Numbers

SPORTS

by the NUMBERS The 1912 Olympics was the last time gold medals were solid gold; since then, they’ve been silver with gold plating. (uselessfacts.net)

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar ran 100 centuries over his glittering career. (Times of India)

Major League Baseball teams use about 850,000 balls per season.

British rower Pete Reed’s lungs have a capacity of 11.68 liters – almost double the male average. (The Independent)

17,8

is how long 101-year-old Larry Lewis took to run the 100-yard dash in 1969; a world record among centenarians. (Genii Magazine)

42,000

tennis balls are used in the 650 matches played at the Wimbledon Championships each year. (Wimbledontennis.com)

Ryan Capes jumped a distance of 119 meters on a motorbike in 2005. (complex.com) is the year in which the first, all-male, modern Olympic Games was held in Athens, Greece. (Olympic.org) The number of chickens turned into hot wings during the Super Bowl is roughly the same as the population of New York City. (Bleacher Report)

11hrs 5min

was the duration of the longest tennis match ever played. John Isner eventually defeated Nicolas Mahut, winning the fifth set 70 games to 68, during the Wimbledon Championships, in a match that took place over three days in June 2010. (The Guardian) A.S. Adema beat Stade Olympique l’Emyrne 149-0 in the Madagascan football league. Spoiler alert: all goals were own goals in a unique protest against a referee decision. (BBC)

142

was the year Arsenal Football Club were awarded a gold version of the Premier League trophy to commemorate their unbeaten “Invincibles” season. (Daily Mail) was the loudest crowd roar ever recorded at a sports stadium; the Kansas City Chiefs fans raised the roof of the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A. on September 29, 2014. (Guinness World Records) The Tour de France, the world’s largest annual sporting event, covers approximately 3,500km, lasts three weeks and captivates 3.5 billion people each year. (Business Insider)

Sabine Lisicki recorded the fastest ever serve by a female tennis player; smashing the ball over the net at 210 km/h. (Guinness World Records)

The America’s Cup, the oldest international sporting trophy, was first awarded in 1851, by the Royal Yacht Squadron for a race around the English Isle of Wight. (CBS News)

16% of NFL players go bankrupt within 12 years of finishing their careers. (uselessfacts.net)

560

km

was the distance Dean Karnazes ran in 80 hours and 44 minutes… with no sleep. (Forbes)

108

is the number of double stitches on a baseball. (The Atlantic)

Table tennis balls can travel off the paddle at a speed of 169.9km/h. (Bleacher Report)