ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with two main ideas: first, performance is a cardinal element in modern sports and second, performances are narrative productions. It examines parallels between performance in sports and in organizations and focuses on sports with the aim of depicting the origin of the performance notion. The chapter explores modern sports with earlier forms of sports activities and describes how modern sports have come to be what it is. It describes the relationship of professional sports to ideas of modernity, suggesting that sports are one of the narratives produced by modernity. As exemplified by the falls of Dorando Pietri, sports are a visual story and athletes are characters enclosed in what they can show through their acting. The history of organized sports-like activities that led to modern sports can be said to have first resumed with tournaments and ball games in the Middle Ages.
