World Cup (football)

The World Cup (formally called the FIFA World Cup) is contested every four years by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. (FIFA).

HISTORY

The first World Cup was played in Uruguay in 1930, and 13 countries entered their national teams. 

Lucien Laurent of France scored the first goal in FIFA World Cup history during the inaugural game of Group 1. The game was played on July 13, 1930, between France and Mexico at the Estadio Pocitos in Montevideo, Uruguay. Laurent's goal came in the 19th minute of the game and helped France to a 4-1 victory. 

 Uruguay won that first competition beating Argentina 4-2.

At the first World Cup Egypt missed their boat, Bolivia wore berets, a player was suspended for opening a cafe, a referee called the final whistle after 84 minutes, another referee did all his games in suit, tie and knickerbockers, and a Romanian was believed to have died before turning up at his wake.

In 1950, Brazil were so sure they would win the World Cup final against Uruguay that the local media hailed them as "future champions" before the match and 22 gold medals had already been made with the names of Brazilian players. They lost 2-1.

The opening game of the Maracanã Stadium, shortly before the 1950 FIFA World Cup

In the 1962 World Cup, the Chilean team ate Swiss cheese before beating Switzerland, spaghetti before beating Italy, and drank vodka before beating the USSR. Then they drank coffee before their match against Brazil but lost.

LOS ramblers, a respected Chilean rock group, created "El Rock del Mundial" ("World Rock") which is regarded as the first official World Cup anthem. The rock and roll song was created in support of the Chilean team, hosts of the 1962 tournament. The song became the most sold single in Chilean music history, achieving cult status. Its success gave birth to the traditional World Cup anthem, with different styles and integrating cultures.

The first World Cup was made of gold plated sterling silver and lapis lazuli and depicted Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. When Brazil won the tournament a third time in 1970, they were allowed to keep the real trophy in perpetuity.

The current trophy (held by France forward Ousmane Dembélé in 2018) By Антон Зайцев - 

RECORDS 

Three football players share the record for playing in the most World Cups; Mexico's Antonio Carbajal (1950–1966) and Rafael Márquez (2002–2018); and Germany's Lothar Matthäus (1982–1998) all played in five tournaments.

Miroslav Klose's goal in Germany's 7-1 win over Brazil in the 2014 World Cup was his sixteenth in all World Cups, breaking the record he had previously shared with Ronaldo.

France's Just Fontaine, holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup; all his 13 goals were scored in the 1958 tournament.

Fontaine playing for France at the 1958 FIFA World Cup.

FUN WORLD CUP FACTS

Japanese football fans always clean up their stadium after their World Cup Finals games, a tradition stemming back to the 1998 World Cup.

Germany is the only nation to have won both the men's and women's World Cups.

The Jules Rimet Trophy for the World Cup is named after the Frenchman who was President of FIFA from 1921-1954. Jules Rimet served as an officer in the French Army during the First World War and was awarded a Croix de Guerre.

Shirt swapping was officially banned in the 1986 World Cup because FIFA did not want players to bare their chests on the field.

Brazil is the only country to have appeared in all 21 World Cup tournaments.

The 2018 World Cup was witnessed by around 3.572 billion viewers worldwide. It means that more than half the world’s population watched the tournament that was held in Russia. The final match between France and Croatia was watched by 1.12 billion viewers.

Here is a list of World Cup songs.

Source Daily Express

Winter Olympics

FIRSTS

The first Winter Olympic Games begun at Chamonix, in the French Alps on January 25, 1924, in connection with the Paris Summer Olympic Games held three months later. 16 nations took part and the host country failed to win any gold medals.

Dusan Zinaja at 1924 Winter Olympics Chamonix

The 1924 event in Chamonix was run by the French Olympic Committee but only recognised by the International Olympic Committee as official Winter Olympics after they had finished.

Ice hockey made its Olympic debut at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. The first Winter Olympics didn't take place until 1924.

The 1956 Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, were the first to be shown on television. The 1968 Games in Grenoble, France, were the first to be broadcast in color.

Man-made snow was used in the Olympics for the first time at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid.

When Australian short track speed skater Steven Bradbury won the 1,000 m event at the 2002 Winter Olympics, he became the first athlete from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Winter Olympic gold medal. Bradbury won because his four rivals all collided and he skated alone past the finish line. He named his autobiography Last Man Standing.

