Background: Being recognized as a competent and accepted member in the peer group is one of the most important basic human needs for children and youth. However, it is the peer group itself that decides which competencies are estimated and which are not, and through this process, a social order as well as peer power constellations is created. Purpose: This study aimed to determine if and how sport motor competencies are used as a criterion for the experience of recognition or non-recognition among peers in physical education (PE). Therefore, a mixed-method study was conducted. Data collection: The data set includes video data from six different school classes (a total of 59 video sequences) and 40 video-stimulated recall interviews with children who experience non-recognition or with children who transmit non-recognition. In addition, sociograms were included, as well as PE teachers' ratings of their students' sport motor competencies. Findings: A correlation analysis shows that sport motor competencies and the sociometric position in the peer group are significantly intercorrelated ("r"?=?0.50, "p"?= 0.01). But a gender-differentiated analysis reveals that this finding is only valid for boys in their boys' peer group ("r"?=?0.60, "p"?=?0.01), not for girls in their girls' peer group. The analysis of the video data based on the sociogram, interview, and sport motor rating data as validation methods identifies three contexts in PE classes where children refer to sport motor competencies to transmit recognition or non-recognition: (1) Children with relatively better motor skills draw attention to children with relatively poor motor skills in a humiliating manner by using publicizing strategies. The motor deficits of the concerned children are obviously focused upon on the social stage of the class. (2) Sport motor accidents can commonly happen to anyone regardless of the sport motor competencies offering an opportunity for practices of differentiation: sport motor accidents of popular children are positively focused upon and celebrated, even in competitive situations, while sport motor accidents of unpopular children in competitive situations lead to publicly demonstrated anger and to the loss of their positions and functions. Children use these situations as an opportunity to demonstrate social networks and affiliation borders as they do in the third context. (3) The social validation of sport motor successes is not only the recognition of good performance of a classmate, but also the acknowledgment of being significant for the successful student, as successful students only accept the recognizing acts of selective classmates; social relationships are publicly demonstrated. In conclusion, sport motor competencies play an important role in the everyday struggles of children for recognition in their peer group.