Do you have any theories as to why humans put such a premium on athletics?

Throughout history physical competition has ranked right up there in the top three Important Things in society. First comes power, then physical beauty, then physical ability (I’m just making this up so feel free to contradict me!)
Virtually every society, no matter how well or poorly developed, has some sort of official or unofficial competition designed around physical ability built into their society.
Do you have any thoughts on the evolutionary aspect that may have created this tendency in human society? How would being a pro tennis player be explained in terms of human evolution?