<p>The Olympic Charter states that the “practice of sport is a human right” and that “every individual must have access to the practice of sport, without discrimination of any kind in respect of internationally recognised human rights”. In this article, I argue that this is not merely an empty proclamation but has a legally sound basis in international and regional human rights law. I demonstrate that sport is an intrinsic component of human dignity which calls for its recognition as a freestanding independent human right. I show that this fact has been recognised extensively (directly or indirectly) in multiple conventions and declarations. Additionally, access to sport can also be said to be an auxiliary or derived right that may originate from the well-defined international law rights to cultural life, health, education and work. I also offer a brief account of what the normative content of a freestanding right to sport might look like and who might be the corresponding duty holders having obligations to respect, protect, fulfil and remedy in relation to the right to sport. This discussion assumes practical urgency in light of many unresolved human rights challenges in sports: political bans on athletes, gender identity disputes (transgender athletes, athletes with sex variations), hijab bans (France), Afghan women’s exclusion, socio-economic/geographic access gaps, and climate-related disproportionate right impacts—all claims that could potentially benefit from a rights-based conceptualisation of sporting participation. The aim of the article is to begin the discussion on the articulation, contestation, value, content and potential objections to the question of sport as a human right.</p>