Abstract: The purpose of the work is to identify and describe the content of the basic layer of the concept of SPORT, relevant to the current state of national consciousness. The subject of the study is the lexical means of representation of the concept obtained in the course of a free associative experiment. The descriptive, quantitative method, methods of component analysis of the meaning of the word and conceptual analysis are used in the work, methods of constructing the nominative field of the concept and the associative field of the key lexeme "sport" are also used. The study presents a linguocognitive approach to the study of the semantic content of the concept: the concept is described in the work as a concept-gestalt, its frame structure is modeled. As a result of the undertaken research, 4 cognitive features were identified in the content of the basic layer of the concept of SPORT, based on data from lexicographic sources and verified by analyzing the materials of the associative experiment. The data obtained in the course of the work can be used in the process of teaching lexicology and cognitive linguistics in higher education, as well as in the practice of compiling explanatory and associative dictionaries. The novelty of the research is due to the fact that the experiment made it possible to discover the psycholinguistic meaning of the concept name and conclude that sport is conceptualized in the minds of modern Russian speakers primarily as an activity aimed at maintaining and strengthening human health.