I have been flying for a few days thinking that Sport mode was not functioning because I had the switch set to Sport and.  The switch was set to Sport mode each time when I turned on the Spark/controller, but today I decided to toggle it off and back on.  Imagine my shock when the drone suddenly zoomed off like a rocket!  

Is it required for the drone to be in standard mode and then switched to Sport mode during the session?  Did I encounter a glitch?

It will start in Standard mode even if the switch is on Sport.