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Portal:Sports

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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 competitive physical activity or game 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 one's 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. 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. 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

  • Barnes wearing his Australian cricket cap and sweater
    Barnes in cricket whites

    Sidney George Barnes (5 June 1916 – 16 December 1973) was an Australian cricketer and cricket writer, who played 13 Test matches between 1938 and 1948. Able to open the innings or bat down the order, Barnes was regarded as one of Australia's finest batsmen in the period immediately following the Second World War. He helped create an enduring record when scoring 234 in the second Test against England at Sydney in December 1946; exactly the same score as his captain, Don Bradman, in the process setting a world-record 405-run fifth wicket partnership. Barnes averaged 63.05 over 19 innings in a career that, like those of most of his contemporaries, was interrupted by the Second World War.

    He made his first-class debut at the end of the 1936–37 season when selected for New South Wales, and he was later included in the team for the 1938 Australian tour of England, making his Test debut in the final international of the series. On the resumption of Test cricket after the war, he was picked as the opening partner to Arthur Morris. Barnes was a member of The Invincibles, the 1948 Australian team that toured England without losing a single match. Retiring from cricket at the end of that tour, Barnes attempted a comeback to Test cricket in the 1951–52 season that was ultimately and controversially unsuccessful. (Full article...)
  • Toshack c. 1947

    Ernest Raymond Herbert Toshack (8 December 1914 – 11 May 2003) was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1946 to 1948. A left arm medium paced bowler known for his accuracy and stamina in the application of leg theory, Toshack was a member of Don Bradman's "Invincibles" that toured England in 1948 without being defeated. Toshack reinforced the Australian new ball attack of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller.

    Born in 1914, Toshack overcame many obstacles to reach international level cricket. He was orphaned as an infant, and his early cricket career was hindered because of financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression. The Second World War prevented Toshack from competing at first-class level until he was into his thirties. In 1945–46, the first season of cricket after the end of the War, Toshack made his debut at first-class level and after only seven matches in the Sheffield Shield he was selected for Australia's tour of New Zealand. In Wellington, he opened the bowling in a match that was retrospectively classed as an official Test match. Toshack became a regular member of the Australian team, playing in all of its Tests until the 1947–48 series against India. He took his career-best match bowling figures of 11 wickets for 31 runs (11/31) in the First Test but began to suffer recurring knee injuries, and a medical board had to approve his selection for the 1948 England tour. Toshack played in the first four Tests before being injured. After a long convalescence, he attempted a comeback during Australia's 1949–50 season, but further injury forced him to retire. He was a parsimonious bowler, who was popular with crowds for his sense of humour. (Full article...)
  • Loxton in about 1948

    Sam Loxton was a member of Donald Bradman's famous Australian cricket team, which toured England in 1948. Bradman's men went undefeated in their 34 matches; this unprecedented feat by a Test side touring England earned them the sobriquet The Invincibles.

    A batting all rounder, Loxton played as a right-handed middle-order batsman and a right-arm fast medium bowler who reinforced the frontline pace attack of Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller and Bill Johnston. Starting the tour as a fringe player, Loxton was omitted for the pre-Test fixtures against Worcestershire and the Marylebone Cricket Club, where Australia traditionally fielded their full-strength team. He was overlooked for the first two Tests; reserve opening batsman Bill Brown played out of position in the middle-order. However, Brown struggled in the unfamiliar role, and Loxton scored 159 not out against Gloucestershire to oust the former from his position for the Third Test at Old Trafford. Loxton scored 36 to help Australia avoid the follow on and salvage a draw, before making his most notable contribution in the Fourth Test at Headingley. He took 3/55 in the first innings and scored a counter-attacking 93 on the third day to keep Australia in the game; they went on to win after a world record-breaking run-chase on the final day. Loxton also played in the Fifth Test and ended the series with 144 runs at a batting average of 48.00 and three wickets at a bowling average of 49.33. (Full article...)
  • Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, the club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football. Chelsea are among England's most successful clubs, having won over thirty competitive honours, including six league titles and eight European trophies. Their home ground is Stamford Bridge.