RECORDS

Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen has won the most Winter Olympic medals of any athlete: 15 (8 gold, 4 silver, and 3 bronze).

Marit Bjørgen 2013 By Frankie Fouganthin

Norwegian professional biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen has won more Winter Olympic medals than any other male (8 gold, 4 silver, and 1 bronze).

The oldest man to receive a Winter Olympics medal is 83-year-old Anders Haugen. The Norwegian-American actually received his ski jump bronze medal 50 years after he competed in 1924 when a scoring error was discovered in 1974.

Russian figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya won gold in the team event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, aged 15 years, 249 days. However, she is not younger than South Korean short track speed skater Kim Yun-Mi, who won gold medal in the 3000 m relay at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics aged 13.

Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany) is the only athlete to ever win medals in both Winter and Summer Games in the same year: In 1998 she won speed skating gold at 1,000m (winter) and match sprint cycling silver (summer).

FUN WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES FACTS

Until 1992 Winter Olympics were held in the same year as Summer Games. Since then it has been in years midway between Summer Olympics.

The USA is the only country to have won at least one gold medal in every Winter Olympics. But Russia and Norway have both won more Winter Olympic medals and Winter Olympic golds than the USA.

No country in the southern hemisphere has ever even applied to host the Winter Olympics.

Philip Boit, became the first Kenyan to participate in the Winter Olympics, when competing in the 10 KM classic cross-country race at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. He came in last. The winner, Bjørn Dæhlie, waited for Boit to reach the finish line in order to hug him. The moment affected him so much Boit named his son after Dæhlie.

Steven Bradbury, a speedskater and Australia’s first gold medalist in the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics, won his medal by purposely going slower than the other four skaters and hoping that one or more of them would crash to secure at least a bronze. All four crashed near the finish line.

Sources Daily Express, WKYC

Wimbledon (tennis)

The Wimbledon Championships is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. It is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and is regarded by many as the most prestigious. The Championships are unique because they are the only Grand Slam played on a grass court.

It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877.

Simona Haleb at Wimbledon. Pixiebay

HISTORY 

In 1876, lawn tennis, a game devised by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield a year or so earlier, was added to the activities of the All-England Croquet Club at Wimbledon.

In spring 1877, the club was renamed "The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club".

The inaugural Wimbledon Championship was held to raise money for repairs to the club's pony-drawn lawn roller. The competition started on July 9, 1877.

The first Wimbledon Tennis Competition was solely as an amateur competition. Men's singles was the only event that took place. Entrants had to pay a guinea (£1.05) each.

The first Wimbledon tournament featured 22 male tennis players competing for a 12-guinea prize, plus a silver challenge cup valued at 25 guineas.

Just 200 people turn up to the first Wimbledon final at the original venue in Worple Road, paying a shilling each to watch Spencer Gore stroll past William Marshall 6-1, 6–2, 6–4 on July 19, 1877.

Old Harrovian Spencer Gore was heard to remark afterwards: "Lawn tennis is a bit boring. It will never catch on."

Spencer Gore

Spencer Gore was the first player who ever used the technique of volleying, therefore he is considered the creator of the style of volley. He was also a first-class cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club in the mid-1870s.

The first Wimbledon Championship made a profit of £10.

The Wimbledon women's event began seven years later in 1884 with a a field of thirteen competitors. Playing in a white corset and petticoat, 19-year-old Maud Watson defeated her older sister Lilian Watson 6–8, 6–3, 6–3 in the final.

Maud Watson's first prize was a silver flower-basket worth 20 guineas.

Ladies Championship, 1884.

In 1907 Norman Brookes of Australia becomes the first international Wimbledon Men's Singles champion.

King George VI, as Prince Albert, played in 1926 at the All England Championships at Wimbledon in the men's doubles.

At Wimbledon in 1932, the English player Henry “Bunny” Austin became the first to wear shorts at a major championship.

In 1967, BBC Two screened four hours of live Wimbledon tennis as Britain's first color television broadcast.

Wimbledon adopted yellow tennis balls in 1986 with the advent of color television; before that, white balls were used.

RECORDS 

Roger Federer (2003–2007, 2009, 2012, 2017)  holds the record for the most men's singles titles with eight.

Martina Navratilova (1978–1979, 1982–1987, 1990) holds the record for most women's singles titles with nine.

The fastest ever serve at Wimbledon was 148 mph in 2010 by Taylor Dent of the USA in his match against Novak Djokovic.

