The Sports Portal
Sport is a form of physical activity or game. Often competitive and organized, sports use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills. They also provide enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Many sports exist, with different participant numbers, some are done by a single person with others being done by hundreds. Most sports take place either in teams or competing as individuals. Some sports allow a "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide tie-breaking methods to ensure one winner. A number of contests may be arranged in a tournament format, producing a champion. Many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season, followed in some cases by playoffs.
Sport is generally recognised as system of activities based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with major competitions admitting only sports meeting this definition. Some organisations, such as the Council of Europe, preclude activities without any physical element from classification as sports. However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee who oversee the Olympic Games recognises both chess and bridge as sports. SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports: bridge, chess, draughts, Go and xiangqi. However, they limit the number of mind games which can be admitted as sports. Sport is usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition. Winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first. It can also be determined by judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression. (Full article...)
Selected articles
-
The 1998 Football League First Division play-off Final was an association football match played on 25 May 1998 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Charlton Athletic and Sunderland. The match was to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the Football League First Division, the second tier of English football, to the Premier League for the 1998–99 season. The top two teams of the 1997–98 Football League First Division season gained automatic promotion, and the teams placed from third to sixth place in the table took part in play-off semi-finals; Sunderland had ended the season in third position and Charlton had finished fourth. The clubs won their semi-finals and competed for the final promotion place. Winning the game was estimated to be worth up to twenty million pounds to the successful team.
The match was played in front of almost 78,000 spectators and was refereed by Eddie Wolstenholme. Clive Mendonca opened the scoring for Charlton midway through the first half, before Niall Quinn equalised early in the second. Kevin Phillips then scored his 35th goal of the season to put Sunderland ahead but Mendonca doubled his own tally with fewer than twenty minutes remaining. Quinn restored Sunderland's lead two minutes later, before a Richard Rufus header for Charlton five minutes from the end of regular time made the score 3–3, and sent the game into extra time. Nicky Summerbee then gave Sunderland the lead for the third time before Mendonca completed his hat-trick, the first player to do so in a play-off final. Extra time ended 4–4, so the game was determined by a penalty shootout. Both teams scored their first five spot-kicks before the shootout moved to 'sudden death'. Michael Gray stepped forward to take Sunderland's seventh penalty, but his weak strike was saved by the Charlton goalkeeper Saša Ilić and Charlton won 7–6 on penalties. (Full article...) -
The Grey Cup (French: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners of the CFL's East and West Divisional playoffs and is one of Canadian television's largest annual sporting events. The Toronto Argonauts have the most Grey Cup wins (18) since its introduction in 1909, while the Edmonton Elks (formerly the Edmonton Eskimos) have the most Grey Cup wins (11) since the merger in 1958. The latest, the 110th Grey Cup, took place in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 19, 2023, when the Montreal Alouettes defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28–24.
The Grey Cup game is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 4 million. Two awards are given for play in the game: the Most Valuable Player and the Dick Suderman Trophy as most valuable Canadian player. Then a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Andrew Harris was the first player to win both the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian and Most Valuable Player the same year, which he did in 2019. (Full article...) -
Gabriëlla Maria "Manon" Melis (Dutch pronunciation: [ɣaːbriˈjɛlaː maːˈrijaː maːˈnɔn ˈmeːlɪs]; born 31 August 1986) is a Dutch manager of women's football development at Feyenoord and a former professional footballer who played as a forward. She spent most of her professional career playing in the Swedish league Damallsvenskan, which she won three times with her club LdB FC Malmö, in 2010, 2011, and 2013. Melis also won the Swedish Supercup with Malmö in 2011, and was briefly with the Swedish teams Linköping and Göteborg. She was the Damallsvenskan top scorer three times, in 2008, 2010, and 2011. In 2016, she moved to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in the US, playing for Seattle Reign for one season, before retiring from professional football.
At age 17, Melis made her debut for the Netherlands national team in 2004. Her scoring helped the Dutch qualify for their first major tournament, the UEFA Women's Euro 2009, where they reached the semi-finals. In the tournament, she scored a crucial goal in the final group game against Denmark to send her team into the knockout stage. At Euro 2013 in Sweden and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada, she played all seven combined matches for her country but did not score. When she retired from playing international football in 2016, she had earned 136 caps and scored 59 goals. She was the all-time top goal scorer for the Netherlands national team from 2010 to 2019. (Full article...) -
Rogers Hornsby (April 27, 1896 – January 5, 1963), nicknamed "the Rajah", was an American baseball infielder, manager, and coach who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1915–1926, 1933), New York Giants (1927), Boston Braves (1928), Chicago Cubs (1929–1932), and St. Louis Browns (1933–1937). He was named the National League (NL)'s Most Valuable Player (MVP) twice, and was a member of one World Series championship team.