    Chelsea won their first major honour, the League championship, in 1955. The club won the FA Cup for the first time in 1970 and their first European honour, the Cup Winners' Cup, in 1971. After a period of decline in the late 1970s and 1980s, the club enjoyed a revival in the 1990s and had more success in cup competitions. The past two decades have been the most successful in Chelsea's history: they have won five Premier League titles, two UEFA Champions League titles and two UEFA Europa League titles during this period. Chelsea are one of five clubs to have won all three of UEFA's main club competitions, the first English club to achieve the UEFA treble, the only London club to have won the Champions League and the only club to have won all three major European competitions twice. (Full article...)
  • Morgan in 1958

    Sandra Anne Morgan (born 6 June 1942), also known by her married name Sandra Beavis, or as Sandra Morgan-Beavis, is an Australian former freestyle swimmer who was part of the gold medal-winning team in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. At the age of 14 years and 6 months, she became the youngest Australian to win an Olympic gold medal, a record that still stands.

    Morgan began serious training in early 1956 and won Olympic selection for the relay team as well as the 400-metre freestyle. Morgan's selection in the final quartet raised controversy because of her inexperience in top-level racing and her history of false starts. During the final, she lifted her head out of the water and saw her American opponent ahead of her, prompting her to regain the lead with a late burst in the third leg. Australia went on to win the relay in world record time. In her only individual event, Morgan came sixth in the 400-metre freestyle. (Full article...)
  • A small 1960s-era airport terminal
    Okęcie Airport's 1960s terminal buildings, the site of the incident's climax (2003 photograph)


    The Okęcie Airport incident (Polish: Afera na Okęciu) was a dispute between players and technical staff of the Poland national football team on 29 November 1980, starting at the team hotel in Warsaw and climaxing at Okęcie Airport. As an incident of insubordination, when strikes and other forms of civil resistance were intensifying in communist Poland, it caused a domestic press storm, and led to the suspension of several prominent players and the resignation of Ryszard Kulesza, the team manager.

    Józef Młynarczyk, the team's goalkeeper, was hung over when the time came to leave the hotel for the airport, having not slept following a night on the town with a friend. Kulesza and one of his assistants, Bernard Blaut, decided to leave Młynarczyk behind, much to the indignation of some of the players, including Stanisław Terlecki, Zbigniew Boniek, Włodzimierz Smolarek, and Władysław Żmuda. Terlecki, a stridently pro-Western intellectual with a reputation for mocking the communist establishment, was particularly angered, and drove Młynarczyk to the airport himself, where the players continued their protests. Kulesza eventually relented and allowed Młynarczyk to travel with the team. (Full article...)
  • Men's race winner's trophy

    The 2016 Boat Races (also known as The Cancer Research UK Boat Races for the purposes of sponsorship) took place on 27 March 2016. Held annually, The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge along a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) tidal stretch of the River Thames in south-west London. For the first time in the history of the event, the men's, women's and both reserves' races were all held on the Tideway on the same day.

    Trials for the race took place on the Championship Course in December 2015, and the selected crews took part in several practice races in the build-up to the main event. The weigh-in for the men's and women's races took place on 1 March 2016 with both Cambridge's men and women the heavier crews. Pre-race betting on the men's and women's event had Cambridge's men and Oxford's women as favourites to win. (Full article...)
  • 1968 game program cover, depicting a Jets helmet during their AFL years. From the Heidi Game on November 17, 1968.


    The history of the New York Jets American football team began in 1959 with the founding of the Titans of New York, an original member of the American Football League (AFL); they began actual play the following year. The team had little success in its early years. After playing three seasons at the Polo Grounds, the team changed its name to the New York Jets, and moved into newly built Shea Stadium in 1964. In January 1965, the Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath to a then-record contract. The team showed gradual improvement in the late 1960s, posting its first winning record in 1967 and winning its only American Football League championship in 1968. By winning the title, New York earned the right to play in Super Bowl III against the champions of the National Football League (NFL), the Baltimore Colts. The Jets defeated the Colts in the game; in the aftermath of the upset, the AFL was deemed a worthy partner to the NFL as the two leagues merged.

