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: chess, bridge, 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...)
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Did you know...
- ...that women's kickboxing in New South Wales, Australia, was banned by law in 1986 and only became legal again in 2008?
- ...that, at the age of fourteen, Elizabeth Edmondson (pictured) was told that she had broken a world record while swimming at Beatty Park?
- ...that Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton was the first African American to sign a contract to play in the National Basketball Association?
- ...that only three Super Rugby rugby union teams ever won the Super 12?
- ...that in the 26 uses of the Page playoff system in championship curling tournaments, only once has a third- or fourth-placed team won the tournament?
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Barnes 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.
He made his first-class début at the end of the 1936–37 season when selected for New South Wales and was later included in the team for the 1938 Australian tour of England, making his Test début in the final international of the series.
On the resumption of Test cricket after the war, Barnes was picked as the opening partner to Arthur Morris. He 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.
Barnes was a shrewd businessman who used the opportunities afforded by cricket to supplement his income through trading, journalism and property development. Increasing paranoia brought about by bipolar disorder saw Barnes lose many of the friends he had made through the game, as he sought treatment for his depression. On 16 December 1973, he was found dead at his home in the Sydney suburb of Collaroy; he had ingested barbiturates and bromide in a probable suicide. (Full article...)
Selected team
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
- September 4, 1931 – The World Archery Federation is founded in Lviv, Ukraine as the Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc
- September 4, 1955 – The first season of the European Cup, the predecessor to the UEFA Champions League, begins with a match between Sporting Clube de Portugal and FK Partizan
- September 4, 1995 – The inaugural Military World Games, a multi-sport event for military sportspeople, opens in Rome, Italy
- September 17, 1920 – The National Football League (game pictured), the highest level professional American football league in the United States, is founded
- September 18, 1961 – The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football is formed by the merger of the NAFC and the CCCF confederations
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