Sports are considered to be a mirror of the life of American people. Millions of Americans play and watch sport and games on a regular basis. The world of sport has penetrated the American consciousness to a remarkable degree. There are manysporting activities which are a part of daily American life. Both professional and recreational sports occupy much attention and time of their adherents. One of many reasons for Americans' interest in sport and fitness is the modern stress on appearances, what is called "good looks". Images of "ideal" male and female body are constructed, consumed and sold in close association with images of sport, health and fitness. Americans like competition, by teams or as individuals. American schools follow the tradition of all English-speaking societies in using sports as teaching "social values". Among these are teamwork, sportsmanship (when Americans win, they say, "well, we were just lucky"), and persistence (not quitting). Being intelligent and being good in sport is an ideal. There are colleges which have excellent academic reputations and are also good in sports. Stanford, UCLA, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Harvard, and Yale are among them. Recently, a new rule has been adopted which states that all college athletes must meet set academic standards. If they do not, they are not allowed to take part in sports. Among all professional football players in the FNL, more than a third has earned university degrees. Hockey, baseball, football and basketball are the "four major sports". There are many other sports in America: golf, swimming, tennis, marathons, track-and-field, bowling, archery, skiing, skating, squash and badminton, rowing and sailing, weight-lifting, boxing, and wrestling. 44% of all Americans take part in some athletic activities once a day. Swimming, bicycling, fishing, jogging, calisthenics or gymnastics,
and bowling are American's favorite participatory sports. American football occupies a special place among sport games. It derived from the English game of rugby, and started at Harvard University in the 1870s. Football became popular during the later half of the 19th century. Nowadays it remains one of the most popular kinds of sport in the USA. The sport that evokes more nostalgia among Americans than any other is baseball. So many people play the game as children that it has become known as the national game in the USA. Baseball originated before the American Civil War as rounders, a humble game played on sandlots. Early champions of the game fine-tuned it to include the kind of skills and mental judgement that made cricket respectable in England. Another American game that has traveled well is basketball, now played by more than 250 million people worldwide. It started in 1891 when a future Presbyterian minister named James Naismith (1861-1939) was assigned to teach a physical education class at a Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) training school in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was told to invent a new game to keep the young men occupied. Many teams in the National Basketball Association now have foreign players, who return home to represent their native countries during the Olympic Games. Hockey has been increasing in popularity in recent years. The other great world team sport, soccer, has had a difficult time in gaining a foothold. After a brief burst of success in the 1970s, professional soccer in the USA has assumed a minor status in relation to the other major sports. Golf and tennis are the most popular individual professional sports. Boxing is a sport that has become increasingly controversial over the years as its dangers have become more apparent. Most Americans who grow up in the North, grow up with outdoor winter sports. Skating, sledding and tobogganing are
very popular. Fishing and hunting are extremely popular in all parts of the country. There are 17 million hunters in the USA Hunting is strictly controlled. There are many more fishermen (42 million), and many more lakes than bears. There are several unusual sports in the USA Americans will race just about anything that has wheels: "Funny cars" with jet engines, pick-up trucks with gigantic tires, etc. The first "people-powered" aircraft to cross the English Channel was pedaled by an American. And the first hot-air balloon to make it across the Atlantic had a crew from New Mexico. Skate-boarding, wind-surfing, hang-gliding and triathlon,
swimming, bicycle racing became very popular in the USA.