Early 1900s Sports

In the last 100 years, many of the sports that we have nowadays did not yet exist or they were played with different style, rules and were not accessible to everyone. In the early 1900s, the participants in sports were athletes considered as amateurs. Moreover, they were not considered as professionals athletes because they had different jobs and they were just doing sports activities for fitness, leisure and entertainment. The way that they played/viewed/consumed sport 100 years ago was different because of many different reasons.
First of all and most important, the athletes in the early to mid-1900s did not have the equipment, facilities, technology and the apparel that the athletes can have nowadays. Another reason that made it more difficult

For instance, sports like golf, tennis, cricket, fox hunting and horse racing was played mostly by wealthy people. Sports in the 20th century were played mostly by people with economic power that produced sport to the working classes with a smart way of succeeding in their business. Because sports at that time defined as a non-work activity this helped the sport to increase its fame to many people who wanted to get involved with it. This way of producing sport was adopted by many factory owners who wanted their workers to entertain and to be obstructed with something so they can be happy to work for lots of hours. However, in the first modern Olympics in 1896, women could not compete but after four years in the Olympics of Paris, women started to compete in only a few sports. The fact that kept away women participating in sport in the begging of the 20th century was because many sports programmes ignored females and also the participation of women in sport was considered from organisers and sponsors as less important for the development of sport at the time. (Coakley and Pike, p.

In 1920s we have the first live media coverage of sports via radio. The engagement of the media into sports is what made sports famous all over the world. The radio that started from that year until now with the new media platforms that we have is what made the sports industry growth through the years. In addition, the media gave the opportunity to people to watch and learn more about sports and it influenced more people to engage with sports. Nevertheless, the combination of the media in sports with the commercialization and sponsorships that came into sports through the media is what led to the professionalization of sports and to the transformation of how sports is consumed/viewed/played in the 21st