Top 10 Sporty Events
Forty-six cars can participate in the 24 hours of France's Le Mans, in a diverse series of classes that include prototype high-performance vehicles, dedicated race cars, and street cars.
Photograph by Jean Francois Monier/Getty
From the National Geographic book The
10 Best of Everything1. The 24 Hours of Le Mans, France
Skill, speed, and stamina are the three s’s that
mark the world’s best automobile race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race,
organized by Automobile Club de L’Ouest, bridges past and present on the
automotive circuit.
The competition is set on a non-permanent track
at Circuit de la Sarthe near the city of Le Mans on the Sarthe River. Roughly
46 cars start the race, in a series of classes that include prototype
high-performance vehicles, dedicated race cars, and street cars. The diversity
of autos gives the race a mix of old-fashioned and modern competitors. The
winner is the car, driven by a team of three drivers, that covers the greatest
distance in 24 hours.
The first Le Mans contest took place in May 1923;
today it is held every June. The race begins at 4 p.m., and for 24 hours the
sound of roaring engines fills 8 miles (13 kilometers) of French countryside.
2. The Olympic Games
It’s hard to imagine that Zeus and the other gods
lording over ancient Greece ever envisioned the global event the modern
Olympiad has become. For a two-week span, athletes from dozens of countries
compete against each other in scores of different sports. And that’s just the
Summer Games, which began their modern run in the late 1800s. The Winter Games,
featuring sports that largely require snow and ice, draw a smaller field of
competitors. But the competition for the gold, silver, and bronze is just as
intense. Remember Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan?
National rivalries are varied. Consider the
United States hockey team winning the gold over the favored Soviets in 1980;
Jamaica’s jubilant 1988 bobsled team overcoming long odds to win hearts, not
medals; or Argentina beating America’s 2004 “Dream Team” and going on to
capture the gold in basketball. Even the competition among national Olympic
committees to host the games is fierce, with bribery accusations and
investigations becoming, sadly, the norm in sports news over the last several
years.
Still the games must go on; to be sure that they
do, the International Olympic Committee decided to stagger the Winter and
Summer Games. So during every even-numbered year, runners will bear the torch
that eventually lights the Olympic flame somewhere in the world.
3. World Cup Soccer
Thirty-two nations play, but billions of people
in countries all around the world drop everything they’re doing for a month
every four years to see who claims the title of World Cup soccer champion.
The teams that compete in the World Cup finals
are those that emerge from a series of qualifying rounds played out over the
prior three years. The tournament of tournaments is therefore a showcase of the
finest squads from across the continents and hemispheres.
It’s during the finals that the intense challenge
begins. First, in a series of first-round games, each team plays the three
rivals in its opening bracket. Teams get three points for each win, one point
for a tie, and zero for a loss. The top two teams in the bracket then move on
to the single-game elimination rounds, with victorious teams proceeding though
quarterfinal and semifinal rounds before the final championship match.
All the while the world’s gaze is squarely fixed
on the matches and the festival atmosphere in the stands. Chanting, singing,
flag-waving, and superstitions are all part of the carnival that ensues.
Since the first World Cup tournament took place
in 1930, the most dominant team has been Brazil. Winner of five championships
since 1958, the greatest Brazilian teams were led by perhaps the most famous
soccer player ever, Pele.
Rivalries are often fierce and deeply rooted: Two
of the many in the sport are between England and Argentina, and one that has
recently emerged between neighbors—Mexico and the United States.
4. The Super Bowl, United States
The Super Bowl is so big that even the
commercials are worth watching. The first Super Bowl (held in January 1967) was
played to plenty of empty seats and a waning TV audience. But now Super Bowl
Sundays, progressively marked with Roman numerals, are the most celebrated
one-game professional championship on the 12-month Gregorian calendar.
The Super Bowl concludes a 16-game regular
season, and three postseason play-off rounds. It pits the top team from the
American Football Conference against the top team from the National Football
Conference for the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy (not to mention
diamond-studded rings for players, coaches, and front office “suits”). The
Sunday evening spectacle is preceded by two weeks of parties and pre-game hype.
5. The National Basketball Association Finals, United States
The NBA Finals. Showtime and the “Ghosts of the
Garden.” Rockets and Knicks, Spurs and Pistons. The National Basketball
Association’s finals are a showdown of stars and teams for the ages. It takes
four games to win, but at least 93 games to get there. And the teams that do
bring a lot of glitter with them. Movie stars in front-row seats. Cheerleaders
that resemble Las Vegas show girls in high-energy dance routines. The
see-and-be-seen spectacle ringing the court is as intriguing as the game itself.
Pro basketball has changed radically over the
last four decades. The three-point shot, the slam-dunk, a pendulum swing
against defense makes NBA ball a high-scoring, acrobatic affair. What hasn’t
changed is the prize, the right to be crowned world champion.
