The inclusion of a variety of sports in GTA: online takes the Activities beyond Jobs as each has been added to the game with a framework that is literally engineered for multi-player competitive play - but that makes sense when you consider that this is, after all, a Junior MMO!
The sports that you have to choose from include:
It will probably help if you think of the sports in GTA:O as bonus mini-games since that is essentially what they are.
Just like the regular and special Jobs in the game world, each of the sports is instanced -- though for Activities like Arm Wrestling, Darts, Golf, The Shooting Range, and Tennis, the instancing is not as obvious since those are go-to locations.
Instancing in the game is much more obvious with Parachuting which, until the update to the game in January 2014 was actually bugged for a large number of players (including us) so that the individual Parachuting Events were only available as selections in the multi-player game session continue menu.
Fortunately the Parachutes bug was fixed, so they now appear, as they should, as destination icons on the map.
Sports Awards
With almost all of the Activities in the game having some sort of milestone award associated with them, it is easy enough to forget how important that can be both to picking up extra level XP and Achievements as there are a few of those related to the Awards and activities.
You may be interested to know that the following Awards apply to the Sports Activities in the game:
Ace - Tennis - Serve up Aces.
Birdies - Golf - Sink Birdies Count.
Checking Out - Darts - Obtain a 6-Dart Check-out.
Crack Shot - Shooting Range - Win Target Grid Matches.
Duck and Cover - Shooting Range - Win Cover Target Matches.
Granny - Shooting Range - Color all targets in the Target Grid.
Hole in One - Golf - Score a Hole in One!
Nick of Time - Parachuting - Deploy chute below 130ft.
Out of Five - Tennis - Win a 5 set Tennis match.
Over the Top - Arm Wrestling - Arm Wrestling Wins.
Point Break - Parachuting - 3+ Minutes in the air.
Stayed on Target - Parachuting - Use brakes for safe landings.
Straight Sets - Tennis - Win Tennis in Straight Sets.
Stroke Master - Tennis - Serve and Volley or Rally from the Baseline.
The Marksman - Shooting Range - Win Random Target Matches.
The Swing King - Golf - Winning games.
Throwback King - Darts - Darts Victories.
Obtaining Platinum Level Awards for these sports can help towards the 30 Platinum Awards that you need to unlock the Achievement: Decorated (50G) Earn 30 Platinum Awards in GTA:O.