Portal:Sports

The Sports Portal

Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which also provides opportunities to nurture physical fitness and social interaction skills.

Sport pertains to any form of physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, through casual or organized participation, improve participants' physical health. Hundreds of sports exist, from those between single contestants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals.Sports is a way for people to release any certain emotion or feeling that they are feeling at the time and be able to solely focus on the sport they are playing at the time and not anything else. In certain sports such as racing, many contestants may compete, simultaneously or consecutively, with one winner; in others, the contest (a match) is between two sides, each attempting to exceed the other. Some sports allow a "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide tie-breaking methods to ensure one winner and one loser.Not only are you simultaneously doing it in racing but within basketball and soccer as well. The sports is revolved around continually running up and down court or a field and its events that happen over time and are not able to end in a win lose or draw. A number of contests may be arranged in a tournament 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 such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition. Other organisations, such as the Council of Europe, preclude activities without a physical element from classification as sports. However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as bona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports: bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), Go and xiangqi, and limits the number of mind games which can be admitted as sports. (Full article...)

Selected articles

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  The 2008 Humanitarian Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game between the Maryland Terrapins and the Nevada Wolf Pack on December 30, 2008. It was the two teams' first meeting. The game featured two conference tie-ins: the University of Maryland represented the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the University of Nevada represented the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The game was played at Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho and was the 12th edition of the Humanitarian Bowl. It was sponsored by the New Plymouth, Idaho-based company Roady's Truck Stops, which claims to be the largest chain of truck stops in the United States.
  
  The featured match-up was between what was called a "wildly inconsistent" Maryland team and the third-best rushing defense and fifth-best total offense of Nevada. The result was an offensive shoot-out. The final score of 42–35 in favor of Maryland exceeded total-points predictions by as much as 17 and tied the all-time Humanitarian Bowl record. (Full article...)
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  Bert Trautmann at an event at the Olympiastadion in Berlin in October 2010

  
  Bernhard Carl "Bert" Trautmann EK OBE BVO (22 October 1923 – 19 July 2013) was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Manchester City from 1949 to 1964.
  
  In August 1933, (aged 9), he joined the Jungvolk, the junior section of the Hitler Youth. Trautmann joined the Luftwaffe early in the Second World War, and then served as a paratrooper. He was initially sent to Occupied Poland, and subsequently fought on the Eastern Front for three years, earning five medals, including an Iron Cross. Later in the war, he was transferred to the Western Front, where he was captured by the British as the war drew to a close. As a volunteer soldier, he was classified a category "C" prisoner by the authorities, meaning he was regarded as a Nazi. One of only 90 of his original 1,000-man regiment to survive the war, he was transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire. Trautmann refused an offer of repatriation, and following his release in 1948 decided to settle in Lancashire, combining farm work with playing goalkeeper for a local football team, St Helens Town. (Full article...)
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  Tony Hawk's Underground is a 2003 skateboarding video game and the fifth entry in the Tony Hawk's series after Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in 2003 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance. In 2004, it was published for Microsoft Windows in Australia and New Zealand as a budget release.
  
  Underground is built upon the skateboarding formula of previous Tony Hawk's games: the player explores levels and completes goals while performing tricks. The game features a new focus on customization; the player, instead of selecting a professional skater, creates a custom character. Underground adds the ability for players to dismount their boards and explore on foot. The plot follows the player character and their friend Eric Sparrow as the two become professionals and grow apart. (Full article...)
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  Easy Jet (1967–1992) was a racing champion American Quarter Horse. He was one of only two horses to have been a member of the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Hall of Fame as well as being an offspring of members. Easy Jet won the 1969 All American Futurity, the highest race for Quarter Horse racehorses, and was named World Champion Quarter Race Horse in the same year. He earned the highest speed rating awarded at the time—AAAT. After winning 27 of his 38 races in two years of racing, he retired from the race track and became a breeding stallion.
  
