Portal:Sports
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The Sports Portal
Sport is a form of physical activity or game. Often competitive and organized, sports use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills. They also provide enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Many sports exist, with different participant numbers, some are done by a single person with others being done by hundreds. Most sports take place either in teams or competing as individuals. Some sports allow a "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide tie-breaking methods to ensure one winner. A number of contests 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.
Sport is generally recognised as system of activities based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with major competitions admitting only sports meeting this definition. Some organisations, such as the Council of Europe, preclude activities without any physical element from classification as sports. However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee who oversee the Olympic Games recognises both chess and bridge as sports. SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports: chess, bridge, draughts, Go and xiangqi. However, they limit the number of mind games which can be admitted as sports. Sport is usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition. Winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first. It can also be determined by judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression. (Full article...)
Selected articles
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Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional football manager and former player who was a centre-back in a twenty-year playing career. He is currently the head coach of EFL League One club Blackpool.
Born in Corbridge, Northumberland, Bruce was a promising schoolboy footballer but was rejected by several professional clubs. He was on the verge of quitting the game altogether when he was offered a trial with Gillingham. He was offered an apprenticeship and went on to play more than 200 games for the club before joining Norwich City in 1984, winning the League Cup in 1985. In 1987, he moved to Manchester United, with whom he achieved great success, winning twelve trophies including three Premier League titles, three FA Cups, one League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup. He also became the first English player of the 20th century to captain a team to the Double. Despite his success on the field, he was never selected to play for the England national team. Commentators and contemporaries have described him as one of the best English players of the 1980s and 1990s never to play for his country at full international level. (Full article...) -
Joseph Steven Sakic (/ˈsækɪk/; (Croatian pronunciation: [ʃakitɕ]) born July 7, 1969) is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He played his entire 21-year National Hockey League (NHL) career, which lasted from 1988 to 2009, with the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise. Named captain of the team in 1992 (after serving as a co-captain in 1990–91), Sakic is regarded as one of the greatest team leaders in league history and was able to consistently motivate his team to play at a winning level. Nicknamed "Burnaby Joe", Sakic was named to play in 13 NHL All-Star Games and selected to the NHL First All-Star Team at centre three times. Sakic led the Avalanche to Stanley Cup titles in 1996 and 2001, earning the most valuable player (MVP) in the 1996 playoffs. In 2001, Sakic earned both the Hart Memorial Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award as MVP of the NHL. He is one of six players to participate in the first two of the team's Stanley Cup victories and won the Stanley Cup a third time with the Avalanche in 2022 while serving as the team's general manager. Sakic became the third person, after Milt Schmidt and Serge Savard, to win the Stanley Cup with the same franchise as a player and general manager.
Over his career, Sakic was one of the most productive forwards in the game, scoring 50 goals twice and earning at least 100 points in six different seasons. Sakic's wrist shot, considered one of the best in the NHL, was the source of much of his production as goalies around the league feared his rapid snap-shot release. At the conclusion of the 2008–09 NHL season, Sakic was the eighth all-time points leader in the NHL, as well as 14th in all-time goals and 11th in all-time assists. During the 2002 Winter Olympics, Sakic helped lead Team Canada to its first ice hockey gold medal in 50 years and was voted as the tournament's MVP. Sakic represented Team Canada in six other international competitions, including the 1998 and 2006 Winter Olympics. (Full article...) -
Sir Robert William Robson CBE (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English football player and coach. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich Town.
Robson's professional playing career as an inside forward spanned nearly 20 years, during which he played for three clubs: Fulham, West Bromwich Albion, and, briefly, Vancouver Royals. He also made 20 appearances for England, scoring four goals. After his playing career, he found success as both a club and international manager, winning league championships in both the Netherlands and Portugal, earning trophies in England and Spain, and taking England to the semi-finals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup, which remained the national team's best run in a World Cup since 1966 until they reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup. His last management role was as a mentor to the manager of the Republic of Ireland national team, while his final official club job was at boyhood club Newcastle United, whom he left in 2004. He held several managerial positions outside of England, most notably one year at Barcelona in 1996–97, as well as stints at PSV, Sporting CP and Porto. (Full article...) -
Luton Town Football Club is a professional football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football pyramid. Nicknamed "The Hatters", Luton Town have played their home games at Kenilworth Road, since 1905.
