Portal:Sports
The Sports Portal
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a particular sport can vary from hundreds of people to a single individual.
Sport competitions may use a team or single person format, and may be open, allowing a broad range of participants, or closed, restricting participation to specific groups or those invited. Competitions may allow a "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide tie-breaking methods to ensure there is only one winner. They also may be arranged in a tournament format, producing a champion. Many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season, followed in some cases by playoffs. (Full article...)
Selected articles
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Masako Katsura (桂 マサ子, Katsura Masako; listen; 7 March 1913 – 20 December 1995), nicknamed "Katsy" and sometimes called the "First Lady of Billiards", was a Japanese carom billiards player who was most active in the 1950s. She was the first woman to compete and place among the best in the male-dominated world of professional billiards. First learning the game from her brother-in-law and then under the tutelage of Japanese champion Kinrey Matsuyama, Katsura became Japan's only female professional player. In competition in Japan, she took second place in the country's national three-cushion billiards championship three times. In exhibition she was noted for running 10,000 points at the game of straight rail.
After marrying a U.S. Army non-commissioned officer in 1950, Katsura emigrated to the United States in 1951. There she was invited to play in the 1952 U.S.-sponsored World Three-Cushion Championship, ultimately taking seventh place at that competition. Katsura was the first woman ever to be included in any world billiards tournament. Her fame cemented, Katsura went on an exhibition tour of the United States with eight-time world champion Welker Cochran, and later with 51-time world champion Willie Hoppe. In 1953 and 1954, she again competed for the world three-cushion crown, taking fifth and fourth places respectively. (Full article...) -
Harold Tommy Amaker Jr. (/ˈæməkər/; born June 6, 1965) is an American college basketball coach and the head coach of the Harvard University men's basketball team. He has also coached for the University of Michigan and Seton Hall University. He played point guard and later served as an assistant coach at Duke University under Mike Krzyzewski. An All-American player, Amaker set numerous records and earned many honors and awards. He took Seton Hall to the post season in each of his four seasons as their coach, helped Michigan win the National Invitation Tournament the year after a probationary ban from postseason play, and had the three highest single-season win totals in the history of Harvard basketball, the school's first six Ivy League championships and first NCAA tournament victory.
Amaker was a high school basketball star at W. T. Woodson High School from 1979 to 1983 under coach Paul (Red) Jenkins. Amaker led the Woodson Cavaliers to four straight Northern District titles, including victories over the national powerhouse DeMatha Catholic High School. A McDonald's All-American, Amaker also earned the Wooden Defensive Player of the Year award in 1983, awarded to the nation's best high school defensive player. He averaged almost 18 points, and contributed 7.5 assists and 3.5 steals per game while at Woodson. In December 1992, the Connection named Amaker to the Connection Dream Team, as a point guard.McDonald's All-American and a Parade All-American. As a college basketball player, he set most of the assists records and many steals records for Duke basketball. He also set the Atlantic Coast Conference single-season games played and games started records. Among his numerous accolades, he was the first winner of the NABC Defensive Player of the Year, and he was a third team All-American. (Full article...) -
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM (/ɡɪlkrɪst/; born 14 November 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer and captain of the Australia national cricket team. He was an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australia national team through his aggressive batting. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wicket-keeper-batsman in the history of the game, Gilchrist held the world record for the most dismissals by a wicket-keeper in One Day International (ODI) cricket until it was surpassed by Kumar Sangakkara in 2015 and the most by an Australian in Test cricket. Gilchrist was a member of the Australian team that won three consecutive world titles in a row: the 1999 Cricket World Cup, the 2003 Cricket World Cup, and the 2007 Cricket World Cup, along with winning the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy.