    Following the merger, the Jets fell into mediocrity; Namath was dogged by injuries through much of his later career. In 1981, New York qualified for the playoffs for the first time in the post-Namath era. They reached the AFC Championship Game in 1982; they were defeated on a rain-soaked Orange Bowl field by the Miami Dolphins. Beginning with the 1984 season, the team played in New Jersey's Giants Stadium. The team started the 1986 season with a 10–1 record, but the injury-plagued Jets lost their last five regular season games and relinquished a ten-point fourth quarter lead to lose in double overtime to the Cleveland Browns in the playoffs. (Full article...)
  • Constantine in Australia in November 1930

    Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, Kt, MBE (21 September 1901 – 1 July 1971) was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black peer. He played 18 Test matches before the Second World War and took the West Indies' first wicket in Test cricket. An advocate against racial discrimination, in later life he was influential in the passing of the 1965 Race Relations Act in Britain. He was knighted in 1962 and made a life peer in 1969.

    Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Constantine established an early reputation as a promising cricketer, and was a member of the West Indies teams that toured England in 1923 and 1928. Unhappy at the lack of opportunities for black people in Trinidad and Tobago, he decided to pursue a career as a professional cricketer in England, and during the 1928 tour was awarded a contract with the Lancashire League club Nelson. He played for the club with distinction between 1929 and 1938, while continuing as a member of the West Indies Test team in tours of England and Australia. Although his record as a Test cricketer was less impressive than in other cricket, he helped to establish a uniquely West Indian style of play. He was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1939. (Full article...)

  • Douglas Robert Jardine (23 October 1900 – 18 June 1958) was a cricketer who played 22 Test matches for England, captaining the side in 15 of those matches between 1931 and 1934. A right-handed batsman, he is best known for captaining the English team during the 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. During that series, England employed "Bodyline" tactics against the Australian batsmen, headed by Donald Bradman, wherein bowlers pitched the ball short on the line of leg stump to rise towards the bodies of the batsmen in a manner that most contemporary players and critics viewed as intimidatory and physically dangerous. Jardine was the person responsible for the implementation of Bodyline.

    A controversial figure among cricketers, he was well known for his dislike of Australian players and crowds and was unpopular in Australia, particularly for what was perceived to be an arrogant manner, and especially after the Bodyline tour. Many who played under his leadership regarded him as an excellent and dedicated captain; not all regarded him as good at managing people. He was also famous in cricket circles for wearing a multi-coloured Harlequin cap. (Full article...)
  • The football match between Bayern Munich and Norwich City was played at the Olympiastadion, Munich, on 19 October 1993 as part of the second round of the 1993–94 UEFA Cup and finished in a 2–1 victory for the English side. Jeremy Goss and Mark Bowen scored for Norwich and Christian Nerlinger replied for Bayern; all three goals were scored in the first half. The opening goal by Goss, a volley from outside the area, is considered the greatest goal in Norwich's history, and the victory the pinnacle of the club's history.

    Norwich had qualified for this season's UEFA Cup after finishing third in the inaugural Premier League season, while Bayern had ended their previous campaign in the 1992–93 Bundesliga in second place. This was Norwich's third competitive match in European football, having defeated SBV Vitesse 3–0 on aggregate in the first round. In contrast, Bayern Munich were playing their 185th European cup tie and had progressed to the second round with a 7–3 aggregate victory over FC Twente. (Full article...)
  • Photograph showing the head and shoulders of a man in a suit and tie
    Bohr in 1922

    Niels Henrik David Bohr (Danish: [ˈne̝ls ˈpoɐ̯ˀ]; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research.