Luton Town was the first club in southern England to turn professional. It joined the Football League before the 1897–98 season, left in 1900 because of financial problems, and rejoined in 1920. Luton reached the First Division in 1955–56 and contested a major final for the first time against Nottingham Forest in the 1959 FA Cup final. The team was then relegated from the top division in 1959–60, and demoted twice more in the following five years, playing in the Fourth Division from the 1965–66 season, before they were promoted back to the top level in 1974–75. (Full article...) -
During the 1894–95 English football season, New Brompton F.C. (since 1912 called Gillingham F.C.) competed in the Southern Football League Division Two. It was the first season in which the team took part in a league competition. The club had been formed a year earlier but in its inaugural season played only friendly matches and games in the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup and FA Amateur Cup. In 1894, New Brompton turned professional and joined the newly-formed Southern League. The team dominated Division Two of the new league, winning all but one of their matches, and gained promotion to Division One by winning an end-of-season "test match" against Swindon Town, who had finished bottom of the higher division.
New Brompton also entered the FA Cup, reaching the third qualifying round. The team played 15 competitive matches, winning 13, drawing none, and losing two. Arthur Rule was the team's top goalscorer; he scored 18 goals in the regular league season and 4 in the test match. Harry Buckland and Alf Meager made the most appearances, playing in every match. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home, the Athletic Ground, was approximately 8,000 for the visit of near-neighbours Chatham in the FA Cup. (Full article...) -
The 2010 Twenty20 Cup Final, known for sponsorship purposes as the 2010 Friends Provident t20 Final, was a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between Hampshire County Cricket Club and Somerset County Cricket Club played on 14 August 2010 at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. It was the eighth final of the Twenty20 Cup.
Hampshire were making their first appearance in a Twenty20 final, while Somerset were playing in their third, and their second in successive years, having previously won the Twenty20 Cup in 2005. Having won the toss, Somerset chose to bat first and reached 173 for six; Craig Kieswetter was their highest scorer with 71 runs, but was criticised for his slow start. Kieron Pollard was hit in the eye by a bouncer while batting, and had to be taken to hospital, meaning he was not available to bowl for Somerset. In reply, Hampshire reached 62 from their six-over powerplay, but then lost a cluster of wickets. A steadying partnership between Neil McKenzie and Sean Ervine took them to the brink of victory, but another pair of wickets lost led to a tense finish. The scores were eventually tied, and Hampshire won the title having lost fewer wickets. (Full article...) -
Modern depiction (1876) by Jean Léon Gérôme of a chariot race in Rome's Circus Maximus, as if seen from the starting gate. The Palatine Hill and imperial palace are to the left.
Chariot racing (Ancient Greek: ἁρματοδρομία, harmatodromía; Latin: ludi circenses) was one of the most popular ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sports. In Greece, chariot racing played an essential role in aristocratic funeral games from a very early time. With the institution of formal races and permanent racetracks, chariot racing was adopted by many Greek states and their religious festivals. Horses and chariots were very costly. Their ownership was a preserve of the wealthiest aristocrats, whose reputations and status benefitted from offering such extravagant, exciting displays. Their successes could be further broadcast and celebrated through commissioned odes and other poetry.
