Sport facts

“Family tradition” is more than just an empty phrase in the world of auto racing. In a remarkable number of cases, it’s a guiding principle. For whatever reason — genetics, the ready availability of cars, or the dangerous, intense nature of what they do — race car drivers tend to beget race car drivers, who [...]

The 1988 men’s 100 meter final at Seoul was hyped as one of the great showdowns ever in an Olympics. The world’s two fastest human beings, American Carl Lewis and Canadian Ben Johnson — two men reportedly not fond of each other — would decide which one was the speedier in Korea, finally, after having [...]

In one of the most stunning upsets in the history of Olympic track and field, unknown American Billy Mills won the 10,000 meter gold medal at the 1964 Games when he ran an Olympic record 28:24.4, a time that was a phenomenal 46 seconds faster than his previous best. Mills, who hadn’t even come in [...]

The 1960 marathon staged in Rome was significant for several reasons: it was the first to be run at night, and the first that would start and end outside of the stadium. But perhaps most significant of all, it was the first Olympic marathon won by a black African, thus anticipating the dominance over the [...]

The word “Beamonesque” has entered the vocabulary of sports historians to mean a feat so dramatically superior to its predecessors that it cannot be sufficiently appreciated except to be called, well, “Beamonesque.” American Bob Beamon astounded the world when he won the long jump at the 1968 Olympics with his record 29’2-1/2″ leap, a standard [...]

It was not a promising beginning for the fastest woman in the world. Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely in Tennessee in 1940, the third youngest of her father’s 22 children. Before her childhood was over, Rudolph had been through severe bouts with polio, double pneumonia, and scarlet fever, which resulted in the temporary loss of [...]

The Olympic decathlon winner (or world record holder) can make a legitimate claim that he is the world’s greatest and most versatile athlete. The unique event christens as champ someone who can perform ten feats very well. The feats may be divided into groups: throwing events (the discus, javelin, hammer, and shot put), sprinting (the [...]

The shortest and swiftest running events are Dashes, or Sprints. Indoor dashes are run over distances of 50 and 60 meters; outdoor dashes cover distances of 100, 200, and 400 meters. The Discus, a steel-rimmed hardwood or metal platter, measures — for men — from 219 to 221 mm across and 44 to 46 mm [...]