    Bohr developed the Bohr model of the atom, in which he proposed that energy levels of electrons are discrete and that the electrons revolve in stable orbits around the atomic nucleus but can jump from one energy level (or orbit) to another. Although the Bohr model has been supplanted by other models, its underlying principles remain valid. He conceived the principle of complementarity: that items could be separately analysed in terms of contradictory properties, like behaving as a wave or a stream of particles. The notion of complementarity dominated Bohr's thinking in both science and philosophy. (Full article...)
  • German national team in 2012


    The Germany women's national football team (German: Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft der Frauen) represents Germany in international women's football. The team is governed by the German Football Association (DFB).

    The German national team is one of the most successful in women's football. They are two-time world champions, having won the 2003 and 2007 tournaments. Germany is also the only nation to have won both the women's and men's tournament. The team has won eight of the twelve UEFA European Championships, claiming six consecutive titles between 1995 and 2013. They, alongside with the Netherlands, are one of the two nations that have won both the women's and men's European tournament . Germany has won Olympic gold in 2016, after three consecutive bronze medals at the Women's Olympic Football Tournament, finishing third in 2000, 2004 and 2008. Birgit Prinz holds the record for most appearances and is the team's all-time leading goalscorer. Prinz has also set international records; she has received the FIFA World Player of the Year award three times and is the joint second overall top goalscorer at the Women's World Cup. (Full article...)
  • View of the pitch from the stands at Cardiff City Stadium during a late-afternoon game in January
    The Cardiff City Stadium, Wales's current venue for home matches

    The Wales national football team represents Wales in international association football. The team played their first match in March 1876 against Scotland before hosting their first home match the following year against the same opponent. The location selected for the fixture was the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, the world's oldest international football ground still in use. The ground hosted all of Wales's matches until 1890, when a game was played against Ireland in the English border town of Shrewsbury. Wales played matches in several parts of the country, including Bangor, Cardiff, and Swansea over the following two decades.

    The advent of professionalism in Welsh club sides saw the construction of several purpose-built football grounds. Two, Ninian Park in Cardiff, which hosted its first international in 1911, and Vetch Field in Swansea, which hosted its first in 1921, shared Wales's home matches with the Racecourse for nearly a century. Although one match was moved to Anfield in Liverpool in 1977 as a result of crowd trouble, no other venue would host a Wales home international fixture between 1910 and 1989 (when the team began playing at the National Stadium in Cardiff). Construction of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was completed in 2000, and it was immediately named as the side's new home ground. Although attendance was initially high at the Millennium, a gradual drop saw the team play matches in several newly built grounds (including the Cardiff City Stadium and the Liberty Stadium). The former was popular, and was credited as a factor in the team's improvement; it was subsequently designated Wales's permanent home venue. (Full article...)

Selected pictures

Did you know...

A golf ball next to a hole
More trivia

Selected athlete

Wilt Chamberlain in a Harlem Globetrotters uniform
Wilt Chamberlain in a Harlem Globetrotters uniform
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain (August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American basketball player. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA; he played for the University of Kansas and also for the Harlem Globetrotters before playing in the NBA.

The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain weighed 250 pounds as a rookie before bulking up to 275 and eventually to over 300 pounds with the Lakers. He played the center position and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history.

Chamberlain holds numerous NBA all-time records in scoring, rebounding and durability categories. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He also won seven scoring, nine field goal percentage, and eleven rebounding titles, and once even led the league in assists. Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points per game and 20 rebounds in a season, a feat he accomplished nine times. He is also the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career.

Chamberlain had a successful career, winning two NBA championships, earning four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and being selected to several all star teams. He was inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History of 1996.

After his basketball career ended, Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association, was president of this organization, and is enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame for his contributions. Chamberlain also was a successful businessman, authored several books, and appeared in the movie Conan the Destroyer. He was a lifelong bachelor, and became notorious for his claim to have had sex with over 20,000 women. (Full article...)

Selected team

Four members of the Portland Trail Blazers
Four members of the Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers, commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Trail Blazers originally played their home games in the Memorial Coliseum, before moving to the Rose Garden in 1995.

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

Opening ceremonies of the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics

Selected quote

Muhammad Ali in 1967
Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.     

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