Sports Famous sportsmen in the usa
Download 90 Kb.
|
Famous sportsmen in the USA
|
Famous sportsmen in the USA Plan: Sports Famous sportsmen in the USA Sports are an important part of culture in the United States. Historically, the national sport has been baseball. However, in more recent decades, American football has been the most popular sport in terms of broadcast viewership audience. Basketball has grown into the mainstream American sports scene since the 1980s, with ice hockey and soccer doing the same around the turn of the 21st century. These sports comprise the "Big Five". In the first half of the 20th century, boxing and collegiate football were among the most popular sports after baseball. Golf, tennis, and collegiate basketball are other spectator sports with longstanding popularity. Most recently, Mixed martial arts, has been breaking records in attendance and broadcast viewership for all combat sports. Based on revenue, the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada are the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS). At $16 billion in revenue, the NFL is the most profitable sports league in the world.[1] The market for professional sports in the United States is roughly $69 billion, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined.[2] All these leagues enjoy wide-ranging domestic media coverage and, except for Major League Soccer, all are considered the preeminent leagues in their respective sports in the world. Although American football does not have a substantial following in other nations, the NFL does have the highest average attendance (67,254) of any professional sports league in the world. MLS has the second highest average attendance of any sports league in the U.S. (21,789),[3] followed by MLB with an average of 18,900.[4] Of these five U.S.-based leagues, all but the NFL have at least one team in Canada. Professional teams in all major sports in the United States operate as franchises within a league, meaning that a team may move to a different city if the team's owners believe there would be a financial benefit, but franchise moves are usually subject to some form of league-level approval.[5] All major sports leagues use a similar type of regular-season schedule with a post-season playoff tournament. In addition to the major league–level organizations, several sports also have professional minor leagues, active in smaller cities across the country. As in Canada and Australia, sports leagues in the United States do not practice promotion and relegation, unlike most sports leagues in Europe. Sports are particularly associated with education in the United States, with most high schools and universities having organized sports, and this is a unique sporting footprint for the U.S. College sports competitions play an important role in the American sporting culture, and college basketball and college football are nearly as popular as professional sports in some parts of the country.[citation needed] The major sanctioning body for college sports is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Colleges collectively receive billions of dollars from TV deals, sponsorships, and ticket sales. In 2019, the total revenue generated by NCAA athletic departments added up to $18.9 billion.[6] Based on Olympic Games, World Championships, and other major competitions in respective sports, the United States is the most successful nation in baseball, basketball, athletics, swimming, lacrosse, beach volleyball, figure skating, tennis, golf, boxing, diving, shooting, rowing and snowboarding, and is all time one of the top five most successful nations in ice hockey, wrestling, gymnastics, volleyball, speed skating, alpine skiing, bobsleigh, equestrian, sailing, cycling, weightlifting and archery, among others. This makes the United States the most successful sports nation in the world.[7][8][9][10][11] The United States has placed first in the Summer Olympic medal table 18 times out of 29 Summer Olympics and 28 appearances.[circular reference] Unlike most other nations, the United States government does not provide funding for sports nor for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.[12][13][14][15] Almost every American kid grows up watching his/her dad watching football on a Saturday, the F1 on a Sunday, and languishing in glorious summers of sport. Nearly all tweens and teens have an Andy Roddick poster taped to their walls, a Tom Brady replica jersey on their wardrobes or a new Vince Carter Nike Shox to step into. That is because America and sport are inseparable twins. America has never been short on sporting talent. Over the years, it has produced football teams to root for, F1 drivers to cheer on. That's true! With legendary sportsmen like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, Pete Sampras, Joe Montana and many more under its belt, America was always destined to be one of the greatest sporting nations of all times. So it is no coincidence that we have a wad of sporting heroes coming from the land. Explore our compilation of biographies for timelines, life stories and interesting trivia & American football, indoor American football, baseball, softball, and indoor soccer evolved out of older British (Rugby football, British baseball, Rounders, and association football) sports.[16] However, basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, racquetball, pickleball, skateboarding, snowboarding, Ultimate, wind-surfing, and Water Skiing are fully American inventions,[16] some of which have become popular in other countries and worldwide.[17] In colonial Virginia and Maryland, sports occupied a great deal of attention[from whom?] at every social level[citation needed]. In England, hunting was severely restricted to landowners. In America, game was more than plentiful.[18] Everyone—including servants and slaves—could and did hunt[citation needed], so there was no social distinction to be had[citation needed]. In 1691, Sir Francis Nicholson, the governor of Virginia, organized competitions for the "better sort of Virginians onely who are especially in the South.[19] It involved owners, trainers and spectators from all social classes and both races. However, religious evangelists were troubled by the gambling dimension, and democratic elements complained[citation needed] that it was too aristocratic, since only the rich could own very expensive competitive horses. Olympics