Born in Winters, Texas, and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, Hornsby played for several semi-professional and minor league teams. In 1915, he began his major league career with the St. Louis Cardinals and remained with the team for 12 seasons. During this period, Hornsby won his first MVP Award and the Cardinals won the 1926 World Series. After that season, he spent one season with the New York Giants and another with the Boston Braves before being traded to the Chicago Cubs. He played with the Cubs for four years and won his second MVP Award before the team released him in 1932. Hornsby re-signed with the Cardinals in 1933, but was released partway through the season, effectively ending his career as a full-time player. He was picked up by the St. Louis Browns and remained there until his final season in 1937, though he made only 67 appearances for them as a player. From 1925 to 1937, Hornsby was intermittently a player-manager. After retiring as a player, he managed the Browns in 1952 and the Cincinnati Reds from 1952 to 1953. (Full article...) -
William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career. Russell is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
At the University of San Francisco, Russell led the San Francisco Dons to consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956. He was named NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, and captained the gold medal-winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics. (Full article...) -
Associazione Calcio Monza (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmontsa] ⓘ; "Monza Football Association") is a professional football club based in Monza, Lombardy, Italy. The team plays in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football, following promotion in the 2021–22 Serie B season.
The club was founded in 1912 as Monza FBC and on multiple occasions in the 1970s came close to promotion to the Serie A. At times during the first two decades of the 21st century, they faced financial issues; they were declared bankrupt twice, in 2004 and 2015. Following Silvio Berlusconi's 2018 takeover of the club, Monza returned to the Serie B in 2020 after a 19-year absence and reached promotion to Serie A for the first time in 2022. Before their promotion, no Italian team had played more Serie B seasons (40) without playing in the Serie A. Monza have won the Coppa Italia Serie C a record four times, the Serie C championship four times, and an Anglo-Italian Cup. (Full article...) -
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...) -
Sir Donald George Bradman AC (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane Warne, among others, to make Bradman the "greatest sportsperson" in history. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 is considered by some to be the greatest achievement by any sportsman in any major sport.
Although Bradman reportedly disliked fame, his iconic status made him one of Australia's best-known personalities and arguably the country's "first celebrity". (Full article...) -
The 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Kansas Jayhawks on January 3, 2008, at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Spread bettors favored Virginia Tech by three points, but in a game dominated by defensive and special teams play, Kansas defeated Virginia Tech 24–21. The game was part of the 2007–08 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) of the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season and was the concluding game of the season for both teams. This 74th edition of the Orange Bowl was televised in the United States on Fox and was watched by more than eight million viewers.
The game between the fifth-ranked ACC champion Virginia Tech Hokies and the eighth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks from the Big 12 Conference (Big 12) was played at neutral-site Dolphins Stadium. Tech served as the home team in the contest. Virginia Tech automatically qualified for the Orange Bowl by virtue of the ACC's tie-in with the bowl, while the Orange Bowl selected Kansas over West Virginia, which had been upset by then 4–7 Pittsburgh, and conference rival Missouri. Two weeks after Kansas's selection, controversy erupted when a deal was revealed to put 4th-ranked Oklahoma against Virginia Tech. The deal was vetoed by BCS commissioners, and the selection of Kansas was upheld. (Full article...) -
Siegfried "Sigi" Schmid (German: [ˈziːkfʀiːt ˈziːɡiː ʃmiːt]; March 20, 1953 – December 25, 2018) was a German soccer coach. He has the record of most wins in the history of Major League Soccer (MLS).
Born in Tübingen, West Germany, he moved to the United States with his family when he was a child. He played college soccer from 1972 to 1975 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was a starting midfielder. He coached his former college team, the UCLA Bruins from 1980 to 1999. During that period, he became one of the most successful collegiate coaches of all time, leading the Bruins to a record of 322–63–33 (wins–losses–draws). The team made 16 consecutive playoff appearances from 1983 to 1998, winning the national championship in 1985, 1990, and 1997. Schmid also worked with U.S. Soccer throughout the 1990s. (Full article...) -
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death in 1830. At the time of his accession to the throne, he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III, having done so since 5 February 1811 during his father's final mental illness.
