Some interesting sports facts

The most participated sport on earth is fishing.

The sport with maximum number of spectators is football.

Boxing was recognized as a legal sport in 1901.

More than 100 million people hold legal hunting licenses.

The world’s first female parachutist was Jean Genevieve Garnerin, after jumping from a hot air balloon in 1799.

The first woman to reach the top of Mount Everest was Junko Tabei on May 16, 1975 as part of the Ladies Climbing Club Japan.

Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina holds the record for the most Olympic medals ever won. She competed in three Olympic Games, between 1956 and 1964, winning 18 medals in gymnastics.

Cy Young holds the record for the most MLB career innings, with 7,356. He is ranked number 14 on the list of “Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players.”

The first global electronic communications took place in 1871 when the Derby winner’s name was telegraphed from London to Calcutta.

In 1898, the first radio program to be broadcasted was a yacht race that took place in Great Britain.

Sports have the biggest television audiences, the most popular being the summer Olympics, World Cup Football and Formula One racing.

Gymnasiums were first introduced in 900 BC in Greece where athletes practiced naked to the accompanying music. The Olympic Games were also played in the nude.

Corubus, a chef, won the first ever Olympic race, in 776 BC.

The first contemporary Olympic Games took place in Athens, Greece in 1896. There were 311 male contestants but no female competitors.

In his time, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was the highest paid sportsman in the world. Schumacher earned over $650 million in his career as a F1 driver for Team Scuderia Ferrari.

The high jump method of jumping head first and landing on the back is called the Fosbury Flop, after American athlete Dick Fosbury, whose methods revolutionized the high jump event.

MLB teams go through about 850,000 balls per season.

About 42,000 tennis balls are used in the Wimbledon Championship.

The longest tennis match in history took place at Wimbledon 2010 when American, John Isner, beat Nicolas Mahut of France in a match that lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes. It was played over a period of 3 days for a total of 183 games.

A cricket ball has between 65 and 70 stitches while every baseball has exactly 108 stitches.

A football is made up of 32 leather pieces, held together by 642 stitches.

Before using synthetic materials, pigs’ bladders were used as rugby balls.

The baseball home plate is exactly 17 inches wide.

The very first motor car land speed record was set by Ferdinand Verbiest. Around 1672 he designed a steam-propelled trolley which was the first working steam-powered vehicle.

Richard Petty holds the record for the most NASCAR wins to date, with 200 wins. Also known as “The King,” Petty is the only driver to have won 7 NASCAR championships, aside from Dale Earnhardt.

Golf the only sport to have ever been played on the moon – Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on 6 February 1971.

Bill Klem served the most seasons as MLB umpire, officiating for 37 years, starting in 1905. He was also an umpire in 18 World Series, the only person in history to do so.

The oldest constant trophy in sports is the America’s Cup. After starting in 1851, Americans won for 132 years straight, until Australia won the Cup in 1983. The Cup is awarded to the winner of the America’s Cup sailing regatta match.

William George Morgan of Holyoke, Massachusetts invented volleyball in 1895.

A badminton shuttlecock’s speed easily exceeds 180 km/h (112 mph) and can go up to 350 km/h (186 mph).

Romanian Ferenc Szisz won the first Formula One Grand Prix, in a Renault, held at Le Mans, France in 1906. The race was 1,260 km (780 miles) long.