His strike rate is amongst the highest in the history of both ODI and Test cricket; his 57 ball century against England at Perth in December 2006 is the fourth-fastest century in all Test cricket. He was the first player to have hit 100 sixes in Test cricket. His 17 Test centuries and 16 in ODIs are both second only to Sangakkara by a wicket-keeper. He holds the unique record of scoring at least 50 runs in three consecutive World Cup finals (in 1999, 2003 and 2007). His 149 off 101 balls against Sri Lanka in the 2007 World Cup final is rated one of the greatest World Cup innings of all time. He is one of only three players to have won three World Cup titles. (Full article...) -
Orval Leroy Grove (August 29, 1919 – April 20, 1992) was an American professional baseball player. He was a pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) for ten seasons in the American League with the Chicago White Sox. In 207 career games, Grove pitched 1,176 innings and posted a win–loss record of 63–73, with 66 complete games, 11 shutouts, and a 3.78 earned run average (ERA).
The only freshman on the Proviso Township High School varsity baseball team, Grove's pitching ability attracted the attention of the White Sox. After signing with the team in 1937, Grove moved between the major leagues and minor leagues for a few seasons until 1943, when he found a solid place in the White Sox's pitching rotation. Grove had a career-year in 1943, finishing the season with career-bests in ERA, wins, and complete games; in 1944, he made his only All-Star appearance. (Full article...) -
During the 1907–08 English football season, New Brompton F.C. (named Gillingham F.C. since 1912) competed in the Southern League Division One. It was the 14th season in which the club competed in the Southern League and the 13th in Division One. The team lost their first game of the season 9–1 to Bristol Rovers, the heaviest defeat in the club's history up to that point. Despite the poor start, the team climbed to 6th place out of 20 teams in the league table in mid-November after a run of three consecutive wins, but by the end of December they had slipped to 12th place, having achieved seven wins and five draws in twenty Southern League games. In the second half of the season, however, the team lost fourteen out of eighteen league games, and New Brompton finished the campaign in 20th place, the first time the team had finished bottom of the table.
New Brompton also competed in the FA Cup; in the first round they played Sunderland, the first time a team from the Football League First Division had played at New Brompton's Priestfield Road ground. New Brompton won 3–1, which was seen as the greatest win the club had yet achieved. In the second round they held another First Division team, Manchester City, to a draw away from home but lost the replay. The team played a total of 42 league and cup matches, winning 11, drawing 8, and losing 23. Charlie McGibbon was the club's top goalscorer with 14 goals in the league and 8 in the FA Cup. John Martin made the most appearances, playing in 40 of the team's 42 competitive games. The FA Cup match against Sunderland set a new attendance record for the Priestfield Road ground of 10,620; the record was broken again for the match against Manchester City, which drew an attendance reported at 12,000. (Full article...) -
The 2004 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2004 season. The 100th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox and the National League (NL) champion St. Louis Cardinals. The series was played from October 23 to 27, 2004, at Fenway Park and Busch Memorial Stadium. The Red Sox swept the Cardinals in four games, earning their first title since 1918 and ending the Curse of the Bambino.
The Cardinals earned their berth into the playoffs by winning the NL Central division title, and had the best win–loss record in the NL. The Red Sox won the AL wild card to earn theirs. The Cardinals reached the World Series by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-five NL Division Series and the Houston Astros in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series. The Red Sox defeated the Anaheim Angels in the AL Division Series. After trailing three games to none to the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series, the Red Sox came back to win the series, advancing to their first World Series since 1986. The Cardinals made their first appearance in the World Series since 1987. With the New England Patriots winning Super Bowl XXXVIII, the World Series victory made Boston the first city to have Super Bowl and World Series championship teams in the same year (2004) since Pittsburgh in 1979. The Red Sox became the third straight wild card team to win the World Series; the Anaheim Angels won in 2002 and the Florida Marlins won in 2003. (Full article...) -
Terrance Stanley Fox (July 28, 1958 – June 28, 1981) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, having had one leg amputated due to cancer, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. The annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, has grown to involve millions of participants in over 60 countries and is the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research; over C$900 million has been raised in his name through the Terry Fox Research Institute as of September 2024.