  As a sire, he was the first All American Futurity winner to sire an All American Futurity winner, and went on to sire three winners of that race, and nine Champion Quarter Running Horses. Ultimately, his ownership and breeding rights were split into 60 shares worth $500,000 each—a total of $30 million. By 1993, the year after his death, his foals had earned more than $25 million on the racetrack. (Full article...)
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  Hobart Amory Hare "Hobey" Baker (January 15, 1892 – December 21, 1918) was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century. Considered the first American star in ice hockey by the Hockey Hall of Fame, he was also an accomplished American football player. Born into a prominent family from the Philadelphia area, he enrolled at Princeton University in 1910. Baker excelled on the university's hockey and football teams, and became a noted amateur hockey player for the St. Nicholas Hockey Club in New York City. He was a member of three national championship teams, for football in 1911 and hockey in 1912 and 1914, and helped the St. Nicholas Club win a national amateur championship in 1915. Baker graduated from Princeton in 1914 and worked for J.P. Morgan Bank until he enlisted in the United States Army Air Service. During World War I he served with the 103rd and the 13th Aero Squadrons before being promoted to captain and named commander of the 141st Aero Squadron. Baker died in December 1918 after a plane he was test-piloting crashed, hours before he was due to leave France and return to America.
  
  Baker was widely regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best athletes of his time and is considered one of the best early American hockey players. When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, Baker was named one of the first nine inductees, the only American among them. In 1973, he became one of the initial inductees in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, and is the only person to be in both the hockey and college football halls of fame. (Full article...)
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  The match took place at Wembley Stadium.

  
  The 1997 Football League First Division play-off Final was an association football match played between Crystal Palace and Sheffield United on 26 May 1997 at Wembley Stadium, London, England. The game was to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the second tier Football League First Division to the Premier League, the highest tier of English league football. The top two teams of the 1996–97 Football League First Division season gained automatic promotion, while clubs placed from third to sixth in the league table competed in play-offs. The winners of the play-off semi-finals played against each other for the final place in the Premier League for the 1997–98 season. Sheffield United ended the season in fifth position, one place ahead of Crystal Palace. Winning the final was estimated to be worth up to £10 million.
  
  The game was played in front of a crowd of 64,383 and refereed by Neale Barry. Crystal Palace played with five midfielders in a 3–5–2 formation while their opponents played 4–4–2. Both goalkeepers were called into action in the first half with Crystal Palace's Carlo Nash clearing a Pyotr Kachura shot at goal, and Simon Tracey intercepting a cross from Bruce Dyer. Sheffield United made an early change when Kachura was replaced by Gareth Taylor midway through the first half. They were then forced to substitute Don Hutchison just before half-time after he seriously injured his shoulder. After a goalless first half, both sides had further chances to score in the second half. However, as the game appeared to be heading into extra time, the Crystal Palace captain David Hopkin scored the winning goal in the last minute of regular time with a curling strike from around 25 yards (23 m), described variously as "inspired", a "glorious Brazilian bender" and "one of the finest goals in Palace history." (Full article...)
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  First Horizon Park at dusk

  
  First Horizon Park, formerly known as First Tennessee Park, is a baseball park in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The home of the Triple-A Nashville Sounds of the International League, it opened on April 17, 2015, and can seat up to 10,000 people. It replaced the Sounds' former home, Herschel Greer Stadium, where the team played from its founding in 1978 through 2014.
  
  The park was built on the site of the former Sulphur Dell, a minor league ballpark in use from 1885 to 1963. It is located between Third and Fifth Avenues on the east and west (home plate, the pitcher's mound, and second base are directly in line with Fourth Avenue to the stadium's north and south) and between Junior Gilliam Way and Harrison Street on the north and south. The Nashville skyline can be seen from the stadium to the south. (Full article...)
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  Linden with the Vancouver Canucks in 2008

  
  Trevor John Linden CM OBC (born April 11, 1970) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former president of hockey operations and alternate governor of the Vancouver Canucks. He spent 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), playing centre and right wing with four teams: the Vancouver Canucks (in two tenures; the first and last), New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals. Before joining the NHL in 1988, Linden helped the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League (WHL) win consecutive Memorial Cup championships. In addition to appearing in two NHL All-Star Games, Linden was a member of the 1998 Canadian Olympic team and participated in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
  
