page_title: Sportsperson
hierarchical_section_title: Sportsperson
caption_attribution_description: Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics
context_page_description: A sportsperson, also known as sportsmen or sportswomen, is a person who is involved in sports. It may mean someone who is known for the promotion of sport or athletic activities.
  A sportsperson can be a man or a woman who is person trained to compete or interested in a sport involving physical strength, speed or endurance. A sportsman is a player in a sport; but the term also means someone who plays sport in a way that shows respect and fairness towards the opposing player or team.
  The term sportsman can also be used to describe a former competitor who continues to promote the sport in later years. For example, Tsunekazu Takeda is a sportsman who competed in two Summer Olympic Games and who was the President of the Japanese Olympic Committee before he was elected to the International Olympic Committee in 2012.
  Sportspeople may be professionals or amateurs. Sportsmen and sportswomen often have particularly well-developed physiques obtained by extensive physical training and strict exercise accompanied by a strict dietary regimen, but term is also used more broadly. For example, Yifan Hou was honored in 2011 as the best sportsperson of the year in a non-Olympic event.
context_section_description: A sportsperson, also known as sportsmen or sportswomen, is a person who is involved in sports.  It may mean someone who is known for the promotion of sport or athletic activities.  
  A sportsperson can be a man or a woman who is person trained to compete or interested in a sport involving physical strength, speed or endurance.  A sportsman is a player  in a sport; but the term also means someone who plays sport in a way that shows respect and fairness towards the opposing player or team. 
  The term sportsman can also be used to describe a former competitor who continues to promote the sport in later years.  For example, Tsunekazu Takeda is a sportsman who competed in two Summer Olympic Games and who was the President of the Japanese Olympic Committee before he was elected to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2012. 
  Sportspeople may be professionals or amateurs.    Sportsmen and sportswomen often have particularly well-developed physiques obtained by extensive physical training and strict exercise accompanied by a strict dietary regimen, but term is also used more broadly.  For example, Yifan Hou was honored in 2011 as the best sportsperson of the year in a non-Olympic event.
  The term athlete may be used as a synonym for sportspeople in general, but the word  has strong connotations of people who compete in team sports, as contrasted with other sporting types such as horse riding and driving. For example, a fisherman may be called a sportsman, but not an athlete.  In British English (as well as other variants in the Commonwealth) athlete can also have a more specific meaning of people who compete in traditional athletics (track and field) events.
caption: Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics
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