I was reading about Qutub Minar and came across the fact that its builder Qutb-ud-din Aibak died while playing polo. Upon reading more about polo itself, I realized it was around since 5th century BC or even earlier.
The game first played in Persia at dates given from the 5th century BC. or much earlier.
When I tried to cross reference whether it was indeed the oldest sport, answers from other community-oriented question & answer sites provide contradictory answers. Yahoo Answers mentions about wresting being the oldest sport with the source link currently unaccessible. Whereas Wiki Answers states boxing was the oldest sport. Neither of the answers seem convincing enough with valid substantiations.
A Wikipedia article about History of Sport loosely mentions about archery, javelin, swimming and wrestling happening earlier than 5th century BC but it is not clear whether these activities were to be considered as a sport.
So, was polo the first recognizable sport to be played on earth? Or are there any other sport which is older than the polo?
For the scope of the question, I am defining sport as "competitive physical activity" if I may borrow from the Wikipedia. Suffix to say, it has to be essentially between human beings. So, sprinting among humans count as sport while pie-chucking among chimpanzees don't.
Whether or not the sport was played under well defined rules and regulations does not matter either as long as the sport is considered competitive and physical but I guess we all would agree that there needs to be some guidelines on how a sport has to be played.