  Throughout his career, Linden was recognized as a respected leader on and off the ice. He was named captain of the Canucks at age 21, making him one of the youngest captains in league history. In that capacity, Linden was nicknamed "Captain Canuck" and led the team to back-to-back Smythe Division titles in 1992 and 1993, followed by a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1994, where they lost in seven games. In 1998, he was elected president of the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA), a position he held for eight years. As President, he played an instrumental role in the 2004–05 NHL lockout, including negotiations with league owners. Off the ice, Linden has taken an active role in charities, and was awarded the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for leadership on the ice and humanitarian contributions off the ice in 1997, as well as the NHL Foundation Player Award in 2008. Linden retired on June 11, 2008, 20 years to the day after he was drafted into the NHL. Linden's jersey number 16 was retired by the Canucks on December 17, 2008, the second number retired by the team. (Full article...)
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  Thomas Neil Phillips (May 22, 1883 – November 30, 1923) was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger. Like other players of his era, Phillips played for several different teams and leagues. Most notable for his time with the Kenora Thistles, Phillips also played with the Montreal Hockey Club, the Ottawa Hockey Club, the Toronto Marlboros and the Vancouver Millionaires. Over the course of his career Phillips participated in six challenges for the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy of hockey, winning twice: with the Montreal Hockey Club in 1903 and with the Kenora Thistles, which he captained, in January 1907. Following his playing career, Phillips worked in the lumber industry until his death in 1923.
  
  One of the best defensive forwards of his era, Phillips was also known for his all-around skill, particularly his strong shot and endurance, and was considered, alongside Frank McGee, one of the two best players in all of hockey. His younger brother, Russell, also played for the Thistles and was a member of the team when they won the Stanley Cup. When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, Phillips was one of the original nine inductees. (Full article...)
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  The 2021 Masters (officially the 2021 Betfred Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 10 and 17 January 2021 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England. It was the 47th staging of the Masters tournament, which was first held in 1975, and the second of three Triple Crown events in the 2020–21 season, following the 2020 UK Championship and preceding the 2021 World Snooker Championship. The top sixteen players from the snooker world rankings were invited to compete in a knockout tournament. The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association organised the tournament, which was broadcast by the BBC and Eurosport in Europe. The event was played behind closed doors because of COVID-19 restrictions in the United Kingdom. Two players, world number one Judd Trump and Jack Lisowski, withdrew from the event after testing positive for COVID-19. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred.
  
  The defending champion, Stuart Bingham, had defeated Ali Carter 10–8 in the previous year's final. Bingham lost 6–5 to Yan Bingtao in the semi-finals. Yan was one of three debutants at the event, alongside Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Gary Wilson, and met John Higgins in the final. Yan completed a 10–8 victory to win his first Triple Crown tournament. As the winner of the event, Yan was awarded £250,000 from the total prize pool of £725,000. The highest break of the event was a 145 made by Higgins in his quarter-final win over Ronnie O'Sullivan which earned him £15,000. (Full article...)
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  Caracciola in 1928

  
  Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola (30 January 1901 – 28 September 1959) was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One World Championship, an unsurpassed three times. He also won the European Hillclimbing Championship three times – twice in sports cars, and once in Grand Prix cars. Caracciola raced for Mercedes-Benz during their original dominating Silver Arrows period, named after the silver colour of the cars, and set speed records for the firm. He was affectionately dubbed Caratsch by the German public, and was known by the title of Regenmeister, or "Rainmaster", for his prowess in wet conditions.
  
