2. The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test
cricket series played
between England and
Australia since 1882.
3. Gertrude Ederle
1905 –2003 was an
American competitive
swimmer.
In 1926, she became
the first woman to
swim across the
English Channel.
4. Jesse Owens
Was an black American track and
field athlete who specialized in the
sprints and the long jump.
He participated in the 1936 Summer
Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
He was the most successful athlete
at the 1936 Summer Olympics, a
victory more poignant and often
noted because Adolf Hitler had
intended the 1936 games to
showcase his Aryan ideals and
prowess.
5. W. G. Grace
1848 –1915 was an English
amateur cricketer who is widely
acknowledged as one of the
greatest players of all time.
Grace qualified as a medical
practitioner in 1879. Because of
his medical profession, he was
an amateur cricketer but he is
said to have made more money
from his cricketing activities
than any professional cricketer!
6. Mark Spitz
Won seven gold
medals at the 1972
Munich Olympic
Games, an
achievement only
surpassed by
Michael Phelps who
won eight golds at
the 2008 Olympics.
7. Fred Perry
1909 – 1995 was a
championship-winning
English tennis and table
tennis player who won
three consecutive
Wimbledon Championships
between 1934 and 1936
and was World No. 1 four
years in a row.
Perry also became the last
British player to win the
men's Wimbledon
championship in 1936!
8. The Black Power Salute
At the 1968 Olympics a protest was made by the
American athletes Tommie Smith and John
Carlos; the athletes made the raised fist gesture
at the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City.
The event was one of the most overtly political
statements in the history of the modern Olympic
Games.
When "The Star-Spangled Banner" played, Smith
and Carlos delivered the salute with heads
bowed, a gesture which became front page news
around the world.
Smith later said "If I win, I am American, not a
black American. But if I did something bad, then
they would say I am a Negro. We are black and
we are proud of being black. Black America will
understand what we did tonight."
9. Eric Liddell
1902 –1945. Was a Scottish
athlete and rugby union
international player.
Liddell was the winner of the men's 400 metres at the 1924 Summer Olympics in
Paris. A devout Christian, Liddell refused to run in a heat held on Sunday and was
forced to withdraw from the 100-metres race, his best event and enter the 400m.
When the day of the Olympic 400 metres race came, Liddell went to the starting
blocks, where an American Olympic Team member slipped a piece of paper into
his hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30: "Those who honour me I will
honour.“
He broke the existing Olympic and world records with a time of 47.6 seconds.
10. The Boat Race
Annual rowing race between
the Oxford University and the
Cambridge University, rowed
on the River Thames.
The first race was in 1829 and
the event has been held
annually since 1856, except
during the two world wars.
As of 2012 Cambridge have
won the race 81 times and
Oxford 76 times, with one
dead heat.
11. Ben Johnson
A sprinter from Canada.
He set consecutive 100
metres world records at the
1987 World Championships
in Athletics and the 1988
Summer Olympics, but he
was disqualified for doping,
losing the Olympic title and
both records.
12. Wimbledon
Wimbledon is the oldest tennis
tournament in the world. It has
been held at the All England
Club in Wimbledon, London
since 1877.
Wimbledon is the only Major
still played on grass, the game's
original surface, which gave the
game of lawn tennis its name.
The tournament takes place over
two weeks in late June and early
July, culminating with the Ladies'
and Gentlemen's Singles Final,
scheduled respectively for the
second Saturday and Sunday
13. Roger Bannister
Sir Roger Gilbert
Bannister, CBE (born 23
March 1929) is an
English athlete best
known for running the
first mile in less than 4
minutes.
14. Athens 1896
The first international Olympic
Games held in the Modern era.
Because Ancient Greece was the
birthplace of the Olympic Games,
Athens was perceived to be an
appropriate choice to stage the
inaugural modern Games. It was
unanimously chosen as the host city
by Pierre de Coubertin.
The Olympics did not return to
Greece until the 2004 Summer
Olympics, some 108 years later.
15. 1966 World Cup
In 1966 FIFA World Cup,
the eighth staging of the
World Cup, was held in
England.
England beat West
Germany 4–2 in the final,
winning the World Cup for
the first time.