Fox was a distance runner and basketball player for Port Coquitlam Senior Secondary School, later named after him, and Simon Fraser University. His right leg was amputated in 1977 after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, though he continued to run using an artificial leg. He also played wheelchair basketball in Vancouver, winning three national championships. (Full article...) -
During the 1991–92 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Fourth Division, the fourth tier of the English football league system. It was the 60th season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League, and the 42nd since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. The team began the season with a 4–0 victory over Scunthorpe United but their form was inconsistent; not until February did they manage to win two consecutive league games. After a season spent largely in the middle of the league table, Gillingham finished 11th out of 22 teams in the Fourth Division.
Gillingham also competed in three knock-out competitions. The team were eliminated in the first round of both the FA Cup and Football League Cup. Gillingham progressed from the initial group stage of the Associate Members' Cup but lost in the first round proper. The team played a total of 51 competitive matches, winning 17, drawing 14 and losing 20, although a win and a draw were expunged when Aldershot were expelled from the Football League in March. David Crown was the team's top goalscorer, with 22 in the Fourth Division and 24 in all competitions, not including an expunged goal. Paul Clark and Steve Lovell made the most appearances, playing in every game. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, was 7,328, for a game against Brentford in the FA Cup. (Full article...) -
During the 1982–83 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Third Division, the third tier of the English football league system. It was the 51st season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League, and the 33rd since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. Two months into the season, Gillingham were in third place in the Third Division league table, a position which at the end of the season would secure promotion to the Second Division, but the team then experienced a run of seven games with only one victory which left them in 12th place at the end of 1982. Their results did not improve in the new year, with only one victory in the first fourteen games of 1983, resulting in them slipping to 19th in the table, only two places above the positions which would result in relegation to the Fourth Division. Six wins in the final eleven games of the season, however, meant that Gillingham finished the campaign 13th out of 24 teams in the division.
Gillingham also competed in two knock-out competitions. They lost in the second round of the FA Cup, but reached the third round of the Football League Cup for the first time in more than a decade, losing at that stage to Tottenham Hotspur of the First Division. The team played 54 competitive matches, winning 19, drawing 14, and losing 21. Tony Cascarino was the club's leading goalscorer, scoring 15 goals in the Third Division and a total of 19 in all competitions. Micky Adams and Mark Weatherly made the most appearances, both playing 51 times. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, during the season was 14,446 for the League Cup game against Tottenham. (Full article...) -
The European Champion Clubs' Cup trophy, won by Liverpool for the fifth time in 2005
The history of Liverpool Football Club from 1985 to the present day covers the appointment of Kenny Dalglish as manager, the Hillsborough disaster, and the club's return to European competition in 1991. Throughout this period, the club played in the top tier of English football, which in 1992 became the Premier League.
Dalglish was appointed as player-manager after Fagan resigned following the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster, which resulted in Liverpool's indefinite ban from European competition. Liverpool won a league and FA Cup double in Dalglish's first season, and won a further league title in 1987–88. The Hillsborough disaster, which occurred during an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in April 1989, resulted in the deaths of 97 of the club's supporters. After the disaster, Dalglish led the club to their eighteenth title, in 1989–90; he resigned in February 1991. The Taylor Report into the disaster recommended the end of standing terraces; to comply with its findings, Anfield was converted to an all-seater stadium during the early 1990s, which greatly reduced its capacity. Dalglish's successor Graeme Souness won the FA Cup in his first full season. In the newly formed Premier League, he struggled to sustain the club's domestic successes and was replaced by Roy Evans midway through 1993–94. Liverpool improved to fourth the following season and won the League Cup. (Full article...) -
John Sherman Cooper (August 23, 1901 – February 21, 1991) was an American politician, jurist, and diplomat. He served three non-consecutive, partial terms in the United States Senate before being elected to two full terms in 1960 and 1966, representing Kentucky. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to India from 1955 to 1956 and U.S. Ambassador to East Germany from 1974 to 1976. He was the first Republican to be popularly elected to more than one term as a senator from Kentucky and, in both 1960 and 1966, he set records for the largest victory margin for a Kentucky senatorial candidate from either party.
