Urban Sports Creating New Life in Civic Spaces

"At first these unusual games were not taken seriously by the world of organized sports but now they are attracting more and more followers. Christian Wopp, a sports scholar at Osnabrück University, believes only a quarter of all sport disciplines still take place in traditional locations such as stadiums and swimming pools. He sees "an ironic movement" in the trend toward alternative sports. Concrete and asphalt, Wopp suggests, "are being made into inhabitable environments again." Academics like Franz Bockrath at the Institute for Sports Science in Darmstadt also sees the spread of the new sports as a critique of the ever-contracting nature of large urban centers. To create new possibilities for movement, Bockrath says, young trendsetters have set about transforming cities' enclosed spaces."