World of Sport

The first Olympiad was unofficial. For the 1924 Olympics an attempt was made to include chess in the Olympic Games but this failed because of problems with distinguishing between amateur and professional players.[1] While the 1924 Summer Olympics was taking place in Paris, the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad also took place in Paris. FIDE was formed on Sunday, July 20, 1924, the closing day of the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad.[2]
FIDE organised the first Official Olympiad in 1927 which took place in London.[1] The Olympiads were occasionally held annually and at irregular intervals until World War II; since 1950 they have been held regularly every two years.




There were 16 participating nations in the 1st Chess Olympiad, 1927. By the 41st Olympiad, 2014, there were 172 participating nations.

A group of chess enthusiasts had checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse.

"But why?" they asked, as they moved off.

"Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."

Lee Trevino played a miraculous round of golf in 1972, beating Nicklaus and Jacklin to win the British Open at Muirhead.

and, it's beautiful to watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urdUwammrEM

The last F1 race on the original spa francorchamps circuit in 1970 at the fearsome downhill flat out burnenville corner. The circuit was over 8 miles long over public roads, where average speeds reach >160mph.



From wiki:

"Spa was the fastest road circuit in Europe at the time, and it had a nasty reputation for being dangerous and very fast- it was a circuit known to be one for the brave, and most drivers were frightened of it. Entries in the F1 and sportscar races there were often smaller than usual compared to other circuits."

"The old Spa circuit was unique in that speeds were consistently high with hardly any let-up at all for 3–4 minutes. This made it an extraordinarily difficult mental challenge, because most of the corners were taken at 180+ mph and were not quite flat- every corner was as important as the one before it."

"The lap record of the old triangle-shaped track is 3 minutes and 13.4 seconds, held by the French driver Henri Pescarolo, driving a Matra at the 1973 Spa 1000 km World Sportscar Championship race at an average speed of 262 kilometres per hour (163 mph)"

" [Jackie] Stewart later compared the old Spa circuit in 1986 as being as ferocious as a tiger, and he later described Masta in an interview in 2011 as perhaps the hardest corner on any racetrack he raced on in his career."

Theres a great BBC4 documentary called "Grand Prix - The killer years" with shows alot of this and more:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x14el38_grand-prix-the-killer-years-do

When we talk of the all-time greats in Formula 1, we talk about Juan Manuel Fangio, about Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, and about Michael Schumacher. Indeed, their greatness cannot be doubted. because each of them knew a thing or two about driving in their respective eras.

Fangio raced in the 50s, when racing cars were unreliable contraptions, which could reach 200 km/hr, then could break down at any time and kill you. Senna and Prost were associated with the mid 80s-mid 90s - which was possibly the most competitive era of motor racing, when turbo charged engines and driver aids produced some of the most technologically advanced cars of all time. Schumacher drove in the recent past, and broke almost every record that had been set before him.

However, there is yet another driver who could well lay stake to being one of the greatest of all times - only had destiny had been a bit forgiving.

After Stirling Moss, Jim Clark was the pride of British motorsports in the 60s. The Times put him at number 1 in the list of greatest racing drivers of all time, ahead of the aforementioned mavericks. It wasn't an exaggeration, because when he died in a Formula 2 crash at Germany, he had won more races and scored more pole positions than any other driver before him.

The Italian Grand Prix of 1967 is considered to be one of his most spectacular races.

The circuit at Monza has always been associated with sheer speed, and if there was one single grand prix which was a display of such eye-watering speed it was none other than Clark's in 1967.

Clark, driving for Lotus-Ford had scored pole position, with a time of 1:28.5. He was leading the race and was well on his way to scalp yet another win, but mid-way through the race - disaster struck in the form of a tyre puncture. In the pit-stop that followed, he lost one whole lap, and dropped to 16th place.

All hopes seemed shattered for the 31 year old Briton, which was when he decided to do something quite surrealistic. He tore through Monza's 'Temple of Speed', and systematically destroyed the competition. The fastest-lap time plummeted with every lap that Clark completed, till he went fast enough to set a fastest lap time which was equal to his qualifying pole time. Now when has that happened in Formula 1 before?

But that wasn't it. In the second last lap, he unlapped himself by blasting past his arch-rival Jack Brabham and then past John Surtees' Honda and into the lead. The crowd around the circuit looked on in disbelief. Jim Clarke, had just gone past the race leader, after being a lap down and in 16th place some time back.

However, Clark couldn't make it work till the end, as a faulty fuel pump problem in the last lap, made his car lose all engine power. Surtees and Brabham went past him and Clark coasted past the chequered flag in 3rd position.

I think that pic above is from the 1971 italian gp.