The loudest known "grunt" came from Maria Sharapova during the 2009 tournament, recorded at about 105 decibels – the equivalent of standing three feet from a motorcycle.

A Miss M.H. de Amorim of Brazil entered the record book for having served 17 consecutive double faults to begin her match at Wimbledon in 1957. She lost.

The oldest ever Men’s Single Champion was Arthur Gore of Great Britain who won the title at the age of 41 in 1909.

At 17 years and 227 days old, Boris Becker was the youngest player (and first unseeded player and first German) to win the men’s singles title.

Mita Klima from Austria is the youngest player to ever compete in the tournament. She was 13 when she lost a first-round match in the 1907 tournament and was never heard from again.

The shortest player ever was Gertrude Hoahing, who stood 4 ft. 9 in. tall.

FUN WIMBLEDON FACTS

An average men's match at Wimbledon takes two-and-a-half hours during which the ball is in play for only 20 minutes.

52,000 balls used are used each year during the two weeks of the Wimbledon tennis championships.

Goran Ivanisevic is the only Wimbledon winner whose name alternates consonants and vowels.

Wimbledon champions have worn a straw hat (M.E.A. Watson, 1884), a cloche hat (Suzanne Lenglen, 1919). an eye shade (Helen Wills Moody, 1927-38), and a white jockey cap (Alice Marble, 1939).

An inscription from Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" adorns the doorway through which the players walk onto Centre Court at Wimbledon. It reads "If you can meet with Triumph & Disaster; And treat those two impostors just the same."

In 1998, Yevgeny Kafelnikov's match with Mark Philippoussis was interrupted when a mouse ran onto the court during play.

Source Daily Mail

Tournament (medieval)

A tournament or tourney was an armed combat, usually under royal license, between knights, designed to show their skills and valor. 

Tournaments were introduced into England from France in the 11th century. They were formalized in the 15th century.

The earliest known use of the word "tournament" comes from the peace legislation by Count Baldwin III of Hainaut for the town of Valenciennes, dated to 1114. It refers to the keepers of the peace in the town leaving it 'for the purpose of frequenting javelin sports, tournaments and such like.'

Early versions of tournaments tended to be confused occasions of mock battles between groups of knights. 

In the morning, after attending mass, the knights would go to the tourney field. Here the combats or jousts between the knights were fought. Sometimes two knights fought alone, sometimes whole companies met in combat. Along the sides of the field were handsome pavilions filled with fair maidens, young pages, beautiful ladies and jewel-bedecked nobles. 

Depiction of mounted combat in a tournament from the Codex Manesse (early 14th century)

The points of the weapons used in tournaments were usually encased in blocks of wood to make the encounter less dangerous, but the sport was so rough and the knights jousted in such earnest that many were wounded and some were killed. 

Points were scored in the combats according to the number of broken lances or blows sustained.

The jousting with the two knights charging on either side of an anti-collision barrier was the most dramatic. The joust was attended by much excitement, with the blowing of trumpets, the clash of steel, the shouts of heralds, and the applause of the spectators. It continued until one or the other of the knights was overcome. If he was still alive, the defeated knight then yielded his horse and armor to his adversary and was assisted from the field by the squires. 

Manuscript miniature illustration of a joust

Later tournaments sometimes lasted for several days, feasting, dancing, and hawking filling the hours not given to fighting. 

Hawking was a sport indulged in by the ladies and the squires as well as by the knights and almost every lady had her own hawk or falcon. 

Tournaments flourished until the 16th century, and have modern revivals.

Source Compton's Encyclopedia

Tour de France

The Tour de France is an annual men's multiple stage bicycle race. Riders have to cover approximately 4800 km / 3000 miles of primarily French countryside during a three-week period each July. About 10 million people watch the race live each year.

Pixiebay

HISTORY

Stagnating sales for sports newspaper L'Auto led to a crisis meeting on November 20, 1902. The last to speak was their chief cycling journalist, a 26-year-old named Géo Lefèvre, who suggested holding a cycling race across France.  The editor Henri Desgrange announced the race a couple of months later.

The plan worked. Before the first race started in 1903 L'Auto sold 25,000 copies. Afterwards it stood at 65,000. Five years later it had surpassed the 250,000 mark.

The first Tour de France was won by Maurice Garin. During that first race in 1903 each stage was over 400 km (249 ml) long.