Michael Phelps celebrates after winning his 8th gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics Francis Olympic Field of Washington University in St. Louis, site of the 1904 Olympics Games The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee for the United States. U.S. athletes have won a total of 2,522 medals (1,022 of them being gold) at the Summer Olympic Games and another 305 at the Winter Olympic Games. Most medals have been won in the sport of athletics (track and field) (801, 32%) and swimming (553, 22%). American swimmer Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, with 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold. The United States has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games except the 1980 Summer Olympics hosted by the Soviet Union in Moscow, which it boycotted because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. American athletes have won a total of 2,673 medals (1,075 of them gold) at the Summer Olympic Games and another 305 (105 of them gold) at the Winter Olympic Games, making the United States the most prolific medal-winning nation in the history of the Olympics. The US is ranked first in the all-time medal table even if all the incarnations of Russia and Germany are combined, leading the second-placed Russians by 402 gold and 917 total medals. These achievements are even more impressive considering the fact that the American Olympic team remains the only in the world to receive no government funding.[20][21][14] The United States hosted both Summer and Winter Games in 1932, and has hosted more Games than any other country – eight times, four times each for the Summer and Winter Games: The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, 1932 Summer Olympics and 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles; and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta;
The United States has won the most gold and overall medals in the Summer Olympic Games, even if the medal totals of the Soviet Union/CIS and Russia are combined, and has topped the medal table 18 times.[22] The country has won the second most gold and overall medals in the Winter Olympic Games, behind Norway, but has topped the medal table only one time, in 1932. If all of Germany's and Russia's incarnations are combined, the United States slips to fourth in the all-time Winter Olympic Games table. Amateurism and professionalism
The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the Eastern Bloc countries eroded the ideology of the pure amateur, as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. The Soviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but all of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis.[24][25][26][27] The situation greatly disadvantaged American athletes, and was a major factor in the decline of American medal hauls in the 1970s and 1980s. As a result, the Olympics shifted away from amateurism, as envisioned by Pierre de Coubertin, to allowing participation of professional athletes, but only in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its influence within the International Olympic Committee.[28][29] Individual sports
Richard Petty Major international competitions, such as the Formula One Grand Prix series and MotoGP are generally less popular in the United States than they are in the rest of the world. However, some Americans have achieved great success[quantify] in these international series, such as Mario Andretti and Kenny Roberts. In the United States, the dominant form of auto racing is oval track racing, especially stock car racing, with other homegrown motorsports also having local popularity. Americans, like the rest of the world, initially began using public streets to host automobile races, but these venues were often unsafe to the public as they offered relatively little crowd control.[citation needed] Promoters and drivers in the United States discovered that horse racing tracks could provide better conditions for drivers and spectators than public streets. This, in turn, was succeeded by board track racing (which was short-lived as many of the tracks were highly flammable and difficult to maintain) followed by oval track racing, which remains the dominant form of racing in the United States but is not used in the rest of the world; road racing has generally waned. However, an extensive, albeit illegal street racing culture still persists.[30] IndyCar Series
Danica Patrick is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel racing. Historically, open wheel racing was the most popular[quantify] form of U.S. motorsport nationwide.[citation needed] However, an acrimonious split (often referred to by many as "The Split") in 1994 between the primary series, CART (later known as Champ Car), and the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (the site of the Indy 500), Tony George, led to the formation of the Indy Racing League, now known as INDYCAR, which launched the rival IndyCar Series in 1996. From that point on, the popularity of open wheel racing in the U.S. declined dramatically.[31] The feud was settled in 2008 with an agreement to merge the two series under the IndyCar banner, but enormous damage had already been done to the sport.[32] Post-merger, IndyCar continues to run with slight viewership gains per year. However, as a result, the only post-Split IndyCar race that still enjoys widespread popularity among the general public is the Indianapolis 500. NASCAR
The start of the 2015 Daytona 500, the biggest race in the NASCAR Cup Series
Other motorsports Notable sports car races in the United States are the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, and Petit Le Mans, which have featured in the World Sportscar Championship, IMSA GT Championship, Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, FIA World Endurance Championship, American Le Mans Series, Rolex Sports Car Series and currently the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Another one of the most popular forms of motorsports in the United States is the indigenous sport of drag racing. The largest drag racing organization is the National Hot Rod Association. Several other motorsports enjoy varying degrees of popularity in the United States: short track motor racing, motocross, monster truck competitions (including the popular Monster Jam circuit), demolition derby, figure 8 racing, mud bogging and tractor pulling. Golf
