SPORT FACTS

Women Banned From Marathons
In 1926, women were banned from competing in marathons because it was believed it caused infertility. After the Violet Percy from Great Britain who ran first official marathon, 800m was the maximum distance a woman could "safely" run. It wasn't until 1963 the next official time was recorded for a woman. Interesting fact is that Violet Percy is not the first women to run the marathon. Three years before her, Frances Hayward in 1923 finished Comrades marathon in 11 hours and 35 minutes (unofficially since women were not allowed to run this marathon).

11 Hour Long Wrestling Match
This game of wrestling in the 1912 Olympic lasted 11 hours, and was fought by two middle weight wrestlers, Martin Klein from Estonia and Alfred Asikainen from Finland. There is an interesting fact between erstwhile Russia and Finland that one must know; Russia ruled over Finland for a long time. On the day of fight, Klein wore the dress of tsarist Russia. The final winner in this fight was Martin Klein, this was the semifinal match. However,Klein was so exhausted that he could not take part in the final match next day with Claes Johansson from Sweden. Thus, the fight of 11 hours proved costly for Klein, as he won the silver and Johansson the gold.

Olympics Facts
Modern Olympic Games were created in 1894, by a French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin. However, Olympic Games date back to 776 B.C when they were celebrated as a religious festival. Around 393 A.D games were canceled because they represented pagan festival and celebration of the Greek God Zeus. Ancient Greek athletes performed naked that is why today we have the word gymnasium, "gymnos" in Greek means naked. The five interconnected Olympic rings represent the five significant continents of the world: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. China won the most gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games and today's gold medals are silver covered with a thin coat of gold.

Golf Ladies And Gentlemen
It is the internet myth that the name of the popular Scottish game Golf stands for "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden." The word golf originates form medieval Scottish and Dutch dialects. Back in a day before the creation of dictionaries, there was no standardized spelling of any given word. So it is believed that word golf originates from Dutch word "kolf" or "kolve" which meant "club." Later on old Scots dialect transformed the word into "gouf" or "golve ."

East And West Germany Sports
Some say that 1974 FIFA World Cup was the one of the most intense world cups ever played. Juergen Sparwasser scored the most famous goal in the German soccer history, giving East Germany a win over the West in the only meeting between the sides. That was the only lost game for West Germany in the World Cup and that year West Germany became new World Cup Champion. Juergen was arrested later on for re-painting street signs in East Germany.

Curling Sport Without Judges
Curling is a Olympic sport founded by Scots in the 1540's and it is played on ice by two teams of four players each, using heavy stones which they slide down the ice towards a target area. It was brought to North America by Scottish immigrants and since it is played in the cold, founded by Scots surely back then alcohol was a regular part of playing. Interesting fact is that there are no judges in the Curling competition.

Berlin Marathon Cheaters
Marathon in Berlin is 26 miles long and it was apparently too long for thirty three runners who decided to take a shortcut by riding the subway. They obviously forgot the computer chips they were wearing, which automatically record their time every three miles. They were of course disqualified and their times were removed from the scoreboard.