Maurice Garin, winner of the first Tour de France standing on the right. 

The second Tour de France, which took place in 1904, was marred by controversy and accusations of cheating. The first four finishers -- Hippolyte Aucouturier, Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq, Ferdinand Payan, and Marcel Cadolle -- were all disqualified after it was discovered that they had taken a train during the race. The disqualification caused a great deal of outrage at the time, and it was several years before the Tour de France regained its credibility.

In the early years of the Tour the race comprised of just six stages. But the riders were expected to ride through the night, with no breaks for sleep.

In the 1907 Tour de France, some participants treated the race as a pleasure ride, stopping for lunch when they chose and spending the night in the best hotels they could find.

During the early years of the Tour de France, regulations required that riders fend entirely for themselves. Beer, brandy and wine were drank copiously as they were considered safer to drink than water from questionable roadside wells or springs.

In 1986, Greg LeMond became the first non-European professional cyclist to win the Tour de France. He remains the only American cyclist to have won the Tour.

In 1999 Lance Armstrong came back from testicular cancer to win his first Tour de France. He went on to win it a record seven consecutive times between 1999-2005.

Armstrong riding on Stage 17 of the 2009 Tour de France. By McSmit 

In 2012, a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) investigation concluded that Armstrong had used performance-enhancing drugs over the course of his career. As a result he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

FUN TOUR DE FRANCE FACTS

While the Tour De France route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same with the appearance over three weeks of racing of time trials, the passage through the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and the Alps, and the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Pixiebay

The Tour de France consists of 21 day-long stages over a 23-day period and cover around 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi).

There are nine days racing on the flat, five days over hills, two time trials and five days over the mountains. 23 mountains are scaled including parts of the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Alps.

The race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits of France.

80mph is the cyclists' top speed when they're going downhill. During the time trial, their average speed is 31mph.

Each rider loses an average of 4.4lb each on tour.

One of the 'unwritten rules' is if the Tour is passing through where one of the riders grew up, everyone will slow down to let that rider lead the whole Tour through his hometown.

Around half the world's population is said to watch television coverage of the Tour de France, which is broadcast to 188 countries.

Taken From: Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999. Kent on Sunday 8th July 2007

Tennis Grand Slam Events

The four Grand Slam events, also known as The Majors, are the most important annual tennis tournaments. This is because of the world ranking points players can earn, their tradition, the prize-money, and public and media attention. Each tournament is played over a period of two weeks beginning each year with the Australian Open in mid January, the French Open in May and June, Wimbledon in July, and the US Open in August and September.

Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open. 

Wimbledon was first competed in 1877. The inaugural Championship started at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London on July 9, 1877 and the Gentlemen's Singles was the only event held. It has been held there ever since.

The first Wimbledon Championship was won by Spencer Gore, an old Harrovian rackets player, from a field of 22. About 200 spectators paid one shilling each to watch the final.

The Wimbledon women's single and the men's doubles events began seven years later in 1884. First prize in the Women's single event, awarded to Maud Watson, was a silver flower-basket worth 20 guineas.

Ladies Championship, 1884

Rhode Island was the cradle of American tennis: when the United States National Championships (now the United States Open) were inaugurated in 1881, they were played on the lawns of the Newport Casino. Richard Sears won the men's singles at this tournament, which was the first of his seven consecutive singles titles. 

Semifinal at the 1890 US Tennis Championships at Newport

Like Wimbledon, the United States Open became known by its location after it was moved to Forest Hills, New York, in 1915.

The French Championships began in 1891. Originally, they were only open to tennis players who were members of French clubs. The first winner was a Briton—H. Briggs—who was a Paris resident.

The French Open opened to non-French players for the first time in 1926.

The Australian Open was first played at the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground in Melbourne in November 1905. This facility is now known as the Albert Reserve Tennis Centre. 

In 1938 the American, Don Budge became the first male tennis player to complete the Grand Slam in tennis of all four Championships.

Don Budge at the White City Stadium, Sydney in December 1937

The Open Era in tennis begun in 1968, when all the Grand Slam events opened to both amateurs and professionals for the first time.

The US Open led the way in equality: it awarded the men's and women's champions the same prize money in 1973.

The US Open tennis tournament was played on grass until 1975, when clay courts were installed to equalize Grand Slam competition. 

In 1978 US Open moved to hard courts of the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Today, the French Open is known for being the only Grand Slam played on a clay court. The Australian and United States tournaments are played on hard courts, and Wimbledon on grass.

