Sports Related Facts and Tips
▪️Sport was invented predictably in Greece, with the first game recorded in 776 BCE in Olympia where they were celebrated until 393 CE.
▪️Each year, 30000 people are seriously injured by exercise equipment.
▪️ Norway has won the highest medals numbering 263 medals at the winter games.
▪️No country in the Southern hemisphere has ever hosted a winter game.
▪️ Korfball is the only sport played with mixed teams consisting of four (4) men and four (4) women.
▪️Catgut, used in making tennis racket strings, is made from the intestines of different animals. Must be nice, eww.
▪️Testing of athletes for anaerobic steroids began in 1976.
▪️Karate began first in India and spread to China before reaching Japan in the 1600s.
▪️ Americans spend $630 million per year on golf balls. “Where una dey see this money?”
▪️The Chinese call the American game of football “Olive ball” because of the resemblance of the ball to an olive.
▪️22.8% of golfers are women.
▪️Bill Veeck, former owner of “the Cubs” hired midgets to serve food in the stands. His reasoning was that no fan would have their views of the field blocked.
By Onuweri Oghenefejiro Praise
Sports Personality of the Month
Édouard Osoque Mendy (born 1 March 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Chelsea and the Senegal national team.
Starting his career in his native France, he almost quit the game before getting an opportunity with Olympique Marseille. He established himself over the next few seasons at Reims and Rennes before signing with Chelsea in 2020.
Eligible to play for Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and France, Mendy initially joined up with Guinea Bissau in honour of his father, but subsequently switched allegiance to Senegal, where he became their first choice keeper before the 2019 African Cup of Nations.
On 24 September 2020, Chelsea announced they had signed Mendy on a five-year contract for a fee reported to be £22 million. Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard revealed that former Chelsea goalkeeper and current Technical Advisor, Petr Čech (who coincidentally also joined Chelsea from Rennes), played a prominent role in the signing of Mendy. By joining Chelsea, Mendy became the only current African goalkeeper in the Premier League, and the first since Carl Ikeme who played for Wolves in the 2011–12 season.
He currently has the second highest number of clean sheets in the Premier League with 16 clean sheets. Also, he has the highest number of clean sheets in the UEFA Champions League this season with 8 clean sheets.
His present club Chelsea, are in the UCL final, in part thanks to his exploits.
By Makanjuola Ayomide Olatunde
Christian Eriksen Suffers a Cardiac Arrest
Christian Eriksen was expected to be the star for his country, Denmark, at this year’s Euros tournament but his participation was cut short as he collapsed due to a cardiac arrest in the final few minutes of the first half in his country’s first match against Finland with the scores still level. The referee immediately brought the match to a halt and Simon Kjaer promptly initiated CPR on him as medics ran to his side while his other teammates formed a wall around him.
He was eventually resuscitated with a defibrillator after which he was rushed to the hospital. The match was abandoned after this but was completed later in the day after it had been confirmed that Eriksen was in a stable condition in the hospital. Denmark went on to lose 1-0. Speaking after the match, Kasper Hjulmand, the Danish coach explained the reason behind completing the match on the same day: “We had two options to play the game [today] or tomorrow at 12pm and everyone agreed to play today.”
“There was no pressure from UEFA to play tonight. Honestly, it was best to get it over with.”
“You can’t play a game with such feelings. We tried to win. It was incredible they managed to go out and try to play the second half.”
Currently, it is not clear as to whether Eriksen would ever play football again but he is set to have an Implantable cardioverter-defribilllator(ICD) placed in his heart as a precautionary measure.