Sports Facts for Kids
Fun facts from the world of sports
Sachin Tendulkar of India scored 100 international centuries (hundreds) during his cricket career — a record no other player has ever come close to matching. He played in 200 Test matches over 24 years.
Chess boxing is a real sport where competitors alternate between rounds of chess and rounds of boxing. You can win either by knocking out your opponent or by checkmating them. It was invented in 1992 by Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh.
The first FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930 with only 13 teams participating. Uruguay won the tournament in front of their home crowd, and several European teams refused to travel to South America because the journey by ship took two weeks.
Wushu, also known as Chinese martial arts or kung fu, has been practised for over 4,000 years. There are over 400 distinct styles of wushu, many inspired by the movements of animals such as tigers, cranes, monkeys, and snakes.
In 2009, a cricket match was played at an altitude of 5,165 metres (16,945 feet) on a glacier near Mount Everest in Nepal — the highest cricket match ever played. The thin air meant the ball travelled much further than usual.
Swimming goggles were not officially allowed at the Olympics until 1976. Before that, competitive swimmers raced with unprotected eyes and many suffered blurry vision from the chlorine. Today goggles are standard equipment.
Lionel Messi set the world record by scoring 91 goals in a single calendar year in 2012, breaking the previous record held by Gerd Müller. In that same year, Messi also became the all-time top scorer for FC Barcelona.
The ancient Olympic Games were held every four years for over a thousand years, from 776 BC to 393 AD. They were eventually banned by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I who considered them a pagan ritual. The modern Games were revived in 1896.
Women were not allowed to run the Olympic marathon until 1984, because officials believed the distance was too dangerous for female athletes. When Joan Benoit Samuelson won the first women's Olympic marathon, she received one of the biggest ovations in Olympic history.
The NBA three-point line was only added to professional basketball in 1979. In its first season, fewer than 3% of shots were three-pointers. Today, NBA teams average over 30 three-point attempts per game.