Sports

(A) Major Sports Festivals of the World

(a) The Olympics: This is the world’s most prestigious, international sports festival. These Games originated in
the ancient city of Greece.
Modern Olympic Games: Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin is called the father of modern Olympic
Games which started in 1896, in Athens. These Games are held every four years, since then. The Winter
Olympic Games were started separately in 1924 in France.
Some important facts about Olympic Games:
(i) The first Modern Olympic Games were held at Athens, capital of Greece in 1896.
(ii) India has never hosted the Olympic Games in its history.
(iii) The last Olympic Games were held in 2012 at London in Britain capital and were the
30th edition of the Games.
(iv) The Olympic flag is white in colour and has the emblem five rings, embedded at the centre of the flag.
(v) The emblem is made up of five intertwined rings having different colours which represent the five
continents of the world.
(vi) The Olympic motto is ‘Citius, Altius, Furtius’ which means swifter, higher, stronger.
(b) Commonwealth Games: They were held first in 1930 at Canada. They are also held every four years, midway
between the Olympic Games.
(c) Asian Games: It is a sports festival of Asian countries. J.L. Nehru was instrumental in giving shape to Asian
Games. First Asian Games were held at New Delhi in 1951 and since then, these games have been taking
place every four years.
(d) World Cup: Almost all the sporting events has world cup generally conducted with an interval of every four
years.

The 2016 Summer Olympics

The 2016 Summer Olympics is officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad and commonly known as Rio
2016, was a major international multi-sport event held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 August to
21 August 2016.
More than 11,000 athletes from 207 National Olympic Committees, including first time entrants Kosovo, South
Sudan, and the Refugee Olympic Team, took part. With 306 sets of medals, the games featured 28 Olympic sports,
including rugby sevens and golf, which were added to the Olympic program in 2009. These sporting events took
place at 33 venues in the host city, and at five in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília, and Manaus.
These were the first Summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach. The host city Rio de
Janeiro was announced at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 2 October 2009. Rio became the
first South American city to host the Summer Olympics. These were the first games to be held in a Portuguese-
speaking country, the first to be held entirely in the host country's winter, the first since 1968 to be held in Latin
America, and the first since 2000 to be held in the Southern Hemisphere.
The United States topped the medal table for the fifth time in the past six Summer Olympics, winning the most golds
(46) and most medals overall (121). Great Britain finished second and became the first country in the history of the
modern Olympics to increase its tally of medals in the subsequent games after being the host nation. China finished
third. Host country Brazil won seven gold medals, its most at any single Summer Olympics, finishing in thirteenth
place. Fiji, Jordan, Kosovo, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Tajikistan, and Vietnam each won their first gold medals, as did
the group of Independent Olympic Athletes (from Kuwait). The United States won its 1,000th Olympic gold medal in
this edition.
5.2 Sports
The 2018 Winter Olympics
The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as PyeongChang
2018, is a major international multi-sport event took place from 9 to 25 February 2018, in PyeongChang, South
Korea. It was the second winter Olympics held on mainland Asia, after Sochi, Russia. The statistic reflects the
medal count of the Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang in 2018. Norway topped the table, finishing the Games
with a total of 39 medals - 14 gold, 14 silver, and 11 bronze.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics

The 2020 Summer Olympics officially known as the Games of the XXXII Olympiad and commonly known
as Tokyo 2020, is an upcoming international multi-sport event that is scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9
August 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, with preliminary events in some sports beginning on 22 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 7 September
2013. This will be the second time that Tokyo has hosted the Summer Olympic Games, the first being
in 1964. It is also the first city in Asia to host the summer Olympic Games twice, and overall the fourth
Olympics to be held in Japan, which also hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972 (Sapporo) and 1998 (Nagano). The
2020 Games will be the second of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, the first being the 2018
Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea, and the next being the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing,
China.
These Games will see the introduction of new and additional competitions at the Summer Olympics,
including 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX and Madison cycling, as well as further mixed events. Under new
IOC policies that allow the host organizing committee to add sports to the Olympic programme to augment the
permanent “core” Olympic events, these Games will see karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding make
their Olympic debuts. There will also be the return of baseball and softball, both removed from the summer
programme after 2008. The motto is ‘Discover Tomorrow’. The official mascot of the Tokyo
2020 Summer Olympic Games is a smiling, futuristic creature named Miraitowa. The mascot, which
resembles both a feline superhero and a robot, gets its name from the Japanese words “mirai” (meaning future) and
“towa” (meaning eternity). Someity is the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games mascot. Its name is derived from the
popular cherry tree variety “Someiyoshino” and the English phrase “so mighty”.
Originally due to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the event was postponed in March 2020 as a result of
the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being rescheduled for 2021, the Games have retained the "Tokyo 2020" name for
marketing and branding purposes. This is the first time that the Olympic Games have been postponed and
rescheduled, rather than cancelled.