George IV was the eldest child of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He led an extravagant lifestyle that contributed to the fashions of the Regency era. He was a patron of new forms of leisure, style and taste. He commissioned John Nash to build the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and remodel Buckingham Palace, and commissioned Jeffry Wyatville to rebuild Windsor Castle. George's charm and culture earned him the title "the first gentleman of England", but his dissolute way of life and poor relationships with his parents and his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, earned him the contempt of the people and dimmed the prestige of the monarchy. He excluded Caroline from his coronation and asked the government to introduce the unpopular Pains and Penalties Bill in an unsuccessful attempt to divorce her. (Full article...) -
The 1995 Pacific Grand Prix (formally the II Pacific Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 22 October 1995 at the TI Circuit, Aida, Japan. It was the fifteenth round of the 1995 Formula One World Championship. Michael Schumacher for the Benetton team won the 83-lap race starting from third position. David Coulthard, who started the Grand Prix from pole position, finished second in a Williams car, with Damon Hill third in the other Williams. Schumacher's win confirmed him as 1995 Drivers' Champion, as Hill could not pass Schumacher's points total with only two races remaining. This was also the last race for Jean-Christophe Boullion.
Hill started the race alongside Coulthard on the front row, amidst pressure from the British media for not being "forceful" enough in battles. Schumacher attempted to drive around the outside of Hill at the first corner, but Hill held Schumacher off as Jean Alesi, driving for Ferrari, got past both on the inside line to take second position. As a result, Hill dropped down to third and Schumacher dropped down to fifth behind Gerhard Berger. Schumacher then managed to get past Alesi and Hill during the first of three pit stops. This allowed him, on a new set of slick tyres, to close on Coulthard who was on a two-stop strategy. Schumacher opened up a gap of 21 seconds by lapping two seconds faster per lap than Coulthard, so that when his third stop came, he still led the race. (Full article...) -
John Spencer (18 September 1935 – 11 July 2006) was an English professional snooker player. One of the most dominant players of the 1970s, he won the World Snooker Championship three times, in 1969, 1971 and 1977. He worked as a snooker commentator for the BBC from 1978 to 1998, and served for 25 years on the board of the sport's governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), including a stint as chairman from 1990 until his retirement from the board in 1996.
Born in Radcliffe, Lancashire, Spencer started playing snooker on a full-sized table at age 14 and compiled his first century break aged 15. He was conscripted for National Service at age 18, and lost interest in playing snooker for over ten years before taking it up again in 1964. He reached the final of the English Amateur Championship for three years in a row, claiming the title at his third attempt in 1966. He turned professional in 1967—the same year as his amateur rivals Gary Owen and Ray Reardon—and won the world title as a debutant at the 1969 World Snooker Championship, which was staged as a knockout tournament for the first time since 1957, following a series of challenge matches from 1964 to 1968. Spencer defeated Owen 37–24 in the final to become the first World Champion of snooker's modern era. His title defence in 1970 ended with a 33–37 loss in the semi-finals to Reardon, the eventual winner. (Full article...) -
Tyler Wayne Skaggs (July 13, 1991 – July 1, 2019) was an American left-handed professional baseball starting pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Angels from 2012 until his death in 2019.
A native of Woodland Hills, California, and a graduate of Santa Monica High School, Skaggs was a supplemental first-round selection for the Angels in the 2009 Major League Baseball draft. He was traded to the Diamondbacks the following year as part of an exchange for pitcher Dan Haren and rose through Arizona's farm system. After two consecutive appearances at the All-Star Futures Game in 2011 and 2012, Skaggs made his major league debut on August 22, 2012, against the Miami Marlins. He remained with the Diamondbacks through the end of the season, but was optioned to the minor leagues in 2013. (Full article...) -
Anna Christine Wilson (born July 12, 1997) is an American former college basketball player for the Stanford Cardinal of the Pac-12 Conference. As a guard, she holds the team record for most games played over a career with 160, the fourth-most in the history of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). At the 2014 FIBA Under-17 World Championship for Women, she won a gold medal as a part of Team USA. She played three seasons of high school basketball for Collegiate School, where she set the team record for career assists with 246 and had the fifth-most points in team history with 735. Moving to play as a senior for the Bellevue High School Wolverines, her team finished the year with an undefeated season and won the 2016 Class 3A girls state championship. She was named to the McDonald's All-American Game, an all-star girls' basketball game composed of many top-ranked American and Canadian high school basketball graduating seniors.
At Stanford, Wilson played primarily a bench role until her fifth-year senior season. As a fifth-year senior, she started every game, was named the Pac-12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year and made the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team, and won the 2021 NCAA Division I national championship with the Cardinal. She finished her career with Stanford in 2022 after six seasons, and again made the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team. After college, Wilson declared for the 2022 WNBA draft, where she went unselected. Her brother Russell is a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League who won Super Bowl XLVIII with the Seattle Seahawks. (Full article...)
