The Weird World of Modern Sports
Sports are usually about speed, strength, and teamwork, but some competitions take things to a whole different level of strange. From historical quirks to modern oddities, here are five facts about the world of sports that you probably didn’t know.
- Chess Boxing is a Real Sport: This hybrid sport requires both brains and brawn. Competitors alternate between rounds of speed chess and rounds of boxing. You can win by either knocking your opponent out in the ring or achieving a checkmate on the board.
- The First Basketball Games Used Peach Baskets: When James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, he used actual peach baskets as the hoops. The funny part? The baskets still had their bottoms, so every time someone scored, the game had to be paused so someone could climb a ladder and retrieve the ball.
- Golf Has Been Played on the Moon: In 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard brought a six-iron head and some golf balls on the Apollo 14 mission. He attached the club head to a tool handle and hit two balls on the lunar surface. Because of the low gravity, he joked that the balls traveled for miles and miles.
- Olympic Gold Medals are Mostly Silver: Winning gold is the ultimate dream, but the medals themselves aren’t solid gold. By international regulations, gold medals must be made of at least 92.5 percent silver and are only plated with about six grams of real gold.
- Tug of War Used to Be an Olympic Sport: Between 1900 and 1920, Tug of War was an official event in the Summer Olympics. It wasn’t just a playground game back then; it was a serious competition dominated by teams from Great Britain and the United States.