Cooper's first political service was as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1928 to 1930. In 1929, he was elected county judge of Pulaski County. After a failed gubernatorial bid in 1939, he joined the U.S. Army in 1942. During World War II, he earned the Bronze Star Medal for reorganizing the Bavarian judicial system after the allied victory in Europe. While still in Germany, he was elected circuit judge for Kentucky's 28th circuit. He returned home to accept the judgeship, which he held for less than a year before resigning to seek election to A. B. "Happy" Chandler's vacated seat in the U.S. Senate. He won the seat by 41,823 votes, the largest victory margin by any Republican for any office in Kentucky up to that time. (Full article...) -
The 1987 Football League Third Division play-off final was an association football match contested by Gillingham and Swindon Town over two legs on 22 and 25 May 1987, followed by a replay on 29 May, to determine which club would play the next season in the Second Division. Gillingham had finished in fifth place in the Third Division while Swindon finished third. They were joined in the play-offs by fourth-placed Wigan Athletic and Sunderland, who had finished 20th in the division above. Gillingham defeated Sunderland in their semi-final on away goals and Swindon defeated Wigan in the other semi-final. Swindon had previously had two spells in the Second Division, but Gillingham were aiming to reach the second tier of English football for the first time in their history. The 1986–87 season was the first in which the teams who had missed out on automatic promotion had the opportunity to compete in play-offs for a further promotion place.
The first leg of the final was played at Priestfield Stadium, in front of a crowd of 16,775. Dave Smith scored the only goal of the game to give Gillingham a one-goal lead heading into the second leg. Three days later at the County Ground, 14,382 people saw Karl Elsey score the opening goal of the match in the 17th minute, to double Gillingham's lead. This was followed by two goals from Peter Coyne and Charlie Henry to give Swindon a 2–1 victory in the match. Although Gillingham's semi-final had been decided on away goals, the same rule did not apply in the final, so a replay was held at Selhurst Park, where two goals from Steve White secured Swindon a place in the Second Division. (Full article...) -
The 1925 FA Cup final was an association football match contested by Sheffield United and Cardiff City on 25 April 1925 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The final was the showpiece match of English football's primary cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (FA Cup), organised by the Football Association. Sheffield United won the game with a single goal.
Both teams entered the competition in the first round and progressed through five stages to reach the final. Sheffield United conceded only two goals en route to the final, both in a 3–2 victory over their local rivals The Wednesday in the second round. Cardiff also conceded twice before the final, once in the fourth round and once in the semi-final. They struggled to overcome Third Division North side Darlington in the first round, needing two replays to progress. This was the first time a Welsh team had played in an FA Cup final, and only the third time a team from outside England had reached a final. The Scottish side Queen's Park played in the 1884 and 1885 finals. (Full article...) -
Archibald Campbell MacLaren (1 December 1871 – 17 November 1944) was an English cricketer who captained the England cricket team at various times between 1898 and 1909. A right-handed batsman, he played 35 Test matches for England, as captain in 22 of those games, and led the team to defeat in four Ashes series against Australia. An amateur, MacLaren played first-class cricket for Lancashire, captaining that county for most of his career. As a batsman, MacLaren was one of the leading cricketers of his time and had a reputation as a fast-scoring stylist. In 1895, he scored 424 runs in an innings against Somerset which was the highest individual score in first-class cricket until 1923 and remained a record in English cricket until 1994. Opinions were divided over his captaincy. He was a deep thinker on the game and critics believed him to be tactically advanced, but his pessimism, clashes with the selectors and inability to get the best out of his players led most commentators to rate him a poor leader.