  Caracciola began racing while he was working as apprentice at the Fafnir automobile factory in Aachen during the early 1920s, first on motorcycles and then in cars. Racing for Mercedes-Benz, he won his first two Hillclimbing Championships in 1930 and 1931, and moved to Alfa Romeo for 1932, where he won the Hillclimbing Championship for the third time. In 1933, he established the privateer team Scuderia C.C. with his fellow driver Louis Chiron, but a crash in practice for the Monaco Grand Prix left him with multiple fractures of his right thigh, which ruled him out of racing for more than a year. He returned to the newly reformed Mercedes-Benz racing team in 1934, with whom he won three European Championships, in 1935, 1937 and 1938. Like most German racing drivers in the 1930s, Caracciola was a member of the Nazi paramilitary group National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), but never a member of the Nazi Party. He returned to racing after the Second World War, but crashed in qualifying for the 1946 Indianapolis 500. A second comeback in 1952 was halted by another crash, in a sports car race in Switzerland. (Full article...)
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  The Atlanta Flames were one of many expansion teams that brought the NHL from six teams in 1967 to 21 by 1979.

  
  The expansion era of the National Hockey League (NHL) began when six new teams were added for the 1967–68 season, ending the Original Six era. The six existing teams were grouped into the newly created East Division, and the expansion teams—the Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Oakland Seals, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues—formed the West Division.
  
  The NHL added another six teams by 1974 to bring the league to 18 teams. This continued expansion was partially brought about by the creation of the World Hockey Association (WHA), which operated from 1972 until 1979 and sought to compete with the NHL for markets and players. Bobby Hull was the most famous player to defect to the rival league, signing a $2.75 million contract with the Winnipeg Jets. When the WHA ceased operations in 1979, the NHL absorbed four of the league's teams—the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets. This brought the NHL to 21 teams (the Cleveland Barons had ceased operations in 1978), a figure that remained constant until the San Jose Sharks joined as an expansion franchise in 1991. (Full article...)
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  During the 1950–51 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Third Division South, the third tier of the English football league system. It was the first season of Gillingham's second spell in the Football League; prior to this season the club was elected back into the competition having lost its place in 1938. Gillingham's results in the first half of the season were poor, including a 9–2 defeat to Nottingham Forest, the highest number of goals the team had conceded for more than 20 years; at the end of 1950 they were second bottom of the Third Division South league table. In January and early February Gillingham climbed to 19th in the 24-team division after winning five times in six games, including a 9–4 victory over Exeter City, a new record for the club's highest Football League score which would stand for more than 30 years. After this they won only once in ten matches; the team finished the season 22nd in the division.
  
  Gillingham also competed in the FA Cup, reaching the second round. The team played 50 competitive matches, winning 14, drawing 11, and losing 25. Dave Thomas, who joined the club in October, finished the season as the team's top goalscorer; he scored 19 times in the Football League and twice in the FA Cup. Jimmy Boswell made the most appearances, playing 46 times. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, was 20,128 for a league game against Millwall on 2 September. (Full article...)
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  The 2022 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2022 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 April to 2 May 2022 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the 46th consecutive year the World Snooker Championship was held at the venue. The 16th and final ranking event of the 2021–22 snooker season, the tournament was organised by the World Snooker Tour and sponsored by sports betting company Betfred. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, in Europe (including the UK) by Eurosport, and elsewhere in the world by Matchroom Sport and other broadcasters. The total prize fund was £2,395,000, of which the winner received £500,000.
  
  Qualifying rounds for the tournament took place from 4 to 13 April 2022 at the English Institute of Sport, featuring 128 professional and invited amateur players. The main stage of the tournament featured 32 players: the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings and another 16 players from the qualifying rounds. Ashley Hugill, Jackson Page, and Hossein Vafaei were debutants at the Crucible, Vafaei being the first Iranian player to reach the main stage. Mark Selby was the defending champion, having won the 2021 final 18–15 against Shaun Murphy. He lost 10–13 to Yan Bingtao in a second-round match that produced the longest frame ever played at the Crucible, lasting 85 minutes. (Full article...)
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  Wilfred Rhodes bowling in a photograph taken by George Beldam in 1906

  
  Wilfred Rhodes (29 October 1877 – 8 July 1973) was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches. He holds the world records both for the most appearances made in first-class cricket (1,110 matches), and for the most wickets taken (4,204). He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English cricket season a record 16 times. Rhodes played for Yorkshire and England into his fifties, and in his final Test in 1930 was, at 52 years and 165 days, the oldest player who has appeared in a Test match.
  
