I don’t think sports is a lesser activity at all, it is just that so many kids write their essays at least partially about sports that AOs may tune them out as it is all blending together and makes it very hard to stand out from the crowd. Especially considering that AOs have some 5-10 minutes to review your entire application.
But realistically, almost all topics at this point are common enough that the AOs have seen them before. There is entire industry around helping kids come up with unique topics or unique angle on common topics and write unique essays, and I am not sure how much you can do to stand out that way. We have been told to just try to be yourself and try to tell them something they did not read in other parts of the application, and I think my daughter did decent enough job of that, based on the acceptances she received.