2019 South Asian Games

The 2019 South Asian Games, officially the XIII South Asian Games, is a major multi-sport event which was originally
slated to be held from 9 to 18 March 2019 in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal. However, the dates were postponed
and the event was held from 1–10 December 2019, coincidentally at the same time as the 2019 Southeast Asian
Games in the Philippines. The Dasarath Stadium hosted the opening and closing ceremonies along with men’s
football events. Three different cities in Nepal hosted the competition, Kathmandu, Pokhara and Janakpur. The
sporting giant of the region, India continued its dominance in the game’s medal tally with a staggering 312 medals
including 174 gold medals.
Sports 5.3
(B) Important International Cups, Trophies and Associated Sports Disciplines
Name of the cup/trophy Associated sports
Davis Cup(Men)/Federation Cup(Women) Lawn tennis
Wimbledon Trophy Lawn tennis
Australian Open, Lawn tennis
US Open, French Open Lawn tennis
Derby Horse racing
Merdeka Football
Thomas Cup (Men) Badminton
Uber Cup (Women) Badminton
Yonex Cup Badminton
Walker Cup Golf
Ryder Cup Golf
Canada Cup Golf
William Jones Cup Basketball
Champions Trophy Hockey
Champions League Football
Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Hockey
(C) Important National Cups, Trophies and Associated Sports Disciplines
Name of the cup/trophy Associated sports
Duleep Trophy Cricket
Shish Mahal Trophy Cricket
Ranji Trophy (National Title) Cricket
Vijay Hazare Trophy Cricket(50 Overs)
Irani Trophy Cricket
Durand Cup Football
Santosh Memorial Trophy Football(School Championship)
Subroto Cup Football
Rovers Cup Football
Sanjay Gold Cup Football
Nizam Gold Cup Football
Dr. B.C. Roy Trophy (National Junior Championship) Football
Rangaswami Cup (National Title) Hockey
Lady Ratan Tata Trophy (Women's) Hockey
Nehru Trophy Hockey
Aga Khan Gold Cup Hockey
Beighton Cup Hockey
Guru Nanak Championship (All - India Women) Hockey
Dhyan Chand Trophy Hockey
Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey
Ezar Cup Polo
5.4 Sports
(D) Important Terms Associated with Various Sports Disciplines
Sports Terms associated with sports disciplines
Badminton Luv, deuce, drop, smash, double touch
Basketball Pivot, dribble, basket, block, held ball
Billiards Spider, baulk, cue, scratch, cannon
Hook, rounds, punch, jab, countdown, knock-outs, all the weights,
Boxing
(flyweight, middleweight, heavyweight, etc.)
Bridge Tricks, trump, suite, little slam, rubber
Knight, king, Sicilian defence, move, gambit, checkmate, rook,
Chess
stalemate, queen, bishop, pawn
Cricket Gully, hat-trick, pull, beamer, hook, googly, flick, follow-on, maiden, declare
Golf Tee, birdie, club, course, Iron, eagle, links, caddie, putt, hole, Bogey, Fore, Niblic
Hockey Centre, penalty-stroke, free-hit, foul, carry, stick, corner, dribble, trapping
Table tennis Deuce, drop, spin, smash, let
Grand slam, lob, ace, passing shot, top-spin, forehand, crosscourt,
Tennis
deuce, down the line, slice
Volleyball Heave, serve, blocking, point, doubling