| · | Fishing is the biggest participant sports in the world. |
| · | Football (soccer) is the most attended or watched sport in the world. |
| · | Boxing became a legal sport in 1901. |
| · | More than 100 million people hold hunting licences. |
| · | Jean Genevieve Garnerin was the first female parachutists, jumping from a hot air balloon in 1799. |
| · | In 1975 Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman to reach the top of Everest. |
| · | The record for the most Olympic medals ever won is held by Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina. Competing in three Olympics, between 1956 and 1964, she won 18 medals. |
| · | The record for the most major league baseball career innings is held by Cy Young, with 7,356 innings. |
| · | The first instance of global electronic communications took place in 1871 when news of the Derby winner was telegraphed from London to Calcutta in under 5 minutes. |
| · | In 1898, one of the first programmes to be broadcasted on radio was a yacht race that took place in British waters. |
| · | Sports command the biggest television audiences, led by the summer Olympics, World Cup Football and Formula One racing. |
| · | Gymnasiums were introduced in 900BC and Greek athletes practised in the nude to the accompaniment of music. They also performed naked at the Olympic Games. |
| · | The very first Olympic race, held in 776 BC, was won by Corubus, a chef. |
| · | The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896. There were 311 male but no female competitors. |
| · | In his time, Michael Schumacher was the highest paid sportsman, ahead of Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer. (Not including sponsorship endorsements.) |
| · | The high jump method of jumping head first and landing on the back is called the Fosbury Flop. |
| · | Korfball is the only sport played with mixed teams, consisting of 4 men and 4 women. |
| · | The Major League Baseball teams use about 850,000 balls per season. |
| · | About 42,000 tennis balls are used in the plus-minus 650 matches in the Wimbledon Championship. |
| · | A baseball ball has exactly 108 stitches, a cricket ball has between 65 and 70 stiches. |
| · | A soccer ball is made up of 32 leather panels, held together by 642 stitches. |
| · | Basketball and rugby balls are made from synthetic material. Earlier, pigs' bladders were used as rugby balls. |
| · | The baseball home plate is 17 inches wide. |
| · | Golf the only sport played on the moon - on 6 February 1971 Alan Shepard hit a golf ball. |
| · | Bill Klem served the most seasons as major league umpire - 37 years, starting in 1905. He also officated 18 World Series. |
| · | The oldest continuous trophy in sports is the America's Cup. It started in 1851, with Americans winning for a straight 132 years until Australia took the Cup in 1983. |
| · | Volleyball was invented by William George Morgan of Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1895. |
| · | A badminton shuttle easily travels 180 km/h (112 mph). |
| · | Ferenc Szisz from Romania, driving a Renault, won the first Formula One Grand Prix held at Le Mans, France in 1906. |