In standard Greek racing practise, each chariot held a single driver and was pulled by four horses, or sometimes two. Drivers and horses risked serious injury or death through collisions and crashes; this added to the excitement and interest for spectators. Most charioteers were slaves or contracted professionals. While records almost invariably credit victorious owners and their horses for winning, their drivers are often not mentioned at all. In the ancient Olympic Games, and other Panhellenic Games, chariot racing was one of the most important equestrian events, and could be watched by unmarried women. Married women were banned from watching any Olympic events but a Spartan noblewoman is known to have trained horse-teams for the Olympics and won two races, one of them as driver. (Full article...) -
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters (Dutch pronunciation: [kɪm ˈklɛistərs] ; born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. Clijsters reached the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003. She won six major titles, four in singles and two in doubles.
Clijsters competed professionally from 1997 in an era in which her primary rivals were compatriot Justine Henin and Serena Williams. Coming from a country with limited success in men's or women's tennis, Clijsters became the first Belgian player to attain the No. 1 ranking. Together with Henin, she established Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis as the two of them led their country to their first Fed Cup crown in 2001 and were the top two players in the world in late 2003. Individually, Clijsters won 41 singles titles and 11 doubles titles on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. She was a three-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships. Between singles and doubles, she has been a champion at all four Grand Slam tournaments, winning the US Open and the Australian Open in singles and Wimbledon and the French Open in doubles partnering Ai Sugiyama. Her success at the majors was highlighted by winning three consecutive appearances at the US Open. (Full article...) -
The Grey Cup (French: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners of the CFL's East and West Divisional playoffs and is one of Canadian television's largest annual sporting events. Since 2022, the game was held on the third Sunday of November. The Toronto Argonauts have the most Grey Cup wins (19) since its introduction in 1909, while the Edmonton Elks (formerly the Edmonton Eskimos) have the most Grey Cup wins (11) since the merger in 1958. The latest, the 111th Grey Cup, took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, on November 17, 2024, when the Toronto Argonauts defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 41–24.
The Grey Cup is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 4 million. Two awards are given for play in the game: the Most Valuable Player and the Dick Suderman Trophy as most valuable Canadian player. In 2019, Andrew Harris was the first player to win both the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian and Most Valuable Player the same year, playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. (Full article...) -
Nodar Kumaritashvili (Georgian: ნოდარ ქუმარიტაშვილი; pronounced [nodaɾ kʰumaɾitʼaʃʷili]; 25 November 1988 – 12 February 2010) was a Georgian luge athlete who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony. He became the fourth athlete to die during preparations for a Winter Olympics, and the eighth athlete to die as a result of Olympic competition or during practice at their sport’s venue at an Olympic Games.
Kumaritashvili, who first began to participate in luge when he was 13, came from a family of seasoned lugers: his grandfather had introduced the sport to Soviet Georgia, and both his father and uncle had competed when they were younger, with his uncle later serving as the head of the Georgian Luge Federation. Kumaritashvili himself began competing in the 2008–09 Luge World Cup. He had also been a student at the Georgian Technical University, where he earned an economics degree in 2009. (Full article...) -
Futebol Clube do Porto, an association football team based in Porto, is the most decorated Portuguese team in international club competitions. They have won two UEFA Champions League titles (in 1987, as the European Cup, and 2004), two UEFA Europa League titles (in 2003, as the UEFA Cup, and 2011), one UEFA Super Cup (in 1987), and two Intercontinental Cups (in 1987 and 2004), for a total of seven international trophies. In addition, they were Cup Winners' Cup runners-up in 1984 – their first European final – and lost three other UEFA Super Cup matches, in 2003, 2004, and 2011.
