It is widely maintained that sport and physical activities contribute to the development of young people’s well-being. Others argue that sports’ contribution to good living is so strong that it is even thought to be a human right. Typically, however, the value of physical activity and sport to our well-being is conceptualized and researched within a subjectivist framework. We reject this framework on three grounds: (1) its impermanence; (2) its hedonistic shallowness; and (3) its epistemological inadequacy. In contrast, we argue that the value of sports and physical activities ought to be situated in fundamental arguments about the necessary conditions for human flourishing. According to this objectivist view, there are certain constituents of a good life without which human flourishing becomes impossible. We argue that sports and physical activities offer distinctive ways to help realize these objective constituents. It follows that, to the extent to which certain sections of society are deprived of opportunities to engage in sport and physical activity, or are offered diminished provision thereof, they thereby suffer a deficit in well-being.
