Etymologically sports comes from the old French word Desport meaning leisure, but we all know that in present-day world it represents anything but leisure.
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
-Thomas Edison
Sports history dates back to 4000 BC in china when gymnastics was a popular sport. Also, monuments in Egypt indicate that fishing and swimming were popular sports few thousand years back (Water In Egypt !!). Sports were a prominent part of greek culture and they created Olympic games which were played every 4 years in a small village called Olympia.
There is an interesting piece of history behind Marathon races which also originated in Greece. It comes from a legend of pheidippidies, a greek soldier, who was sent from the town of marathon to Athens to announce that Persians had been miraculously defeated in the battle of marathon. It is said he ran the entire distance without stopping but just after delivering the message collapsed and died of exhaustion.
Indians have not fared very well in the arena of sports. In our national sport of hockey, we have won eight Olympic gold medals. But last one we won was long time back. And in our national passion of cricket, just one world cup win. A few strokes of brilliance by individuals in chess and billiards. We lag behind even small islands in Olympics and Asian game.
As according to henry sanders -
"Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing."
This reminds me of some of the most interesting clashes we have seen in sports. The ashes series, the sharne warne/ sachin encounter, the fedrer/nadal aneounter, Argentina/England clashes.
Some other interesting Quotes I remember:
Joe Paterno said,
What counts in sports is not the victory, but the magnificence of the struggle.
And My Favourite One :)
Lance Armstrong describes the Tour de France as
A daily festival of human suffering.
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