I have always assumed many programmers are terrible at sports in general so they turn programming into this weird sport of who can be the Cristiano Ronaldo of programming.
That's a pretty unfair way to put it. People that do "too much" to try to impress their collegues or themselves exist everywhere. You can see it in some people's code, you can see it in the way some people dress, you can see it in some powerpoint presentations, you can see it in sports.