Before 1983, many of the best tennis players did not play at the Australian Open. This was because tournament was far away from Europe and North America and was not considered as important as the other Grand Slam tournaments.

Monica Seles and Martina Navratilova contested the 1991 women's US Open final. Their 17-year age gap is the biggest in the history of Grand Slam finalists.

The Australian Open holds the record for the highest attendance at a Grand Slam event, with 743,667 people attending the 2018 tournament.

Novak Djokovic is the only player to beat Roger Federer in all four Grand Slam events. (Australian Open, French Open, US Open and Wimbledon).

Source Compton's Encyclopaedia

Super Bowl

In American Football, the leading teams of the two conferences meet in a series of play-off games for the Super Bowl. 

The first Super Bowl was played on January 15, 1967. The Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League, 35-to-10.

Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt came up with the term "Super Bowl," inspired by his child's Super Ball toy.

Over 63,000 fans attended the first Superbowl at Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum.

Admission to the first Super Bowl was priced at $12 per ticket. It is the only Superbowl that did not sell out. 

Super Bowl I – Los Angeles Coliseum. By Jimberg13 

During the first Super Bowl in 1967, NBC was still showing commercials when the second half kicked off. The officials asked the Packers to kick off again.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Max McGee didn't expect to play in the first Super Bowl in 1967. He showed up hungover and without his helmet. He ended up making a one-handed catch to score the game's first touchdown.

Four NFL teams have not played in a Super Bowl: Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texas and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Super Bowl LIX during which the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Kansas City Chiefs (denying them a historic "3-peat"), on February 9, 2025 was the most-watched American television program since the Moon landing. An average 127.7 million viewers across all platforms watched it, breaking the Super Bowl average record of 123.7 million viewers set in 2024.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots have the most Super Bowl wins in NFL history with six victories each.. The Patriots have 11 appearances in the Super Bowl (6 wins, 5 losses), while the Steelers have appeared in 8 (6 wins, 2 losses).

Coin toss at Super Bowl XLIII :Pittsburgh Steelers v Arizona Cardinals 

The record for the most Super Bowl losses is a tie between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos, who have each lost 5 Super Bowls.

No single team has won seven, but one player has. Tom Brady still holds more Super Bowl rings (7) than any single NFL franchise.

The Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders and Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts are the only franchises to win Super Bowls representing different cities.

Nineteen of the first 50 Super Bowls were decided by seven points or fewer.

The Vince Lombardi Trophy, the trophy awarded each year to the Super Bowl winner, is named in honor of NFL coach Vince Lombardi, who led the Green Bay Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowl games. 

The Vince Lombardi Trophy stands 20 3/4 inches tall, weighs 6.7 pounds and is valued more than $25,000. It is made of sterling silver by Tiffany & Company. 

Vince Lombardi Trophy Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl LII Victory Parade

The reason why businesses refer to the Super Bowl in their advertisements as "The Big Game" is because the NFL owns the trademark to the phrase "Super Bowl" and will severely crack down on any business that uses those words without officially licensing it from the NFL.

According to the American Institute of Food Distribution, Super Bowl Sunday ranks behind only Thanksgiving Day for the day with the highest food consumption in the United States.

Americans will hold more parties in their homes on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year.

During Super Bowl halftime, there are an estimated 90 million toilet flushes. That’s equivalent to 180 million gallons of water flowing at once, or 3.5 minutes of flowing water on the Niagara Falls.

In 1992 Fox's sketch comedy show In Living Color drew away 22% of Super Bowl XXVI’s viewers during its halftime show by doing a special live episode of their own. This is why subsequent Super Bowls got A-List performers (starting with Michael Jackson in 1993) and dropped the previous themed marching band format.

Michael Jackson's 1993 Super Bowl performance marked the first time network ratings went up during halftime.

A cow has only a 1 in 17,420,000 chance of becoming an NFL football that is used in the Super Bowl.

Source Kansascity

Show jumping

Show jumping is a competitive equestrian event in which horse and rider are required to jump, usually within a time limit, a series of obstacles that have been designed for a particular show. It is a part of a group of English riding equestrian events that also includes dressage and eventing.

Pixabay

Show jumping started on July 28, 1868 with the inaugural Dublin Horse Show, the brainchild of hunting enthusiast Lord Howth. On that occasion, there were four days of competition where horses would negotiate the High Leap, the Wide Leap and the Stone Wall. At the time the sport was known as Lepping.

