Abstract: Under the guidance of the national strategy to strengthen cultural confidence, enhancing cultural self-assurance and promoting the inheritance and innovative development of excellent traditional culture have become significant missions entrusted by the era. In this context, an in-depth exploration of the cultural ecology of ethnic traditional sports contributes to a comprehensive and profound understanding of their developmental trajectory and trends. The study defines the conceptual framework of ethnic traditional sports cultural ecology, identifying its core components as ethnic communities, natural environment, social environment, and cultural traditions. Building upon this foundation, it examines the functions and significance of ethnic traditional sports cultural ecology, with particular emphasis on analyzing the challenges, opportunities, and evolving prospects it faces. The research systematically identifies existing issues within this cultural ecosystem across multiple dimensions: at the ethnic community level, natural environmental level, social environmental level, and cultural tradition level, such as diminishing intergenerational cultural identity, compromised geo-cultural landscapes threaten sustainability, contradictions between institutional frameworks and development needs, ritual alienation in ceremonial processes. Meanwhile, the contemporary era presents transformative opportunities for ethnic traditional sports’ cultural ecology. Rural cultural revitalization offers a strategic pivot for ecosystem reconstruction and value optimization, while the booming cultural industry creates unprecedented resource conversion channels. Heightened heritage preservation consciousness has stimulated policy innovations. Emerging technologies inject disruptive innovation capacities. The study proposes a future vision for the cultural ecology of ethnic traditional sports through four dimensions: humanization, lifestyle integration, pluralism, and socialization. In its development, the agency and cultural creativity of ethnic communities will gain prominence, aligning their cultural choices with the ecological advancement. Ethnic traditional sports will evolve into a lifestyle, achieving living transmission through daily practices. Cultural diversity will be respected and preserved in multifaceted forms. Social dynamics, including institutional mediation, individual cultural adaptation, and cross-domain collaboration, will accelerate the socialization process of this cultural ecosystem, fostering deeper integration into societal frameworks.