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 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 can just be a way to unwind or socialize.
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Featured content, May 22, 2020
How Is Diving Scored?
Diving combines grace and athleticism. How is this seemingly subjective sport scored?
Demystified / Sports & Recreation

Olympics: A Survey of Banned Substances
Learn about the major groups of substances on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List.
Companion / Sports & Recreation

5 Unusual Olympic Sports
What happens when you cross the long jump with swimming? You get an Olympic sport.
List / Sports & Recreation

The 24 Days of College Football Bowls
College football fans rejoice as the bowl season kicks off on December 19.
Spotlight / Sports & Recreation

Tennis
Tennis, game in which two opposing players (singles) or pairs of players (doubles) use tautly strung rackets to hit a ball…
Encyclopedia / Sports & Recreation

Horse racing
Horse racing, sport of running horses at speed, mainly Thoroughbreds with a rider astride or Standardbreds with the horse…
Encyclopedia / Sports & Recreation

Snowboarding
Snowboarding, winter sport with roots in skiing, surfing, and skateboarding where the primary activity is riding down any…
Encyclopedia / Sports & Recreation

Bridge
Bridge, card game derived from whist, through the earlier variants bridge whist and auction bridge. The essential features…
Encyclopedia / Sports & Recreation

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Sports & Recreation Subcategories

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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Tennessee Titans
American football team
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Aaron Rodgers
American football player
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College Football Playoff
American football

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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Ichiro Suzuki
Japanese baseball player
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Mike Trout
American baseball player
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Jackie Robinson
American athlete

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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Los Angeles Lakers
American basketball team
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LeBron James
American basketball player
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Dennis Rodman
American basketball player

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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Stanley Cup
ice hockey trophy
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Steve Yzerman
Canadian hockey player and manager
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St. Louis Blues
American hockey team

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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Cristiano Ronaldo
Portuguese football player
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David Beckham
British athlete
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Football
soccer

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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Linger brothers
Austrian athletes
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Swimming
sport and recreation
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Cycling
sport

This general category includes a selection of more specific topics.
Articles

This general category includes a selection of more specific topics.
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Twenty20 cricket
sport
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Danica Patrick
American race car driver
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Softball
sport