Lepping competitions were brought to Britain a year later when a “competition for leaping horses” was included in the program of an Agricultural Hall Society horse show in London. By 1900 most of the more important shows in Britain had Lepping classes.

Theodore Roosevelt was nicknamed The Man on Horseback. In 1886, his horse, Hempstead beat the world equine record for high jumping, clearing 6ft 8 in at the New York Horse Show.

Italian cavalry officer and equestrian, Captain Federico Caprilli (April 8, 1868 - December 6, 1907), heavily influenced the world of jumping with his ideas promoting a forward position with shorter stirrups. This style, now known as the forward seat, placed the rider in a position that did not interfere with the balance of the horse while negotiating obstacles. Due to his developments, the Italian cavalry began to dominate international competition, and riders came from countries around the world to study Caprilli's system. The forward seat formed the modern-day technique used by all jumping riders today.

Captain Caprilli jumping in Italy

The first major show jumping competition held in England was at Olympia in 1907. Most of the competitors were members of the military.

Horse jumping events were held at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris and show jumping has been held at every Olympics from 1912 in both individual and team competition.

The Badminton Horse Trials were held for the first time on April 20, 1949. It was the second three-day event held in Britain, with the first being its inspiration – the 1948 Olympics and was won by John Shedden, on Golden Willow. Golden Willow, five years old at the time, is also the youngest horse to win, and wouldn’t qualify today as horses must be at least seven.

Gemma Tattersall and Jesters Quest 2007 By Henry Bucklow/Lazy Photography 

The tenor Luciano Pavarotti was also an equestrian expert. He organized the Pavarotti International, an international show jumping circuit competition.

Show jumping is one of the very few sports where men and women are completely equal in competition.

Pixabay

The horses in Olympic equestrian events have their own passports and fly business class.

In Sweden there is a rabbit show jumping competition called Kaninhoppning.

Sources Encyclopedia Britannica, Equilifeworld

Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is a golf tournament played every two years between professional male golfers from the USA and Europe (originally Britain).

English businessman Samuel Ryder (1859-1936) built up a prosperous business in St Albans, mainly through selling penny packets of garden seeds. Ryder, who had started playing golf at the age of 50, suggested the idea of a regular international competition between teams of British and American golfers.

The first official Ryder Cup was held in Worcester, Massachusetts on June 3–4, 1927. (Two unofficial matches between British and American teams, had been played in Scotland in 1921 and in England in 1926, both won by the British).

Appendicitis kept Ryder's coach, British professional golfer Abe Mitchell, out of first Ryder Cup, and the United States team beat Britain 9 1/2 to 2 1/2.

The cup was donated by Ryder. Made of 14-karat gold on a wooden base, the trophy stands 16 inches (41 centimeters) high and weighs 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms). The figure at the top of the cup is modeled on Abe Mitchell.

The trophy was manufactured by Mappin & Webb and cost nearly £300.

The Ryder Cup on display in 2008.

The first Ryder Cup tournament had nine golfers per team. The number rose to 10 in 1929 and 12 in 1969.

When he returned from the 1967 Ryder Cup, Jack Nicklaus confessed to his wife Barbara that having to play 36 holes in one day had worn him out. He went on a diet and lost so much weight The Golden Bear had to buy a new golfing wardrobe.

 In 1973 the official title of the British Team was changed from "Great Britain" to "Great Britain and Ireland". This was simply a change of name to reflect the fact that golfers from the Republic of Ireland had been playing in the Great Britain Ryder Cup team since 1953, while Northern Irish players had competed since 1947.

In the 1977 tournament, United States beat Britain and Ireland 12½ -7½. This was the last Ryder Cup to feature a side exclusively from the British Isles.

The U.S. opponents in the next Ryder Cup, held in 1979 at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, were drawn from all of Europe. The inclusion of continental European golfers was partly prompted by the success of a new generation of Spanish golfers, led by Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido. The U.S.-Europe format has continued ever since.

German golfer Bernhard Langer at 1991 Ryder Cup

Rodeo

The rodeo is a competition of skill that arose in what today is the western United States, northern Mexico and western Canada. It was developed from the skills practiced by the Mexican ranch hands (vaqueros) and later, cowboys.

The American English word "rodeo" is taken directly from Spanish word rodeo, which roughly translates into English as "round up." It was first used in approximately 1834 to refer to a cattle round-up.

