Did the Olmec play sports

Answer 1

Yes. They invented the Mesoamerican ball game, some 3,000 years before contact with Europeans was made, and later played by both Aztecs and Mayas. It was a game similar to Racquetball or volleyball, where the object was to keep a solid rubber ball in play. In formal games, the losing team members were sacrificed to the ancient Mesoamerican gods. Due to the extremely brutal game mechanics - even without the human sacrifice - it is now played just for representation purposes.