Porto first participated in international competitions in 1956, when they qualified for the second season of the European Cup as the domestic league winners. They lost their first two European matches against Athletic Bilbao and were eliminated from the competition. Porto then debuted in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (not organised by UEFA) in 1962–63, in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1964–65, and in the inaugural editions of the UEFA Cup (Fairs Cup successor) and UEFA Champions League (European Cup successor) in 1971–72 and 1992–93, respectively. The club has qualified for UEFA competitions every season since 1974–75, and shares the second place in UEFA Champions League group stage appearances with Bayern Munich (24), one less than Barcelona and Real Madrid. (Full article...) -
Lumen Field is a multi-purpose stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located in the city's SoDo neighborhood, it is the home field for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL), Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer (MLS), and Seattle Reign FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Originally called Seahawks Stadium, it was renamed Qwest Field in June 2004 when telecommunications carrier Qwest acquired the naming rights. The stadium became known as CenturyLink Field following Qwest's June 2011 acquisition by CenturyLink and was nicknamed "The Clink" as a result; it received its current name in November 2020 with CenturyLink's rebrand to Lumen Technologies. It is a modern facility with views of the Downtown Seattle skyline and a seating capacity of 68,740 spectators for NFL games and 37,722 for most MLS matches. The complex also includes the Event Center which is home to the Washington Music Theater (WaMu Theater), a parking garage, and a public plaza. The venue hosts concerts, trade shows, and consumer shows along with sporting events. Located within a mile (1.6 km) of Downtown Seattle, the stadium is accessible by multiple freeways and forms of mass transit.
The stadium was built between 2000 and 2002 on the site of the Kingdome after voters approved funding for the construction in a statewide election held in June 1997. This vote created the Washington State Public Stadium Authority to oversee public ownership of the venue. The owner of the Seahawks, Paul Allen, formed First & Goal Inc. to develop and operate the new facilities. Allen was closely involved in the design process and emphasized the importance of an open-air venue with an intimate atmosphere. (Full article...) -
The 2010 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final was played on October 5, 2010, at Qwest Field (since renamed CenturyLink Field) in Seattle, Washington, United States. The match determined the winner of the 2010 U.S. Open Cup, a tournament open to amateur and professional soccer teams affiliated with the United States Soccer Federation. This was the 97th edition of the oldest competition in United States soccer. Seattle Sounders FC won the match, defeating the Columbus Crew 2–1 in front of a sellout crowd of 31,311, the highest attendance at a U.S. Open Cup final. Kevin Burns scored first, giving the Columbus Crew an early lead. Sanna Nyassi then scored both goals for Seattle Sounders FC as it became the first team since 1983 to win two consecutive U.S. Open Cup championships.
Both the Columbus Crew and Seattle Sounders FC qualified automatically for the third round of the U.S. Open Cup tournament by finishing among the top six in the 2009 Major League Soccer season standings. Both clubs won three matches in the tournament to advance to the final. Seattle won the bidding process to host the final. (Full article...) -
The 2010 Sylvania 300 was a stock car racing competition that took place on September 19, 2010. Held at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, the 300-lap race was the twenty-seventh in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as well as the first in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ended the season. Clint Bowyer of the Richard Childress Racing team won the race; Denny Hamlin finished second and Jamie McMurray came in third.
Brad Keselowski won the pole position, although he was almost immediately passed by Tony Stewart at the start of the race. Many Chase for the Sprint Cup participants, including Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Hamlin, were in the top ten for most of the race, although some encountered problems in the closing laps. Stewart was leading the race with two laps remaining but ran out of fuel, giving the lead, and the win, to Bowyer. There were twenty-one lead changes among eight different drivers, as well as eight cautions during the race. (Full article...) -
The 2018 EFL League Two play-off final was an association football match played on 28 May 2018 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Coventry City and Exeter City. The match determined the fourth and final team to gain promotion from EFL League Two, English football's fourth tier, to EFL League One. The top three teams of the 2017–18 EFL League Two season gained automatic promotion to League One, while the teams placed from fourth to seventh in the table took part in play-off semi-finals; the winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2018–19 season in League One. Exeter finished in fourth place while Coventry ended the season in sixth position. Lincoln City and Notts County were the losing semi-finalists.