The word rodeo was only occasionally used for American cowboy sports until the 1920s, and professional cowboys themselves did not officially adopt the term until 1945. From the 1880s through the 1920s, frontier days, stampedes, and cowboy contests were the most popular names.

Rodeo contests began in the early days of the cattle industry when men gathered in cow towns at roundup time.

Following the American Civil War, rodeo competitions emerged, with the first exhibition held on July 4, 1869 in Deer Trail, Colorado. It is documented as the first organized rodeo within the country with prizes awarded. First prize was a new suit of clothing, according to a Facebook page dedicated to the event.

Many of these early rodeo events were based on the real life tasks required by cattle ranching such as branding calves,

Branding calves, 1888.

The first professional rodeo, which charged admission as well as awarding trophies was held on July 4, 1881 in Prescott, Arizona.

In 1882 a rodeo sponsored by Buffalo Bill Cody at North Platte, Nebraska, attracted 1,000 contestants. Its success prompted Cody to open his traveling Wild West show.

When cowboy/actor Slim Pickens (Blazing Saddles/Dr. Strangelove) joined the military during World War 2 he stated his profession was “rodeo”, the recruiter heard “radio” and Slim spent the entire war as a radio operator.

Professional rodeo cowboy Cody Lambert created the protective vest that most professional bull riders now wear, after seeing the death of his friend, Lane Frost at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on July 30, 1989.

After Keifer Sutherland's fiancée Julia Roberts ran away to Europe with his best friend, the actor took solace in steer roping. And despite breaking three fingers at his first rodeo he persevered to become a tournament-winning rider on the rodeo circuit.

A roadeo is a rodeo, but for motor vehicles.

Prize

Homer's Iliad, which is dated about the 9th or 8th century, describes the games which followed the funeral of Patroclus. They were a boxing match, which was followed by a bout of wrestling. The prizes in the boxing match were a sturdy mule for the winner and a two-handled mug for the runner-up. Wrestling must be more highly regarded, for the prizes on offer in that bout were  far more valuable - a tripod worth twelve oxen for first prize, and a woman, highly skilled in domestic duties, worth four oxen for the loser.

An ancient Greek tale tells the story of a dolphin who rescued the musician Arion. He had jumped into the sea to escape murderous sailors intent on stealing prize money he had won by playing the lyre.

Boucher, François, Arion on the Dolphin, 1748

During the reign of King Richard I in the late twelfth century race meetings became a favorite pastime of knights. It is known that one Whitsuntide, knights held a contest (the first formal race for a money prize) over a three-mile (4.80 km) course for a purse of £40 in "ready gold."

The first public lottery to have paid money as prizes is believed to be La Lotto de Firenze in Florence in 1530. This was such a successful enterprise that the practice quickly spread to other Italian cities.

In 1609 the Sheriff of Chester generously agreed to donate the trophy (in the form of a silver ball) for the annual race in his city. Accordingly, he asked a local craftsman to make it. On its delivery, the sheriff found it was not up to expectation. The artisan thereupon produced a second ball, but this did not please the customer either. However, the silversmith's third attempt proved satisfactory. On race day the sheriff thus had not one but three prizes. To use just one - the best - would be a waste. He therefore decided to present all three in their proper order, according to merit and value. That is how our present-day first, second, and third prizes came into existence.

Queen Anne of England originated the first horse racing sweepstake in 1714 when she stipulated that the owners of each of the 11 starters put up a fee of 10 guineas, the winner to take all. And it was only fitting that Star, her own horse, won the first cash prize ever awarded in a race.

When Napoleon was in charge of the French army of the interior, he offered a 12,000 franc prize.for a practical way of preserving food for his marching army. On hearing of this potential reward, Nicolas Appert, a French maker of conserves of fruit came up with the can, winning the reward and starting the canning industry.

Benjamin Nicolas Marie Appertt

The World's first rodeo with prizes awarded was held on July 4, 1869 in Deer Trail, Colorado. An unspecified amount of money was at stake, plus a suit of clothes donated by a Denver dry goods store.

The first Wimbledon tennis tournament in 1877 featured 21 men competing for a 25-guinea prize.

Alfred Nobel, was a Swedish chemist and millionaire, who invented dynamite and established almost 100 arms factories. In 1896, Nobel used his dynamite fortune to endow the Nobel Prizes.