After attending public school, MacLaren played intermittently for Lancashire until 1899 as he tried to establish a career outside the sport. Even so, he was appointed county captain in 1894 and was chosen frequently to play for England. An appointment as Lancashire's assistant secretary allowed him to play more regularly from 1900. He first captained England in 1898 as a stand-in, but became captain in his own right in 1899. Under his leadership, England lost to Australia in three consecutive series—1899, 1901–02 and 1902. MacLaren was involved in controversies throughout all three defeats, and was replaced as captain in 1905, although he remained in the team. Business interests kept him out of the game for the following years, but he was invited to lead England once more in 1909. Defeat in that series ended his Test career, and the following year he ceased playing regular first-class cricket. He played occasionally until 1922–23, and had some late successes: in 1921, a team selected and captained by MacLaren defeated a previously unbeaten Australian team, and on his final first-class appearance during a 1922–23 Marylebone Cricket Club tour of New Zealand, he scored 200 runs. (Full article...) -
During the 1973–74 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Fourth Division, the fourth tier of the English football league system. It was the 42nd season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League, and the 24th since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. Gillingham lost three times in the first ten games of the season, but the team then began a run of 20 league games without defeat; by the end of 1973, Gillingham were second in the league table. In mid-February, they lost a Fourth Division game for the first time in more than four months, after which two consecutive wins in mid-March took them to the top of the table. Although Gillingham slipped from first place, they remained in the top three, and a victory over Colchester United on 20 April ensured that the team would be promoted to the Third Division at the end of the season. In their final game of the season on 1 May, first-placed Gillingham lost to second-placed Peterborough United, who overtook them to win the championship of the division.
Gillingham also competed in two knock-out competitions, losing in the first round of the FA Cup to Cambridge United and in the second round of the Football League Cup to Carlisle United. The team played 49 competitive matches, winning 26, drawing 12 and losing 11. Brian Yeo was the team's top goalscorer; he scored 31 goals in Fourth Division matches and 32 in all competitions. His 31 Football League goals in a season equalled the club record set by Ernie Morgan in the 1954–55 season. George Jacks and Dick Tydeman made the most appearances; both played in every game of the season. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, was 12,297 for a game against Peterborough United on 3 April 1974. (Full article...)
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Selected pictures
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Credit: KuebiMara Friton in a handball match in the German Handball-Bundesliga. -
Photograph: Marie-Lan NguyenNikolay Kovalev (R) attacks Áron Szilágyi (L) in the semi-finals of the men's sabre event at the 2013 World Fencing Championships. Although Kovalev won, he lost in the final against Veniamin Reshetnikov.
Held in Budapest, Hungary, from 5 to 12 August, the 2013 Championships saw 827 fencers from 101 countries compete. Russia won the most medals (11), followed by Italy (6) and Ukraine (4). -
Picture: Krm500Fredrik Pettersson (born 1987) is a Swedish professional ice hockey player, pictured while with Frölunda HC and now playing for HC Donbass in the Kontinental Hockey League. A right winger, Pettersson's international record includes a gold at the 2013 IIHF World Championship and bronze in 2010. -
Photo: Bolshoi SportKsenia Semenova (b. 1992) is a Russian artistic gymnast. She was the 2007 World Champion on the uneven bars. At the 2008 European Championships, she was a member of the silver-medal-winning Russian team, as well as champion on the uneven bars and the balance beam. She followed this up by winning the all-around championship at the 2009 European Championships and was part of the gold-medal Russian team at the 2010 European and 2010 World Championships. Injuries have prevented her from competing since then. -
Photograph credit: Carlos DelgadoRichèl Hogenkamp (born 16 April 1992) is a professional tennis player from the Netherlands. Her highest WTA singles ranking is 94, which she reached on 24 July 2017. On the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, she has won 16 singles and 14 doubles titles. This photograph depicts Hogenkamp competing at the 2015 Madrid Open. -
Photograph credit: Koen Suyk; restored by Adam CuerdenCynthia Woodhead (born February 7, 1964) is an American former competitive swimmer, world champion, Olympic medalist, and former world-record holder. At the age of fourteen, she won three gold medals at the 1978 World Aquatics Championships, and set seven world records during her career. -
Photo credit: Nick WiebeCongo national football team goalkeeper Destin Onka (right) prevents Austrian forward Rubin Okotie (left) from scoring a goal at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. In association football, the goalkeeper is the only player who is permitted to touch the ball with his hands or arms in open play. -