Jack Nicklaus is widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time, winning a total of 18 career major championships. Louise Suggs one of the founders of the LPGA Tour and thus modern ladies' golf. Golf is played in the United States by about 24 million people.[33] The sport's national governing body, the United States Golf Association (USGA), is jointly responsible with The R&A for setting and administering the rules of golf. The USGA conducts four national championships open to professionals: the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, U.S. Senior Open, and the U.S. Senior Women's Open, with the last of these holding its first edition in 2018. The PGA of America organizes the PGA Championship, Senior PGA Championship and Women's PGA Championship. Three legs of the Grand Slam of Golf are based in the United States: the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and The Masters. (The Open Championship, known in the U.S. as the British Open, is played in the United Kingdom.) The PGA Tour is the main professional golf tour in the United States, and the LPGA Tour is the main women's professional tour. Also of note is PGA Tour Champions, where players 50 and older compete. Golf is aired on several television networks, such as Golf Channel, NBC, ESPN, CBS and Fox. Notable American male golfers include Walter Hagen (11 majors), Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus (record 18 major wins), Arnold Palmer, and Tiger Woods (15 major wins). Notable female golfers include Patty Berg (record 15 major wins), Mickey Wright (13 majors), Louise Suggs and Babe Zaharias. Tennis
Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs 1973.
The United States has had considerable success in tennis for many years, with players such as Don Budge, Billie Jean King (12 major singles titles), Chris Evert (18 major singles titles), Jimmy Connors (8 major singles titles), John McEnroe (7 major singles titles), Andre Agassi (8 major singles titles) and Pete Sampras (14 major singles titles), and Ricardo Alonso González (14 major singles titles) dominating their sport in the past. More recently, the Williams sisters, Venus Williams (7 major singles titles) and Serena Williams (23 major singles titles), have been a dominant force in the women's game, and the twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan have claimed almost all significant career records for men's doubles teams. Track and field
Left: Billy Mills breaks the tape in the 10,000 m in the 1964 Olympics. Right: Florence Griffith Joyner is considered the fastest woman of all time;[34][35][36] the world records she set in 1988 for both the 100 m and 200 m still stand. USA Track & Field is the governing body for track and field in the United States. It organizes the annual USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and USA Indoor Track and Field Championships. The Diamond League currently features one round in the United States, the Prefontaine Classic; the series formerly included the Adidas Grand Prix as well. Three of the World Marathon Majors are held in the United States: the Boston Marathon, Chicago Marathon and New York City Marathon. The Freihofer's Run for Women is also an IAAF Road Race Label Event. Amateur organizations such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Amateur Athletic Union sanction cross-country running in fall, indoor track and field in winter, and outdoor track and field in spring. Jesse Owens was a notable US track athlete who achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black man, was credited with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy", although he "wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either".[37] Americans have frequently set world standards in various disciplines of track and field for both male and female athletes[citation needed]. Tyson Gay and Michael Johnson hold various sprint records for male athletes, while Florence Griffith Joyner set various world sprint records for female athletes. Mary Slaney set many world records for middle-distance disciplines. A turning point occurred in US track in the running boom of the 1970s.[38] After a series of American successes in various distances from marathoners Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers as well as middle-distance runners Dave Wottle and Steve Prefontaine, running as an American pastime began to take shape. The U.S. win in the 1976 Olympic men's decathlon, achieved by then-Bruce Jenner, made Jenner a national celebrity. High school track in the United States became a unique foundation for creating the United States middle-distance running talent pool, and from 1972 to 1981 an average of 13 high school boys in the United States would run under 4:10 in the mile per year.[38] During this time, several national high school records in the United States were set and remained largely unbroken until the 2000s. The number of high school boys running the mile under 4:10 per year dropped abruptly from 1982,[38] and female participation in many distance events was forbidden by athletic authorities until the 1980s.[39] However a renaissance in high school track developed when Jack Daniels, a former Olympian, published a training manual called "Daniels' Running Formula", which became the most widely used distance training protocol among American coaches[38] along with Arthur Lydiard's high-mileage regimen. Carl Lewis is credited with "normalizing" the practice of having a lengthy track career as opposed to retiring once reaching the age when it is less realistic of gaining a personal best result. The United States is home to school-sponsored track and field, a tradition in which most schools from middle school through college feature a track and field team. Owing to the number of American athletes who satisfy Olympic norm standards, the US holds national trials to select the best of its top-tier athletes for Olympic competition.facts related to the lives of some great American sportspersons. Download 90 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
|