  Beginning his career for Yorkshire in 1898 as a slow left arm bowler who was a useful batsman, Rhodes quickly established a reputation as one of the best slow bowlers in the world. However, by the First World War he had developed his batting skills to the extent that he was regarded as one of the leading batsmen in England and had established an effective opening partnership with Jack Hobbs. The improvement in Rhodes's batting was accompanied by a temporary decline in his bowling performances, but the loss of key Yorkshire bowlers after the war led to Rhodes resuming his role as a front-line bowler. He played throughout the 1920s as an all-rounder before retiring after the 1930 cricket season. His first appearance for England was in 1899 and he played regularly in Tests until 1921. Recalled to the team in the final Ashes Test of 1926 aged 48, Rhodes played a significant part in winning the match for England who thus regained the Ashes for the first time since 1912. He ended his Test career in the West Indies in April 1930. (Full article...)

Selected pictures

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  Zack Greinke

  Photo: Keith Allison

  Zack Greinke is a pitcher for the Major League Baseball team Milwaukee Brewers. He began his career with the Kansas City Royals (as pictured here), during which time he won the American League Cy Young Award, given to the league's best pitcher. In December 2010, Greinke asked to be traded, saying he was not motivated to play for a rebuilding team.
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  Ed Walsh

  Photo: Paul Thompson
  Restoration: Staxringold/Lise Broer

  Ed Walsh (1881–1959) was an American baseball pitcher who played for the Chicago White Sox and Boston Braves from 1904 to 1917. His career earned run average of 1.82 is the lowest major league ERA ever posted, but the record is unofficial since ERA was not an official statistic in the American League prior to 1913. After his playing career ended, he also served as an umpire and coach.
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  Lawn mower racing

  Photo credit: Fir0002

  Two racers cross the finish line of the 250cc class at the 2007 Swifts Creek lawn mower races. In this motorsport, competitors race modified lawn mowers, usually of the ride-on or self-propelled variety. Original mower engines are retained but blades are removed for safety. Lawn mowers have also been used in kart racing, a different sport.
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  Scrum (rugby)

  Credit: PierreSelim

  A rugby football scrum.
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  Handball-Bundesliga (women)

  Credit: Kuebi

  Mara Friton in a handball match in the German Handball-Bundesliga.
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  Stade Français

  Photograph: Georges Scott; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

  An 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.
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  Personal foul

  Photograph: Carlos Delgado

  Zoran 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.
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  Robbie McEwen

  Photo: John O'Neill

  Robbie 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.
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  Richèl Hogenkamp

  Photograph credit: Carlos Delgado

  Richèl 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.
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  Pit stop

  Photo: United States National Guard

  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.
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  Grand Prix motorcycle racing

  Credit: Richard Mushet

  Grand Prix motorcycle racing 125 cc champion Gábor Talmácsi in a road race during the 2007 season.
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  Lake Placid, New York

  Restoration: Lise Broer

  A 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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  Motocross

  Credit: Fir0002

  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.
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  Horse racing

  Credit: Fir0002

  Horses 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.
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  Boxing

  Credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo/Wayne Short; editing by Shawnc

  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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  Curling

  Credit: Ralf Roletschek

  Martin Sesaker representing Norway in curling at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics.
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  Cross-country skiing

  Credit: Che

  Priit Narusk in the qualification for the Tour de Ski cross-country skiing competition in Prague.
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  Balance beam

  Credit: Fernando Frazão

  The 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.
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  BASE jumping

  Photograph credit: Kontizas Dimitrios

  BASE 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.
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  Line-out

  Photograph: Pierre Selim

  A 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.
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  Muhammad Ali

  Photograph: Ira Rosenberg; restoration: Chris Woodrich

  Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) was an American former professional boxer, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport. A controversial and polarizing figure during his early career, Ali is now highly regarded for the skills he displayed in the ring plus the values he exemplified outside of it: religious freedom, racial justice and the triumph of principle over expedience. Ali remains the only three-time lineal world heavyweight champion, having won the title in 1964, 1974, and 1978.
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  Alessandro Martinelli

  Photograph credit: Matteo Brama

  Alessandro Martinelli (born 30 May 1993) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie B club Brescia. Born in Mendrisio, Ticino, he moved south to Italy to begin his professional career in 2009. Martinelli then left the reserve team of Sampdoria in 2012 for Portosummaga. After returning to Sampdoria in 2013, he was signed by Venezia later that year and then by Modena in 2014. Martinelli left for Brescia in 2015 and joined the club on a permanent basis in 2017. From 2008 to 2013, he also played for various Swiss national youth football teams.
  
