According to the world sports data, the word "sports" was first used by the French to discuss children's sports in the French newspaper 1760 (educational physique), and now "physical education" is widely used to refer to "sports" in the world. Its original meaning refers to education through physical activities, which is literally translated as physical education. In the modern Republic of China, this word was first translated into China. The word "sports" is usually thought to originate from the Latin word "displace", which originally meant to leave work to play, play and engage in recreational activities. Later, a new concept was gradually formed, that is, competitive sports.

In ancient Greece, games, wrestling and gymnastics were once listed as educational contents. From 17 to 18, hunting, swimming, mountain climbing, running and jumping were added to western education, but there was no unified name. At the end of 18, German J.C.F Gutz Jordan Mutch once classified and integrated these activities, which were collectively called "gymnastics". /kloc-in the 9th century, on the one hand, a new gymnastics system was formed in Germany, which was widely spread in Europe and America; On the other hand, many new sports have emerged one after another. In the school, more and more sports beyond the original scope of gymnastics have been gradually developed, and a new concept of "physical education is education through physical activities" has been established. Therefore, for a considerable period of time, the words "gymnastics" and "sports" coexisted and mixed with each other, and it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that they were gradually called "sports" internationally.