Sport is an important part of today's society and plays a large role in many people's lives. Now more than ever, sport events dominate headlines and athletes have become national heroes. The question is, does sport merit this kind of interest and attention?
From a social standpoint, sport plays a positive role in uniting people from different social backgrounds in support of their favourite team. This can aid people's understanding and tolerance of each other. However, just as sport unites people so it can divide them, as is often demonstrated by crowd violence at football matches.
As far as education is concerned, sport is an important part of every child's schooling, as it plays a big role in both their physical and mental development. It teaches children how to work as a part of a team and cooperate with others, while at the same time improving physical condition. The only drawback to this is that children who are less able to perform well in sport are likely to feel inadequate in comparison to their more gifted classmates, which may affect their self-confidence.
From an economic point of view, sport can be very profitable, as it attracts a lot of sponsorship and advertising. On the one hand this creates revenue for the sporting industry which allows for improvement and expansion. On the other hand large sums of money are often paid to event organisers to promote products such as cigarettes, which are harmful to one's health.
In my opinion, sport should be used as much as possible to encourage people to lead a more healthy and peaceful life instead of being used to promote unhealthy