You are absolutely right, but... LOL search for 67 Italian G{ brings up the same pix... I've seen aerial shots of the finish but...

But, Thanl you for pointing that out.

Cheers

Jim Clark won the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in extremely wet, foggy and rainy conditions. After starting eighth on the grid Clark passed all of the cars in front of him, including early leader Graham Hill. About 17 laps into the race, with the rain coming down harder than ever, Clark had not only lapped the entire field except for Bruce McLaren, but he was almost five minutes ahead of McLaren and his Cooper. This would be the first of seven victories for Clark and Team Lotus that year.

He was also able to master difficult Lotus sportscar prototypes such as the Lotus 30 and 40. Clark had an uncanny ability to adapt to whichever car he was driving. Whilst other drivers would struggle to find a good car setup, Clark would usually set competitive lap times with whatever setup was provided and ask for the car to be left as it was.

Led for 190 of 200 laps in winning Indy

Won the british touring car championship

Drove rally cars, finished 3rd at Le Mans, drove a weird 4 wheel drive car in the BOAC 500...

The year he lost to Graham Hill in the Indy because of a miscalculation in number of laps, his win in the Milwaukee Mile, lapping all but 2nd place man...

The tales of running out of fuel, the fuel pump failing, Clark switching the pump on and off top gain that extra yard or two... But the record book speaks volumes of his achievements.. Unequalled.

On returning to the pits Villeneuve whipped off his helmet and beamed at the assembled members of the paddock, who were looking on in disbelief. "That was fun," he said. "I was flat in fifth on the straight, about 160mph. It should have been faster but the engine had a misfire and was down about 600 revs. But for that I could have gone quite a bit faster, but then maybe I would have crashed."

That is so typical of drivers trying to intimidate their opponents. I remember seeing the puncured tyre druve on youtube. But, the concensus of opinion, he destroyed the wheel, rear suspension and with the fuel cell of the time, a massive fire risk.

The number of conflicts between drivers is legendary, the Proust v Mansell at Ferrari... Mansell would leave to fly back to the Isle of Man and Proust would start swapping bits to get the best car. Leyton House copying the William's car and getting the measurements wrong. If you ever read the transcript from the Ferrarigate and FIA hearings... so one sided.

The moves by Max and Bernie to coerce the car manufacturers into F1.... Machiavelli would have been proud.

Just in case some think the F1 fraternity have hijacked this.

Thought it apt to post this.

On returning to the pits Villeneuve whipped off his helmet and beamed at the assembled members of the paddock, who were looking on in disbelief. "That was fun,"

Any bunch of competitors, how ever nice they are away from the "race" will seek an edge. Fact of life. Anyone driving a F1 Ferrari and writing off the rear suspension in trying to get back to the pits is ultra competitive, Otherwise, they sit in the middle of the grid. The talented driver is still a "racer". with all the imperus to win.

I see your Amy Williams and raise you Anna Sidorova.

At play



And ahhhhh at at ...... oh yeah practice



I have just thought of a new sport to rival beach volleyball.

Why not stick with Russian curling ...

Alexandra Saitova

On the ice ...



And ehhh, doing some of those stretching excercises that the Russian womens curling team seem to go in for .....




Fecking hell there were never competitors like this when I used to watch the curling way back.

Now if this keeps going I will be forced to put up the Dutch womens hockey team.

Problem is he just can't keep that mouth shut.

Michele Mouton

and even if you don't remember her, you should remember what she drove (like a bat out of hell)

Marc Marquez AGE:22

Not a fan of racing, but still admire and respect the achievements of some of sports major Irish stars.

Pat Eddery had over 4,600 winners over a career that spanned 36 years.
He was champion jockey 11 times.
Between 1986 and 1996 he was champion for 7 of the 11 years.

It is sad how it all ended due to drink.

I've got to admit, I do love a good conspiracy






At the height of the Cold War, one of the more egregious cheating scandals erupted during the Summer Games in Montreal. Boris Onischenko, who'd medalled in modern pentathlon in 1972, was back four years later aiming for gold. During the fencing component of the five-part compeition, athletes duel with electronically modified swords that are triggered to score a point when the tip comes into contact with an opponent.

Onischenko had an advantage, however, one that was revealed when his British opponent noticed that Onischenko was scoring points even when he didn't make contact. As ESPN describes it, the Soviet's sword "turned out to be wired with a clever system that allowed him to score points at will by means of a hidden trigger." In other words, he'd lunge, hit the button, and get a point.

Onischenko was, understandably, disqualified.

They haven't a hope of batein' Mayo...

The great Ari Vatanen on Pikes Peak in 88.



Now that is my kind of politican.

and the trucks