Photograph: Agência Brasil FotografiasSimone Biles (born March 14, 1997), after receiving the gold medal for the all-around event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Biles also won golds in the vault and the floor events in Rio, a bronze medal on the balance beam, and a gold in the team all-around event as part of a U.S. team dubbed the "Final Five". -
Photograph: Carlos DelgadoZoran Dragić (right) committing a personal foul on Carl English during a 2013 basketball game between Game Estudiantes and Unicaja Málaga. Personal fouls, defined as illegal personal contact with an opponent which affects gameplay, are the most common type of foul in basketball, but are not always considered unsportsmanlike. -
Photograph: D. Bernard & Co; restoration: Adam CuerdenEugen Sandow (1867–1925) was a pioneering German bodybuilder. Born in Königsberg, Prussia, he joined a circus to avoid military service. Fellow strongman Ludwig Durlacher urged Sandow to travel to London and take part in a strongman competition, which he handily won. Sandow rose rapidly to fame and was soon touring Europe and the United States, being featured in a short film series that depicted him flexing. After a bout of ill health, Sandow focused on opening public gyms, inventing or improving exercise equipment, and training would-be military recruits as well as King George V. Sandow is now known as the "father of modern bodybuilding". -
Credit: PierreSelim -
Credit: Fir0002Horses race on grass at the 2006 Tambo Valley Races in Swifts Creek, Victoria, Australia. Horseracing is the third most popular spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian rules football and rugby league, with almost 2 million admissions to the 379 racecourses throughout Australia in 2002–03. -
Photo: Sport the LibraryJeremy Doyle (1983–2011) was an Australian wheelchair basketball player. Left paraplegic after a car accident, he was classified as a 1 point player. While representing his country Doyle won two gold medals, first at the 2009 Paralympic World Cup and again at the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship. -
Photograph: Pierre SelimA line-out at a rugby union match between Stade Toulousain and Lyon OU. When a player puts the ball out of the field of play, the opposing team is awarded a line-out; in the case of a penalty kick, the team that was awarded the penalty throws into the resulting line-out. A line-out is also awarded if a player in possession of the ball crosses or touches the touch-line while still in possession of the ball. -
Motocross is form of motorcycle or ATV racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The tracks are often quite large, natural, terrains with very few man made jumps, unlike Supercross, a sport that was originally derived from Motocross and is executed on a smaller track with many more extreme man made obstacles. -
Credit: ChePriit Narusk in the qualification for the Tour de Ski cross-country skiing competition in Prague. -
Credit: Ralf RoletschekMartin Sesaker representing Norway in curling at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics. -
Photograph credit: Savyasachi, retouched by ukexpatLaura Dekker (born 1995) is a New Zealand–born Dutch sailor who completed a solo circumnavigation of the globe in a 12.4-metre (41-foot) two-masted ketch from 2010 to 2012. Dekker was fourteen years old when she set off from Gibraltar rather than the Netherlands, because the Dutch shipping regulations did not permit anyone under the age of sixteen to skipper a boat of that size in Dutch waters. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, she started her record-breaking attempt from Sint Maarten in the Caribbean, passing through the Panama Canal and traversing the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans before completing her circumnavigation back at Sint Maarten. This picture shows Dekker attending the 2011 Hiswa Boat Show in Amsterdam. -
Credit: Fernando FrazãoThe balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus, as well as the event performed using the apparatus. Pictured is Daniele Hypólito in the final of the women's artistic gymnastics competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where Brazil finished in 8th place. -
Boxing is a sport where two participants of similar weight attack each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called "rounds". Modern boxing began in 1867 with the Marquess of Queensberry rules. Currently, there are two distinct branches of boxing: Professional and Olympic, which have different rules, but are similar in execution. -
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Photograph: Georges Scott; Restoration: Adam CuerdenAn illustration showing the Stade Français rugby union team, wearing dark blue jerseys, playing against Racing Club (now known as Racing 92) in 1906. On 20 March 1892, the two teams played in the first ever French rugby championship in a one-off game. -
Photograph: Pete Souza; edit: El GrafoUS Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney posing with President Barack Obama. They are wearing the "McKayla is not impressed" expression of disappointment which became an internet phenomenon after Maroney made it upon winning a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Yahoo! listed the photograph of Maroney on the podium as the most viral picture of 2012. -
Photograph: Аркадий ЗарубинBalzhinima Tsyrempilov is a World Cup-winning and former world number-one archer from Russia. He has competed in both the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, though he has not medalled.
