Did you know ..?

* 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.

* 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 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.

* 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 stitches.

* 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.

* Golf the only sport played on the moon – on 6 February 1971 Alan Shepard hit a golf ball.

* Volleyball was invented by William George Morgan of Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1895.

* A badminton shuttle easily travels 180 km/h (112 mph).