then they run after their prey. Competition to see who would run faster among themselves was a question of time.”

“Football is an interesting phenomenon. Its origins are controversial, but an undeniable fact is that it became incredibly popular. You only need a ball that you can make with some rags or other material and the goalposts can be drawn on the ground or identified by using some objects. Then, you just need to run after the ball and try to cross it between the “posts”. On the streets, there aren’t many rules. So, it can be played anywhere and everyone knows instinctively how to play,” said Leo and paused for a moment.

“Ok”, said Michael, “why is that so interesting?”

“Like I said, on the streets, there aren’t many rules… so, you can make them up. And that’s how you ended up with different types of football around the world. In England, there’s rugby. In the USA, there’s American football. In Australia, there’s Australian football. In Ireland, there’s Gaelic football. In Scotland, there’s Scottish football. Even in Canada you have a specific type of football. All with different rules. You also have beach football and futsal. Table football is a variant where you play with wood figures attached to a table. In a nutshell, there are many ways of playing football”, concluded Leo.

“Gymnastics is a global sport as well. It dates back to Ancient Greece, where athletes would ‘exercise naked’ (which is the meaning of the word). Only men would exercise. At that time, athletics and wrestling were included. Over the centuries, many forms of gymnastics were born, not only in Europe, but also in China, sometimes linked to the circus: tumbling, acrobatics, jugglers, trampolines. In the 19th century, other forms of exercising the body were developed in Germany, Sweden and Denmark. Artistic gymnastics, aerobics, and calisthenics were born during this time. Afterwards, gymnastics kept on evolving and it is still evolving today”, said Elizabeth.

“So, circus is related to gymnastics, at least some part of it. Interesting”, commented Leo.

“I did a quick search here on my computer while you were talking”, said Michael, “and there are at least two very local sports which became worldwide. One is cricket. It’s huge in England; you see it being played everywhere during summer. It is also very popular in old British colonies like Australia and India. The other is curling, which was developed in Scotland and it is now important in places like Canada. Apparently, British people like to take their sports with them wherever they emigrate (or colonize, more likely)”.

As everyone had their own computer, they searched for other sports and discussed their findings. Then, they built a table with sports’ names in different languages and wrote sentences as “Curling is a winter sport while cricket is a summer sport” also in different languages.