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Did you know...
- ...that Ray Wilson, who was the eldest member of England's victorious 1966 World Cup team, became an undertaker after he retired from football?
- ...that professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon grew a long beard and billed himself as a terrifying giant from Manchuria as a heel gimmick?
- ...that Westpac Stadium (pictured) in Wellington, New Zealand is known colloquially as "The Cake-tin"?
- ...that high jumper Ulrike Meyfarth became the youngest individual Olympic champion in athletics?
- ...that baseball player Jim Creighton's death at age 21 may have been caused by the force with which he swung his bat?
Selected quote
[[Image:|x100px|Jesse Owens in 1936]]
Selected athlete
Jordan going in for a slam dunk with his signature exposed tongue.
After a three-season career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which included a national championship in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball.
Jordan led the Bulls to NBA championships in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999. After retiring from the sport, he returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards.
Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include five MVP awards, numerous All-NBA Team and All-Defensive Team appearances, All-Star Game MVP and NBA Finals MVP awards, and other accolades. He holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game).
In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press's list of athletes of the century. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Jordan is also noted for his product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike's Air Jordan sneakers, and starred in the 1996 feature film Space Jam as himself. (Full article...)
Selected team
Liverpool players before a Europa League qualifying match
Liverpool was founded in 1892 and joined the Football League the following year. The club has played at Anfield since its formation. Liverpool reached its first FA Cup Final in 1914, losing 1–0 to Burnley It won consecutive League championships in 1922 and 1923, but did not win another trophy until the 1946–47 season, when the club won the First Division for a fifth time. The club was relegated to the Second Division in the 1953–54 season. The club was promoted back into the First Division in 1962 and won it in 1964, for the first time in 17 years. In 1965, the club won its first FA Cup. In 1966, the club won the First Division but lost to Borussia Dortmund in the European Cup Winners' Cup final. Liverpool won both the League and the UEFA Cup during the 1972–73 season, and the FA Cup again a year later. The most successful period in Liverpool's history was the 1970s and '80s when Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley led the club to eleven league titles and seven European trophies.
The club's supporters have been involved in two major tragedies. The first was the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985 in which charging Liverpool fans caused a wall to collapse, killing 39 Juventus supporters. In the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives in a crush against perimeter fencing. The incident remains the worst stadium-related disaster in British history and one of the world's worst football disasters. (Full article...)
In this month
- October 1, 1903 – The first game of the inaugural Major League Baseball World Series (2011 game pictured) takes place at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in Boston, Massachusetts
- October 4, 1895 – The first U.S. Open golf tournament is held at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island
- October 7, 2006 – The inaugural Lusophony Games, a multi-sport event for athletes from Portuguese language-speaking countries, begins in Macau
- October 15, 1999 – The first match of the inaugural Rugby League Tri-Nations series is played
- October 24–25, 1987 – The FILA Wrestling World Championships hold their first World Women Championships in Lørenskog, Norway
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Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
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Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
