“Did you know what?” – this section with interesting facts from the world of sports that you may not have known. In issue No. 2, the next fifteen amazing facts.
Interesting facts about sports
The Gagarin Cup weighs 26.8 kg and is made of sterling silver with gilding. The bowl holds 12 liters of champagne or beer (4 times more than the Stanley Cup).The trophy was named after the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who is the pride of the nation and was elected a citizen of the world.- The fencing mask was invented at the end of the 18th century, more precisely in 1780 and it was invented by the French master La Boessiere. The mask is still used today, nowadays it is simply impossible to practice without it.
- The first victory at the World Figure Skating Championships was won by Alexei Pavlovich Lebedev, a Russian figure skater, world record holder in speed skating, who was later nicknamed “Grandfather of Russian figure skaters”.
The UEFA Europa League trophy weighs 15 kilograms and is made entirely of silver. The main trophy of the tournament is not hermetically sealed, i.e. it is not possible to traditionally celebrate the victory by pouring champagne or beer into the vessel. You must bring your own tableware to the Europa League final 
- The longest match in volleyball was recorded in the United States, and it lasted more than 75 hours (that’s almost 3 days). According to statistics, players make more than 250 jumps per match and run only 1 km. I wonder how many jumps the players made in this match?
- Volleyball is currently the second most popular sport in the world, second only to soccer. About 1 billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, play this sport.
Today, a boxing mouth guard is not only a boxer’s defense, but also his secret weapon, as it can increase an athlete’s strength by 30%. We are talking about a neuromuscular mouth guard, which is made individually for each athlete.The neuromuscular mouth guard contains information about the position of the athlete’s jaw, in which all muscles are relaxed. By wearing the mouth guard, the athlete automatically starts the “jaw muscle relaxation” mode, which helps to avoid reflexive overstretching of the back and neck muscles.- Ancient skiers used only one pole. The skis themselves were of different lengths, with the short skis providing traction and the long skis being used to glide across the snow.
In skiing at speeds of 25-30 km/h at strong headwinds, the intimate area suffers the most. In Soviet times, the function of wind protection was performed by an ordinary newspaper, but now they use functional underwear with “windstopper” membrane, which evenly covers the entire surface of sports underwear.- The protective glass on the bobsledder’s helmet is made of ordinary plastic, but it is double-glazed, with an air gap between the plates. Thanks to this, the glass does not fog up and the athlete has a perfect view throughout the entire descent.
In 2021, a volleyball sold for $308,000 at the famed Prop Store auction of props from movies and TV shows. The spirited prop, nicknamed “Mr. Wilson” from the movie Outcast, became the most expensive volleyball in history.Now a replica of the ball can be found in sports stores as a souvenir version.
- Due to the fact that poker in Russia is only allowed to be played in designated gaming zones, tournaments are held in neighboring countries such as Ukraine. Poker is recognized as an official sport there, so the Russian Poker Tour and Russian Poker Series are held there, which is kind of fun.
The most titled Russian footballer, who will be very difficult for current and future generations to overtake, is Dmitri Ananko (9 Russian league titles).Dmitri, who played as a defender, was a part of the “golden era” of Spartak Moscow and fully received his personal “dividends” from it.
In the 18th century, dominoes were a popular game among European nobles and aristocracy. Many of them even had personalized sets made of precious materials such as ivory, silver or gold.
Even today gift sets of dominoes are made of amber.
- The world is still debating who invented the game of checkers. The creation of checkers is also attributed to the Egyptian god of wisdom, Thoth. Having invented the game, Thoth offered to play it to the goddess of the moon, and won the whole 5 days, that’s how the year became 365 days. But all these are, of course, beautiful legends.