6. The Masters, United States
The green jacket. That’s all one has to say. The
brainchild of legends Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts, the first Masters was
held in 1934. It was called Augusta National Invitation Tournament for the
first five years of its existence before the name changed to what it is today.
Unlike other sports championships and showcase events, the Masters remains
steeped in tradition and continuity. The four-day stroke playing of 18 holes
each day instead of the formerly customary 36 holes on the third day is still
the rule.
Jones and Roberts left indelible images on the
sport. But it was in the 1950s that legends and superstars took over the game.
A pair of victories by Ben Hogan, and the first of four for Arnold Palmer made
those two players the best known in America. The 1960s marked the arrival of
the “Golden Bear,” Jack Nicklaus, who became the first Masters champion to
repeat in consecutive years. Today, the average winning score is eight under
par. The setting at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia,
provides a lush, southern scenery that is unmatched at courses around the
world.
7. Polo at Palermo, Argentina
Argentine polo is considered the best in the
world, and it’s no wonder the Argentine Open Championship is the top draw for
the sport’s best players and most knowledgeable fans. The tournament, first known
as the River Plata Polo Championship, takes place between late November and
early December. First held in 1893, the tournament is older than the tango.
In 1923, the new Argentine Polo Association moved
to the field in Palermo, where polo has been played ever since. The host
country usually dominates, given that Argentines have dominated the sport since
the end of World War II.
The Argentine Open is played in the Catedral, the
grounds in the chic Palermo neighborhood of the capital city. The sport was introduced
in Argentina by English ranchers, but it soon became the domain of the
Argentine gauchos, cowboys, who were expert and skilled in a similar game
called pato. Observers of modern global sport competitions insist that
true polo aficionados must attend the Argentine Polo Open at least once in
their lives.
8. Wimbledon, England
Center court. Grass surfaces. Strawberries and
cream. What better way to spend a fortnight in old London Town? Wimbledon at
the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. Located in southwest London,
this grand spectacle is one of the four tennis tournaments that make up the
grand slam.
Wimbledon is considered to be the most
prestigious, largely because of its setting and surrounding pomp. It’s the only
major tournament played on a natural turf surface.
Wimbledon has figured prominently in the history
of tennis and in its development into the egalitarian and highly skilled sport
that so many millions enjoy. Originally created in France during the 12th
century, the sport took its modern form in Britain during the 1800s. In 1874,
Walter Clopton Wingfield patented his game of lawn tennis in London, and three
years later, Wimbledon, the first of the major tournaments, was created.
The setting at Wimbledon and its history only
magnifies the match-ups on the grass courts. Connors versus Borg. Evert and
Navratilova. Agassi and Sampras. Venus versus Serena. The winner on center
court holds a trophy to show who has reached the mountaintop, and perhaps a
number one ranking in the world tennis order.
9. World Series, United States
Home runs and chilly nights. Pitching duels and
seventh-game thrillers. A century’s worth of the World Series has seen all that
and much, much more. The Fall Classic is more than a sporting event; it’s a
fixture on the American cultural landscape. Grandfathers and grandmothers
remember Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956. Fathers and mothers recall the
amazing Mets of 1969. And sons and daughters have grown up with another New
York Yankees dynasty.
To get to the series, each of the 32 teams in the
major leagues must endure a 162-game season, followed by three playoff rounds.
The first is a best-of-five series, followed by two best-of-seven series. The
World Series engenders nostalgia, too, stretching from the hopeful days of
April and spring, through the doggedly hot days of summer, before reaching the
apex in the autumn winds of October, when heroics on the mound and in the
batter’s box prove decisive.
10. The Grand National, England
Stamina and speed make the Grand National’s
steeplechase the world’s most renowned horse race. First held in 1839, the
three-day meet is held in Britain’s Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool. The Grand
National pits as many as 40 horses against each other on a 4.5-mile (7-kilometer)
course replete with obstacles.
The challenges presented by the steeplechase
require the competing horses and jockeys to demonstrate a variety of riding
skills. The horses and riders have to successfully jump a total of 30 fences,
made more difficult by a six-foot-wide ditch on the take-off side. After the
final fence is cleared, the first horse to reach the finish line in a 494-yard
(451-meter) sprint wins the race.
The Grand National takes place every April, and
captures the attention of Britain like no other event in the country’s sporting
calendar. The first event, Opening Day, brings a crowd of 26,000 spectators to
Aintree for the start of the racing cycle. The second day, known as Ladies Day,
combines sport with fashion and is considered the highlight of northern
England’s social season. The Grand National is held on the final day,
completing the three-day extravaganza of sport and culture.
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