Selected pictures
-
Photograph: John Sherwell, Australian Paralympic CommitteeMaddison Elliott (b. 1998) is an Australian swimmer. She is S8 classified, having right side cerebral palsy as a result of a neonatal stroke. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, she became the youngest Australian Paralympic medallist by winning bronze medals in the women's 400 m and 100 m freestyle S8 events. She then became the youngest Australian gold medallist when she was a member of the women's 4×100 m freestyle relay 34 points team. -
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. -
Photograph: Аркадий ЗарубинBalzhinima Tsyrempilov is a World Cup-winning and former world number-one archer from Russia. He has competed in both the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, though he has not medalled. -
Photo: National Photo Company; restoration: Lise Broer; crop: jjronTy Cobb (1886–1961), shown here sliding into third base on August 16, 1924, was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder. He spent twenty-two seasons with the Detroit Tigers, including six as the team's player-manager, and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. During this time Cobb set ninety MLB records, though his abilities were sometimes overshadowed by his surly temperament and aggressive playing style. In 1936 Cobb was made an inaugural member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and in 1999 editors at the Sporting News ranked him third on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". -
Restoration: Lise BroerA late 1930s Federal Art Project poster advertising the bobsled track in Lake Placid, New York, United States, which had been used in the 1932 Winter Olympics. The village is located in the Adirondack Mountains and is known as a tourist destination for winter sports, mountain climbing, and golf. It is one of the three places to have twice hosted the Winter Olympic Games and the first location in North America to host two Olympic games. -
Credit: KuebiMara Friton in a handball match in the German Handball-Bundesliga. -
Olympic women's cycling winners, 2012Photograph: David IliffThe leaders of the women's road race, one of the cycling events at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, on 29 July 2012. The eventual medallists (left to right: Lizzie Armitstead (silver), Marianne Vos (gold) and Olga Zabelinskaya (bronze)) were photographed approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the finish line. -
Photograph credit: Matteo BramaAlessandro 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. -
Photograph credit: Koen Suyk; restored by Adam CuerdenCynthia Woodhead (born February 7, 1964) is an American former competitive swimmer, world champion, Olympic medalist, and former world-record holder. At the age of fourteen, she won three gold medals at the 1978 World Aquatics Championships, and set seven world records during her career. -
Credit: Ralf RoletschekMartin Sesaker representing Norway in curling at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics. -
Photo: Fir0002A man engaged in waterskiing, a sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation on a body of water, skimming the surface. Waterskiing is a relatively young sport, having been invented in the early 20th century. The skis this person is wearing are specialized for ski jumping. -
Photograph: Pierre-SelimWheelchair basketball is basketball played by people in wheelchairs and is considered one of the major disabled sports practiced. Depicted here is a game from the first round of the 2012 Euroleague tournament, showing players from Toulouse (in red) and Roma (in white). -
Photograph credit: Carlos DelgadoRichèl Hogenkamp (born 16 April 1992) is a professional tennis player from the Netherlands. Her highest WTA singles ranking is 94, which she reached on 24 July 2017. On the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, she has won 16 singles and 14 doubles titles. This photograph depicts Hogenkamp competing at the 2015 Madrid Open. -
-
Credit: ChePriit Narusk in the qualification for the Tour de Ski cross-country skiing competition in Prague. -
Credit: Fernando FrazãoThe balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus, as well as the event performed using the apparatus. Pictured is Daniele Hypólito in the final of the women's artistic gymnastics competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where Brazil finished in 8th place. -
Photo: Pavel.ryclTony Estanguet (b. 1978) is a French slalom canoeist who has competed since the mid-1990s. Before announcing his retirement, he competed in four Olympic Games and, with his win at the 2012 London Games, became the first French Olympian to win three gold medals in the same Olympic discipline. -
Credit: Fir0002Horses race on grass at the 2006 Tambo Valley Races in Swifts Creek, Victoria, Australia. Horseracing is the third most popular spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian rules football and rugby league, with almost 2 million admissions to the 379 racecourses throughout Australia in 2002–03. -
Credit: PierreSelim -
Joe Oakley (right), being penalised by the official (centre) for "dabbing" his foot on the ground during a mountain bike trials competition. Trials riding is a mountain biking discipline in which the rider attempts to pass through an obstacle course without setting foot to ground. Originating in Catalonia, it is popular within Europe and has a small following worldwide. -
Photograph credit: Rodney EeThe pacu jawi is a traditional bull race in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia. In the race, a jockey stands holding on to a pair of loosely tied bulls while the bulls run across a muddy track in a rice field. Recently, it has become a tourist attraction supported by the government, and the subject of multiple award-winning photographs. Dramatic high-speed action, mud splashing, and the jockeys' distinctive facial expressions add to its aesthetic value. -
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. -
Photo: Keith AllisonPanamanian baseball pitcher Mariano Rivera has spent his entire 16-year Major League Baseball career with the New York Yankees. An 11-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, Rivera has accumulated 559 saves, the second-most in MLB history, and he holds Major League postseason records for saves and earned run average, among other records. -
Photograph: Georges Scott; Restoration: Adam CuerdenAn 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.