The game, which was refereed by David Webb, was played on a hot sunny day in front of a crowd of 50,196. After a goalless first half, Coventry took the lead four minutes into the second half through Jordan Willis. Five minutes later they doubled their lead with a goal from Jordan Shipley. Midway through the half, Jack Grimmer made it 3–0 to Coventry. Kyle Edwards scored a consolation goal in the closing minutes of the game, but Coventry won 3–1 to earn promotion to the 2018–19 EFL League One. It was their first promotion for 51 years since being guided by Jimmy Hill into the 1967–68 Football League First Division. Marc McNulty, the Coventry striker was named the man of the match. (Full article...)
Selected pictures
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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. -
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s Hendrick Motorsports pit crew execute a pit stop at a Sprint Cup Series competition at Darlington Raceway, South Carolina, in May 2008. In motor sport, pit stops are when the racing vehicle gets more fuel, new wheels, repairs, mechanical adjustments, a driver change, or any combination of the above. -
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. -
Credit: ChePriit Narusk in the qualification for the Tour de Ski cross-country skiing competition in Prague. -
Photo: Fir0002A man engaged in waterskiing, a sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation on a body of water, skimming the surface. Waterskiing is a relatively young sport, having been invented in the early 20th century. The skis this person is wearing are specialized for ski jumping. -
Restoration: Lise BroerA late 1930s Federal Art Project poster advertising the bobsled track in Lake Placid, New York, United States, which had been used in the 1932 Winter Olympics. The village is located in the Adirondack Mountains and is known as a tourist destination for winter sports, mountain climbing, and golf. It is one of the three places to have twice hosted the Winter Olympic Games and the first location in North America to host two Olympic games. -
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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. -
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. -
Photo: John O'NeillRobbie McEwen, Australian professional road cyclist, wearing his Team Katusha (Russian: Катюша) cycling kit at the start of the 2010 Jayco Bay Cycling Classic. McEwen's accolades include winning the maillot vert (green jersey) overall Points Classification in the Tour de France three times, along with winning 12 individual stages, and competing in three Olympic Games. The green and gold bands around his arms identify him as an Australian National Cycling Champion. -
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: 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. -
Photo: Pavel.ryclTony Estanguet (b. 1978) is a French slalom canoeist who has competed since the mid-1990s. Before announcing his retirement, he competed in four Olympic Games and, with his win at the 2012 London Games, became the first French Olympian to win three gold medals in the same Olympic discipline. -
Photograph: John Sherwell, Australian Paralympic CommitteeMaddison Elliott (b. 1998) is an Australian swimmer. She is S8 classified, having right side cerebral palsy as a result of a neonatal stroke. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, she became the youngest Australian Paralympic medallist by winning bronze medals in the women's 400 m and 100 m freestyle S8 events. She then became the youngest Australian gold medallist when she was a member of the women's 4×100 m freestyle relay 34 points team. -
Photograph credit: Kontizas DimitriosBASE jumping is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute to descend safely to the ground. The acronym stands for four categories of fixed objects from which the jumps can be made: buildings, antennae, spans, and earth (cliffs). In this photograph, a BASE jumper launches himself from the top of the Sapphire Tower in Istanbul, Turkey. -
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: Ralf RoletschekMartin Sesaker representing Norway in curling at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics. -
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. -
Credit: KuebiMara Friton in a handball match in the German Handball-Bundesliga. -
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. -
Credit: PierreSelim -
Photo: Keith AllisonPanamanian baseball pitcher Mariano Rivera has spent his entire 16-year Major League Baseball career with the New York Yankees. An 11-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, Rivera has accumulated 559 saves, the second-most in MLB history, and he holds Major League postseason records for saves and earned run average, among other records. -
Hurdling is the act of running over an obstacle at high speed or in a sprint. It is a highly specialized form of obstacle racing, and forms part of track and field in the sport of athletics. In hurdling events, barriers known as hurdles are set at precisely measured heights and distances. This photograph shows the Austrian athlete Leon Okafor taking part in the men's 110-metre (120 yd) hurdles at the Leichtathletik Gala in Linz in 2018. -
Photo: Marie-Lan NguyenFencing is the sport of fighting with swords; in modern usage the word usually denotes competitive fencing, rather than classical fencing. Here, Fabian Kauter (right) hits Diego Confalonieri (left) with a flèche attack at the final of the Challenge Réseau Ferré de France–Trophée Monal 2012.
