Portal:Sports

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The Sports Portal

Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which also provides opportunities to nurture physical fitness and social interaction skills.

A sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a particular sport can vary from hundreds of people to a single individual.

Sport competitions may use a team or single person format, and may be open, allowing a broad range of participants, or closed, restricting participation to specific groups or those invited. Competitions may allow a "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide tie-breaking methods to ensure there is only one winner. They also may be arranged in a tournament format, producing a champion. Many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season, followed in some cases by playoffs. (Full article...)

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Westpac Stadium in 2005

Selected quote

Muhammad Ali in 1967
Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.     

Selected athlete

Yao Ming in a Huston Rockets jersey
Yao Ming in a Huston Rockets jersey
Yao Ming (born September 12, 1980 in Shanghai) is a retired Chinese professional basketball player who last played for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). At the time of his final season, he was the tallest active player in the NBA, at 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in). One of China's best-known athletes, Yao had sponsorships with several major companies.

Yao, who was born in Shanghai, started playing for the Shanghai Sharks as a teenager, and played on their senior team for five years in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), winning a championship in his final year. After negotiating with the CBA and the Sharks to secure his release, Yao was selected by the Houston Rockets as the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, becoming the first international player ever to be selected first overall without having previously played U.S. college basketball. Yao was selected to start for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game eight times, and was named to the All-NBA Team five times. He reached the NBA Playoffs four times, and the Rockets won a first-round series in the 2009 postseason, their first playoff series victory since 1997.

However, in his final six seasons, Yao missed 250 regular-season games due to foot and ankle injuries. He retired in 2011, citing his injuries. Shaquille O'Neal said Yao "was very agile. He could play inside, he could play outside, and if he didn't have those injuries he could've been up there in the top five centers to ever play the game."

Yao was nominated by a member of the Chinese media for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for his contributions to the game, but Yao felt it was too soon and requested that the Hall of Fame delay consideration of the nomination. His rookie year in the NBA was the subject of a documentary film, The Year of the Yao, and he co-wrote, along with NBA analyst Ric Bucher, an autobiography titled Yao: A Life in Two Worlds. (Full article...)

Selected team

Malmö FF line up before a 2011–12 UEFA Europa League group stage match
Malmö FF line up before a 2011–12 UEFA Europa League group stage match
Malmö Fotbollförening, also known simply as Malmö FF, is a Swedish professional association football club based in Malmö. The club is affiliated with Skånes Fotbollförbund and the team play their home games at Swedbank Stadion. The club colours, reflected in their crest and kit, are sky blue and white.

Formed on 24 February 1910, the club have won sixteen national championship titles and fourteen national cup titles, making them the most successful club in Sweden in terms of total trophies won. Malmö FF have also won the highest Swedish league, Allsvenskan, on three occasions when the title of Swedish champions was not decided by the outcome of that league. They were runners-up in the 1979 European Champions Cup final, which they lost 1–0 to English club Nottingham Forest. This made them the only Swedish football club, as of 2012, to have reached the final of the competition, for which the team were awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal.

Malmö FF is an open member association and the annual general meeting is the highest policy-making body. The meeting approves the accounts and elects the chairman and board. With an equity of 109.5 million SEK (approximately €12.4 million) the club is the richest football club in Sweden as of 2012.

The club first won Allsvenskan in 1944. Malmö FF were most successful during the 1970s, when they won five Swedish championships and four Svenska Cupen titles. The main rivals of the club are Helsingborgs IF, IFK Göteborg, and historically IFK Malmö. MFF Support is the official fan club of Malmö FF. The club have also been featured in the media, including the football documentaries Blådårar 1 and Blådårar 2. (Full article...)

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