Hello, /u/glastonbury13! I have a little free time today, and while searching for Inca content on AskHistorians I noticed no one answered your question about Inca sports. I can give you some information, although I regret to say if there was an iconic Inca sport, I have somehow missed it. The Inca were not big advocates of unstructured fun or really free time in general. You might say the Inca's real sport was making sure everyone had something to do.

Anyway, before we get into what might be called Inca sports, let me say I am speaking of the Inca as the ruling people, not all the peoples in their empire, many of whom I am sure had local sports. The Inca themselves did have a few things that could be mistaken for sports, although all of them did have some other kind of purpose as well.

The first thing that comes to my mind is long-distance footraces, especially during the puberty rites. Every Inca boy ran something like a marathon in front of most of Cuzco before he got to tie on a breech cloth, have his ears pierced by the Emperor himself, and take on a new adult name. The top ten runners got to wear special clothing to celebrate their victory, and it was a normal thing for their accomplishment to be a major part of their reputation as an adult for the rest of their lives. The last ten runners across the finish line wore special clothing to shame them, and their failure was definitely viewed as a bad omen for their future.

The Inca were also fans of military arts. They practiced with slings and bolas and javelins regularly. They wrestled. They played tug of war. They admired all feats of strength and endurance, and they viewed being nimble, sure-footed, and agile while working across rocky and mountainous terrain as normal.

As a rule they did not know how to swim.

Moving from sports on to games, we know they played dice, and they even had a die unique to the Andes with uneven odds where the least likely roll was worth more points than the more likely faces. They also had several boardgames for which the rules have been lost, and there is a strong possibility they played war games with wooden pieces representing military units as a kind of teaching tool for students who might one day become generals.

The last thing that comes to mind when I think of Inca sport is drinking competitions. The Inca were proud drinkers, and different families with established rivalries would often choose champions who would perch themselves on a high stool and offer and receive toasts to one another using akha, corn beer, until someone was unable to control himself any longer and remain sitting with dignity.