French aviator Louis Blériot's flight across the English Channel on July 25, 1909, won him a £1,000 prize from the London Daily Mail which had been offered to the first person to fly across the sea that divides England and France.

The 'cakewalk' dance began in the southern USA as a competition in graceful walking, with cake awarded as a prize.

Cake walk poster 1896

Harold Macmillan's 1956 budget speech introduced premium bonds to Britain with prizes of up to £1,000.

In 1968, there were five million-dollar lottery winners who did not claim their prize.

The Templeton Prize is an annual award presented by the Templeton Foundation. Established in 1972, it is awarded to a living person who, in the estimation of the judges, "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works". The prize is named after Sir John Templeton, an American-born British entrepreneur and businessman, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987 for his philanthropic efforts.

The Templeton Prize has typically been presented by Prince Philip in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The monetary value of the prize is adjusted so that it exceeds that of the Nobel Prizes, as Templeton felt "spirituality was ignored" in the Nobel Prizes.

Bernard D'Espagnat receives prize from HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, Buckingham Palace 

At £1,200,000, as of 2015, the Templeton Prize is the second largest single annual financial prize award (behind the Fundamental Physics Prize) given to an individual by a philanthropic organization.

The inaugural winner of the Templeton Prize, in 1973, was Mother Teresa. Six years later, when Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize, she announced that she planned to give the £100,000 ($150,000) award away to build more relief centers for lepers and the destitute.

Sergey Bubka broke the pole vault world record in 1984 then kept breaking it every year after by as small an amount as possible for the prize money.

Antonio Esfandiari holds the record for the greatest prize money won in a poker tournament. A one-time professional magician, in 2012 he bagged $18.3 million (£13.8 million) in Las Vegas.

Source Europress Encyclopedia

Paralympic Games

Paralympics is the equivalent of the Olympic Games for disabled people. They are held every four years where possible in the same city or country as the Olympic Games.

The word Paralympics combines the word Para (the Greek preposition for beside or alongside) with the word Olympics because the games happen parallel to the Summer and Winter Olympics.

The Paralympics have grown from a small gathering of British World War II veterans in 1948 to become one of the largest international sport events by the early 21st century.

MILESTONES

The event was inaugurated at the Olympic Games, in Rome between September 18 - 25 September 1960. 400 athletes competed in the "Parallel Olympics", which became known as the first Paralympics.

The Games were initially open only to athletes in wheelchairs; at the 1976 Summer Games in Toronto, Canada, athletes with different disabilities were included for the first time at a Summer Paralympics.

The Soviet Union refused to host the 1980 Paralympics, stating that none of their citizens had disabilities.

It was at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, South Korea, that the Paralympic Summer Games were first held directly after the Olympic Summer Games, in the same host city, and using the same facilities. Since then, all Paralympic Games are now held in the same city that hosted the Olympics, with a two-week gap between each.

Australian flag bearer Paul Croft at the Opening Ceremony. By Australian Paralympic Committee, 

The 1992 Winter Paralympics in Tignes and Albertville, France were the first Winter Games to use the same facilities as the Winter Olympics.

Spain's basketball team was stripped of their Special Olympic gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics after it was discovered they organized a team of healthy individuals to pose as mentally handicapped.

The current Paralympic flag was first flown during the Closing Ceremony of the Athens Paralympic Games in 2004.

The Paralympic flag By Scazon - http://www.flickr.com/photos/scazon/3616974103/

The Paralympic motto is "Spirit in Motion". The motto was introduced in 2004 at the Paralympic Games in Athens. The previous motto was "Mind, Body, Spirit", introduced in 1994.

FUN FACTS

Paralympic athletes have many different kinds of disabilities, so there are several categories in which the athletes compete. The disabilities are in six broad categories: amputee, Cerebral Palsy, intellectual disability, wheelchair, visually impaired, and Les Autres (This means "The Others" in French.)

Those who are deaf, cannot participate in the Paralympics, a separate sports event called the [Deaflympics] is held to cater to them.

There are only four sports in the Paralympic Games out of the total 20 that are not part of the Olympic Games. They are goal ball, boccia, wheelchair rugby, and powerlifting.

Paralympic medals have steel balls inside them which, when shaken, makes a rattling sound that helps notify visually impaired athletes to determine between medals.

Lee Pearson, winner of ten Paralympic gold medals for dressage, is allergic to horses.

Randburgsun.co.za