Sports & Recreation

Physical contests and recreational games have long played a part in human society. In both team and solo sports, the human body has been pushed to its limits in the name of improving athletic performance and in order to break record upon record. The ancient Olympic Games are an early example of the contests in which humans have engaged to showcase physical prowess. In modern times, sports and games have evolved into a lucrative and competitive industry, while other leisure activities, such as card and video games, can be competitive or just serve as a way to unwind or socialize.
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Featured content, April 15, 2024

10 Queens of the Athletic Realm
Throwing like a girl can be a good thing, too.
Olympics: A Survey of Banned Substances
Learn about the major groups of substances on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List.
Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies
If you’ve seen one basketball movie, you’ve seen ’em all, right? There’s a little more to it than that. You’ll see.
Why Does “K” Stand for a Strikeout in Baseball?
Unlike most terms in baseball box scores, strikeouts aren’t abbreviated by the word’s first letter. Why?
online gaming
Online gaming, electronic game playing over a computer network, particularly over the Internet. Electronic game worlds have...
tennis
Tennis, game in which two opposing players (singles) or pairs of players (doubles) use tautly strung rackets to hit a ball...
golf
Golf, a cross-country game in which a player strikes a small ball with various clubs from a series of starting points (teeing...
number game
Number game, any of various puzzles and games that involve aspects of mathematics. Mathematical recreations comprise puzzles...

Sports & Recreation Quizzes

Quick Quiz: Card Games and Games of Chance
Where did the 52-card playing deck come from? What numbers can you roll to automatically win a certain dice game? Bet on...
Check and Checkmate Quiz
What is the standard design for chess sets used in competition? Who was the first woman to write a book about chess? See...
All About Auto Racing Quiz
Who was the first Formula One champion? Who was the first driver to exceed 200 miles per hour? Speed through this quiz to...
Quick Quiz: Martial Arts
Where did tae kwon do originate? Which martial art means “empty hand” in Japanese? Get your team—or just yourself—ready to...
Game, Set, Tennis! Quiz
Game, set…tennis! Jump onto the court to test your knowledge of tennis players, tournaments, and history with this quiz.
All About Horse Racing Quiz
And they’re off! Will you win, place, or show? With this quiz, you can compete in all things horse racing without having...
Football the Way Americans Play It Quiz
In the American version of football, you’re allowed to touch the ball with your hands. (And your feet.) See if you can “touchdown”...
A Good Walk Spoiled
No one really knows how golf came to be
Boxing Quiz
Boxing first appeared as a formal Olympic event in the 23rd Olympiad (688 BCE). Take a jab at this...
Sports Fun Facts Quiz
What sport’s equipment was found in the tomb of an Egyptian child buried about 3200 BCE? What sport originated because businessmen...
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Sports & Recreation
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Sports & Recreation Subcategories

Super Bowl LV champions Football
Although baseball has traditionally been seen as America’s national pastime, gridiron football has made its own indelible impact on the American sports landscape. Decades of informal, student-organized collegiate games ultimately gave rise to a thriving college football scene and to the hugely popular professional version of the game. Despite early and continued concerns about the game’s violence, gridiron football eventually became the United States’ leading spectator sport, and it has achieved a degree of international popularity through television.
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Suzuki, Ichiro Baseball
Although the United States can be credited with developing several popular sports that were adopted internationally, it is baseball that Americans have traditionally recognized as the “national pastime.” Baseball’s early history was interwoven with and reflective of major social and cultural cleavages, but the sport also proved to possess great unifying power, as the experience of playing, watching, and talking about baseball became one of the nation’s great common denominators. Additionally, we have baseball to thank (or point fingers at) for the continued status of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as one of the best-known songs among Americans.
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Wilt Chamberlain Basketball
Basketball, game played between two teams of five players each on a rectangular court, usually indoors. Each team tries to score by tossing the ball through the opponent’s goal, an elevated horizontal hoop and net called a basket.
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Sidney Crosby; Nicklas Lidstrom Hockey
Ice hockey, game between two teams, each usually having six players, who wear skates and compete on an ice rink. The object is to propel a vulcanized rubber disk, the puck, past a goal line and into a net guarded by a goaltender, or goalie. With its speed and its frequent physical contact, ice hockey has become one of the most popular of international sports.
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Xavi Soccer
Football, also called association football or soccer, game in which two teams of 11 players, using any part of their bodies except their hands and arms, try to maneuver the ball into the opposing team’s goal. Only the goalkeeper is permitted to handle the ball and may do so only within the penalty area surrounding the goal. The team that scores more goals wins.
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Michael Phelps Olympic Sports
Olympic Games, athletic festival that originated in ancient Greece and was revived in the late 19th century. Before the 1970s the Games were officially limited to competitors with amateur status, but in the 1980s many events were opened to professional athletes. Currently, the Games are open to all, even the top professional athletes in basketball and football (soccer).
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(Top) Obverse side of a silver denarius showing caduceus and bust of Mercury wearing winged petasos; (bottom) on the reverse side, Ulysses walking with staff and being greeted by his dog Argus, in a fine narrative illustration of Homer's Odyssey. The writing on the reverse gives the name of the moneyer under whose authority the coin was struck. Coins of this type, called serrati, were produced at the mint with cut edges to combat counterfeiting. Struck in the Roman Republic, 82 bc. Diameter 19 mm. Games, Hobbies & Recreational Activities
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subcategory placeholder Other Sports
This general category includes a selection of more specific topics.
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