  This picture, taken in 2015, shows Martinelli playing for Modena in a match against Ternana.
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  Robby Naish

  Photo credit: Hoch Zwei

  American windsurfer Robby Naish at the 2006 Windsurf World Cup, off the coast of Sylt, Germany. Naish was one of the first athletes to gain long-lasting international fame as a windsurfer. He won his first overall World Championship title, at the age of 13.
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  Sandboarding

  Photo: Steven J. Weber/US Navy

  Sandboarding is a boardsport similar to snowboarding, but competitions take place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered mountains. Here, a member of the US Navy sandboards down a dune in Jebel Ali, Dubai.

Did you know...

• ... that para-alpine B2 classified visually impaired skier Gabriel Gorce (pictured) was the youngest member of the 2010 Spanish Winter Paralympic team?
• ... that Caleb Moore became the first competitor to die as a result of injuries sustained during the X Games?
• ... that professional baseball player Tony Cingrani did not expect his college team to invite him back for his senior season after he struggled as a junior?
• ... that Vahram Papazyan and Mıgırdiç Mıgıryan, the two athletes who represented Turkey in its first-ever Olympics, were both ethnic Armenians?
• ... that Manny McIntyre was a member of the first all-black line in professional hockey history and the first known Black-Canadian to play professionally in organized baseball?

Selected quote

Selected athlete

Natasha Luikin at a charity event in 2008

Anastasia Valeryevna "Nastia" Liukin (born October 30, 1989) is a retired American artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic individual all-around Champion, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars. With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, as of 2012 Liukin is tied with for the having the second-highest tally of World Championship medals. Liukin has also tied the record as the American gymnast having won the most medals in a single non-boycotted Olympic Games.

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...)

More selected biographies

Selected team

Members of the Calgary Flames celebrating in a 1978 game

The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club is the third major-professional ice hockey team to represent the city of Calgary, following the Calgary Tigers (1921–27) and Calgary Cowboys (1975–77). The Flames are one of two NHL franchises in Alberta, the other being the Edmonton Oilers. The cities' proximity has led to a famous rivalry known as the Battle of Alberta. Games between the teams are often heated events.

The team was founded in 1972 in Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Flames until relocating to Calgary in 1980. The Flames played their first three seasons in Calgary at the Stampede Corral before moving into their current home arena, the Scotiabank Saddledome (originally known as the Olympic Saddledome), in 1983. In 1985–86, the Flames became the first Calgary team since the 1923–24 Tigers to compete for the Stanley Cup. In 1988–89, the Flames won their first and only championship. The Flames' unexpected run to the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals gave rise to the Red Mile, and in 2011 the team hosted and won the second Heritage Classic outdoor game.

The Flames have won two Presidents' Trophies as the league's top regular season team, and have claimed five division championships. Individually, Jarome Iginla is the franchise leader in games played, goals, and points, and is a two-time winner of the Maurice Richard Trophy as the league's leading goal scorer. Miikka Kiprusoff has the most wins by a goaltender in a Calgary Flames uniform. Nine people associated with the Flames have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. (Full article...)

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In this month

• May 8, 1954 – The Asian Football Confederation, the governing body of association football in Asia, is founded
• May 15, 1908 – The International Ice Hockey Federation is founded in Paris as Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace
• May 17, 1875 – The first Kentucky Derby is held, with Aristides winning the race
• May 22, 1987 – The inaugural Rugby World Cup (2011 match pictured), co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia, begins
• May 23, 1985 – The first Games of the Small States of Europe, a multi-sport event for European microstates, begins in San Marino

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