A trophy is a reward for a specific achievement, and serves as recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are most often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics. In many sports medals are often given out either instead of or along with trophies.

Originally the word trophy, derived from the Greek tropaion, referred to arms, standards, other property, or human captives and body parts (e.g. headhunting) captured in battle. These war trophies commemorated the military victories of a state, army or individual combatant. In modern warfare trophy taking is discouraged, but this sense of the word is reflected in hunting trophies and human trophy collecting by serial killers.

Trophies have marked victories since ancient times. The word trophy coined in English in 1550, was derived from the French trophée in 1513, "a prize of war", from Old French trophee, from Latin trophaeum, monument to victory, variant of tropaeum, which in turn is the latinisation of the Greek τρόπαιον (tropaion), the neuter of τροπαῖος (tropaios), "of defeat" or "for defeat", but generally "of a turning" or "of a change", from τροπή (tropē), "a turn, a change" and that from the verb τρέπω (trepo), "to turn, to alter".

Sven Nys (born 17 June 1976 in Bonheiden, near Antwerp, Belgium) is a professional cyclist who has won his most important victories in cyclo-cross races.

Nys began racing BMX at the age of 8. He won eight BMX National titles before switching his focus to cyclocross and road racing.

In 2005 he became the first cyclo-crosser to achieve the Grand Slam: he won both championships, ended as #1 at the UCI Rankings and won the Superprestige and the GvA Trophy.

In only his second race as a mountain bike racer he won the Belgian Championships and he ended ninth at the Olympic Games in 2008, ahead of the more experienced Belgian competitors.

On 31 December 2006, Nys scored his 150th career win at Superprestige #6 Diegem, Belgium – C1 and went on to win the first race of 2007, the race named after him, the Grand Prix Sven Nys. 4 years later, Nys scored his 300th career win at the Koppenbergcross, one of the toughest races in the season.

Nys is considered one of the greatest cyclo-cross racers ever by his peers and prominent figures of the cyclo-cross world; and the leading man in cyclo-cross in the 21st century.

Trophy wife is an expression used to refer to a wife, usually young and attractive, who is regarded as a status symbol for the husband, who is often older and wealthy.

The use of the term also usually reflects negatively on the character or personality of the husband, and has a connotation of narcissism and desire to impress others, and that the husband would not be able to attract the sexual interest of the attractive woman but for his wealth or position.

The term's etymological origins are disputed. One claim is that trophy wife originally appeared in a 1950 issue of The Economist magazine^{[citation needed]}, referring to the historical practice of warriors capturing the most beautiful women during battle to bring home as wives.William Safire claimed that the term trophy wife was coined by Julie Connelly, a senior editor of Fortune magazine, in a cover story in the issue of Aug. 28, 1989 and immediately entered common usage.^{[citation needed]} Many sources claim the term was coined earlier (for example, the Online Etymology Dictionary cites 1984) but easy online access to William Safire's article about the term has led many (such as Oxford English Dictionary) to believe that August 28, 1989 was its first use.

Peter Berg (born March 11, 1962) is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is known for directing films such as Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, The Rundown, Hancock and Battleship. He also developed the television series Friday Night Lights, which was adapted from the film he directed. As an actor he is best known for his role as Dr. Billy Kronk on the CBS medical drama Chicago Hope.

Berg was born in New York City, New York. He is the son of Sally and Laurence "Larry" Berg. Berg's father was Jewish and his mother Christian. He is the cousin of writer H. G. Bissinger, whose book Friday Night Lights provides the basis for the film and TV series of the same name. His mother co-founded a youth group named Catalog for Giving and worked at a psychiatric hospital when Berg was growing up. He has a younger sister, Mary. After graduating high school from The Taft School in 1980, Berg attended Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he majored in theater arts and theater history. He graduated in 1984, and in 1985 moved to Los Angeles to pursue his film career.

Yuzuru Hanyū (羽生 結弦, Hanyū Yuzuru^?) (born December 7, 1994 in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan) is a Japanese figure skater. He is the 2012 World bronze medalist, the 2010 World Junior Champion, the 2011 Four Continents silver medalist, the 2009-10 Junior Grand Prix Final Champion and a two-time Japanese junior national champion.

Hanyu began skating at the age of four. He first competed nationally as a novice skater in the 2004-05 season; he skated at the 2004 Japan Novice Championships in the Novice B category, which is the lower of the two categories at the novice level, and won the gold medal in this competition. In the 2006-07 season, Hanyu competed at the 2006 Japan Novice Championships in the Novice A category and won the bronze medal. This placement earned him an invitation to compete at the 2006 Japan Junior Championships, where he placed 7th.

Hanyu competed at the 2007 Japan Novice Championships in the Novice A category and won the event. He was invited to compete in the 2007 Japan Junior Championships, where he won the bronze medal.