Participation in organized sports is considered as a lifestyle characteristic that is dependent on social class and status considerations. It has been argued that each sport, to a certain extent, can be considered as a representative of certain status categories. These social status categories are dynamic and their size, exclusiveness, and even existence are related to the class structures that arise with the development of economic structure. In this article these ideas are given further critical elaboration through the study of the contemporary demographic distribution of participation in different branches of sports in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