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Did you know...
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- ...that English lower-league football team Bristol Rovers once beat the Netherlands national football team 3-2?
- ...that 2012 Australian Paralympic wheelchair basketball player Jannik Blair (pictured) has a partial wheelchair basketball scholarship from the University of Missouri?
- ...that Kanken Toyama, who developed the Shūdōkan school of karate, was originally an elementary school teacher?
- ...that the breeding rights for the Thoroughbred racehorse Graustark sold for a record US$2,400,000?
- ...that the 1989 Glasnost Bowl was an attempt to schedule an American college football game in the Soviet Union?
Selected quote
Selected athlete
Natasha Luikin at a charity event in 2008
The daughter of two former Soviet champion gymnasts, Olympic gold medalist Valeri Liukin – the first man to do a triple backflip – and World Champion rhythmic gymnast Anna Kotchneva, Nastia Liukin was born in Moscow and moved to the United States as a young child. She began gymnastics after spending time in the gym while her parents coached. Liukin is coached by her father at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, her family's gymnastics club in Frisco, Texas.
Liukin became a member of the U.S. junior national team when she was 12 years old and won the National all-around title at the age of 13. She was the all-around silver medalist at the 2003 Pan American Games. Since 2005, Liukin has been a key member of the U.S. senior team. She is a four-time all-around U.S. National Champion, winning twice as a junior and twice as a senior. She has been the U.S. senior National Champion on the uneven bars since 2005. Liukin has represented the United States at three World Championships, the 2003 and 2007 Pan American Games, and the 2006 and 2008 Pacific Rim Championships. In October 2011, Liukin announced that she was returning to the sport of gymnastics with the hopes of making the 2012 Olympic team. She did not make the team, and instead went to London as the athlete representative for the Federation of International Gymnasts (FIG). (Full article...)
Selected team
Four members of the Portland Trail Blazers
The franchise entered the league in 1970, and Portland has been its only home city. The franchise has enjoyed a strong following; from 1977 through 1995, the team sold out 814 consecutive home games, the longest such streak in American major professional sports. The Trail Blazers are also currently the only NBA team based in the Pacific Northwest, after the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated to Memphis and became the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001 and the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.
The team has advanced to the NBA Finals three times, winning the NBA Championship once, in 1977. The other NBA Finals appearances were in 1990 and 1992. The team has qualified for the playoffs in 29 seasons of their 42-season existence, including a streak of 21 straight appearances from 1983 through 2003, the second longest streak in NBA history.
Six Hall of Fame players have played for the Trail Blazers (Lenny Wilkens, Bill Walton, Clyde Drexler, Dražen Petrović, Arvydas Sabonis, and Scottie Pippen). Bill Walton is the franchise's most decorated player; he was the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player in 1977, and the regular season MVP the following year. Three Blazer rookies (Geoff Petrie, Sidney Wicks, and Brandon Roy) have won the NBA Rookie of the Year award. Two Hall of Fame coaches, Lenny Wilkens and Jack Ramsay, have patrolled the sidelines for the Blazers, and two others, Mike Schuler and Mike Dunleavy, have won the NBA Coach of the Year award with the team. (Full article...)
In this month
- December 7–8, 1963 – The inaugural World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships is held in Budapest, Hungary
- December 12, 1959 – The first Southeast Asian Games (2011 opening ceremony pictured), a biennial multi-sport event for the countries in Southeast Asia, opens in Bangkok, Thailand
- December 12, 2010 – The inaugural Asian Para Games, the successor to the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled, opens in Guangzhou, China
- December 13, 1993 – Major League Soccer, the highest level association football league in the United States and Canada, is founded
- December 21, 1904 – The governing body of motorcycle racing, Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, is founded in Paris, France
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