Did you know...
- ...that in 1962, the Mount Washington Lacrosse Club was forced to win an overtime game for a second time because a sudden death goal was scored during a television timeout?
- ...that Ruth Riley, an all-star center in the Women's National Basketball Association, also wrote a children's book?
- ...that Australian swimmer Fanny Durack was considered to be the world's greatest female swimmer from 1910 until 1918?
- ...that Italo Santelli (pictured, left) is widely considered to be the "father of modern sabre fencing"?
- ...that Lee McClung, a College Football Hall of Famer, also served as Treasurer of the United States, advocating the withdrawal of worn, dirty banknotes on sanitary grounds?
Selected quote
Selected athlete
Rhonda Sing as Bertha Faye
After training with Mildred Burke, she wrestled in Japan under the name Monster Ripper. Although she found adjusting to the Japanese culture difficult, Sing held All Japan Women's title on two occasions and was the first Calgary born wrestler to gain success in Japan. In 1987, she returned to Canada and began working with Stampede Wrestling, where she was rebranded Rhonda Singh. During 1987, she was named their first Women's Champion. She held the title until September 22, 1988, when she lost to Chigusa Nagayo. Over the next few years, Sing once again traveled throughout the world and wrestled for a number of companies, holding several titles. Between 1987 and 1990, Sing worked in Puerto Rico for the World Wrestling Council (WWC), where she held the WWC Women's Championship on five separate occasions by defeating Wendi Richter, Candi Devine, and Sasha in matches for the title.
In 1995, Sing was contacted by the World Wrestling Federation to help their fledgling women's division. She, however, was repackaged as Bertha Faye, a comedic character who lived in a trailer park and dated Harvey Wippleman. Sing made her WWF debut on the April 3, 1995 episode of Monday Night Raw participating in a sneak attack on Alundra Blayze, making it appear as if Blayze's nose had been broken. At SummerSlam, Faye defeated Blayze for the WWF Women's Championship and held the title until the October 23, 1995 airing of Monday Night Raw, where Blayze regained the title. In late 1999, she worked with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) briefly, appearing on several telecasts to help generate interest in a women's division. She was also a contender for both the WCW Cruiserweight Championship and WCW Hardcore Championship. In addition to competing in matches using her Singh and Monster Ripper gimmicks, she also made a couple of appearances with the Nitro Girls dance troupe under the name "Beef", for comic relief. After leaving WCW, Sing quit wrestling. (Full article...)
Selected team
The All Blacks perform the Haka before a match
The All Blacks are the Rugby World Cup champions, the leading points scorers of all time, and the only international rugby team with a winning record against every test nation they have ever played. The All Blacks have held the top ranking in the world for longer than all other countries combined, and in over 100 years only five test rugby nations have ever beaten New Zealand. The All Blacks have won The Rugby Championship a record eleven times (in 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012) in the competition's 16-year history. The All Blacks have won over a record 75% of all rugby matches they have played since 1903 (which is amongst the highest in all International sport) and they were named the International Rugby Board (IRB) Team of the Year in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010 and a record fifth time in 2011. Fifteen former All Blacks have been inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame; three of these are also inductees of the IRB Hall of Fame, and another player is a member of the IRB Hall.
The team's early uniforms consisted of a black jersey with a silver fern and white knickerbockers. By their 1905 tour New Zealand were wearing all black, except for the silver fern, and their All Black name dates from this time. New Zealand traditionally perform a haka (Māori challenge) before each match, traditionally the Te Rauparaha's Ka Mate. (Full article...)
In this month
- April 6, 1896 – The first international Olympic Games held in the modern era, the 1896 Summer Olympics (pictured), begin
- April 8, 2005 – The inaugural Islamic Solidarity Games open in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
- April 14, 1900 – Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body for sports cycling, is founded in Paris, France
- April 19, 1897 – The first Boston Marathon is run
- April 26, 2002 – The inaugural season of the China Baseball League begins
Topics
Related portals
Categories
Select [►] to view subcategories
Things you can do
 |
Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
|
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Discover Wikipedia using portals
