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Great Britain And Northern Ireland At The 1996 Summer Olympics
Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States. British athletes have competed in every single Summer Olympic Games. 300 competitors, 184 men and 116 women, took part in 175 events in 22 sports. The Atlanta games saw Great Britain's worst performance at a Summer Olympics since 1952, finishing in 36th position - below nations such as Belgium, Algeria and Kazakhstan - winning a single gold medal, and 15 medals overall. The poor British performance at the Atlanta Olympics led to the creation of UK Sport, a public body which distributes National Lottery funding for elite sports, which started the following year. Previously, due to a lack of funding, cyclist Chris Boardman had acclimatised to the humidity of Atlanta by practicing in his home bathroom with the shower turned on, and divers Bob Morgan and Tony Ally sold their Olympic kits while in Atlanta in order to raise funds. Nevertheless, the sin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Olympic Association
The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both the summer and winter Olympic Games, the Youth Olympic Games, the European Youth Olympic Festivals, and at the European Games. BOA members and sporting bodies The British Olympic Association – of the United Kingdom, its constituent countries, the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories which do not have their own NOC – competes at all summer, winter and youth Olympics as Great Britain ("Team GB"). Members The association comprises members from the following – * ** ** ** ** Note – Northern Irish athletes can choose whether to compete for Great Britain or for the Republic of Ireland, as they are entitled to citizenship of either nation under the Good Friday Agreement. Crown Dependencies: * * * British Overse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Ally
Antonio "Tony" Pietro Ally (born ''Ali'', 17 August 1973) is a British diver. Early life Ally was brought up in Catford, London and had a difficult start to life after being diagnosed with a hearing disorder during childhood. When he was nine, his brother died and later reasoned that hearing his brother's voice "spurred him on for 19 years". He used to enjoy kickboxing as a child but only as a means of training. He moved to Sheffield in 1992 and trained at Ponds Forge, a leisure complex. Diving career Ally won his first senior national championship when he was aged 12, with coaching being done by lip-reading, as Ally expressed being too proud to wear "old, ugly, cumbersome" hearing aids in his earlier years. Around the same time, he represented Great Britain in Strasbourg and beat all his competition. Olympic Games In Ally's first Olympic Games he competed in the 1996 men's 3 metre springboard at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atalanta, United States. Four years later he compete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Edwards (triple Jumper)
Jonathan David Edwards, (born 10 May 1966) is a British former triple jumper. He is an Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth champion, and has held the world record in the event since 1995. Following his retirement as an athlete, Edwards has worked as a sports (primarily athletics) commentator and presenter for BBC television. Formerly a devout Christian, he also presented episodes of the BBC Christian worship programme ''Songs of Praise'', until he renounced his faith in 2007. In 2011 he was elected President of the Wenlock Olympian Society following the death of its then President, Roy Rogers. He was a member of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games for the 2012 games. Education Edwards was born in Westminster, London and attended West Buckland School in Devon where his potential for the triple jump was spotted at an early age. He was a strong all-rounder, and on leaving received the school's top award for sporting and academic excelle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Backley
Stephen James Backley, OBE (born 12 February 1969) is a retired British track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He formerly held the world record, and his throw from 1992 is the British record. During his career, he was a firm fixture in the British national athletics team. He won four gold medals at the European Championships, three Commonwealth Games gold medals, two silvers and a bronze at the Olympic Games, and two silvers at the World Championships. Currently, he is an occasional commentator for athletics competitions, especially the field events. Career Early life Backley was educated at Hurst Primary School, Bexley, and later at Bexley and Erith Technical High School for Boys (now Beths Grammar School) in his teens. He was a member of Cambridge Harriers Athletics club, and competed for Bexley in the London Youth Games. He enrolled at Loughborough University in October 1988 to study for a BSc Honours degree in physical education, sports scienc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Ainslie
Sir Charles Benedict Ainslie (born 5 February 1977) is a British competitive sailor. Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at the four consecutive Games (Sydney, Athens, Beijing & London) held between 2000 and 2012. He is one of three athletes to win medals in five different Olympic Games in sailing, being the third person to win five Olympic medals in that sport (after Torben Grael and Robert Scheidt) and also the second to win four gold medals, after Paul Elvstrøm. Ben is Team Principal, CEO and Skipper of INEOS Britannia and CEO and Driver of the Great Britain SailGP Team. Early life Ainslie was born in Macclesfield, England to Roddy and Sue Ainslie. Roddy captained a boat that took part in the first Whitbread Round The World Race in 1973. Ben's elder sister, Fleur, is married to Jerome Pels, former secretary general of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). Ainslie was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cycling
Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two-wheeled bicycles, "cycling" also includes the riding of unicycles, tricycles, quadricycles, recumbent and similar human-powered vehicles (HPVs). Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century and now number approximately one billion worldwide. They are the principal means of transportation in many parts of the world, especially in densely populated European cities. Cycling is widely regarded as an effective and efficient mode of transportation optimal for short to moderate distances. Bicycles provide numerous possible benefits in comparison with motor vehicles, including the sustained physical exercise involved in cycling, easier parking, increased maneuverability, and access to roads, bike paths and rural trails. Cycling also offers a r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball validly will not gain a point, while the opposite player will. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society and at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis. It had close connections both to various field (lawn) games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport today called real tennis. The rules of modern tennis have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that results in directional motion. Humans can hold their breath underwater and undertake rudimentary locomotive swimming within weeks of birth, as a survival response. Swimming is consistently among the top public recreational activities, and in some countries, swimming lessons are a compulsory part of the educational curriculum. As a formalized sport, swimming is featured in a range of local, national, and international competitions, including every modern Summer Olympics. Swimming involves repeated motions known as strokes in order to propel the body forward. While the front crawl, also known as freestyle, is widely regarded as the fastest out of four primary strokes, other strokes are practiced for special purposes, such as for training. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen course, which is often part of a larger plan of navigation. From prehistory until the second half of the 19th century, sailing craft were the primary means of maritime trade and transportation; exploration across the seas and oceans was reliant on sail for anything other than the shortest distances. Naval power in this period used sail to varying degrees depending on the current technology, culminating in the gun-armed sailing warships of the Age of Sail. Sail was slowly replaced by steam as the method of propulsion for ships over the latter part of the 19th century – seeing a gradual improvement in the technology of steam through a number of stepwise developments. Steam allowed scheduled services that ran at higher average speeds than sail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athletics
Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitions based on human qualities of stamina, fitness, and skill ** College athletics, non-professional, collegiate- and university-level competitive physical sports and games Teams * Oakland Athletics, an American professional baseball team * Philadelphia Athletics (1860–76), an American professional baseball team * Philadelphia Athletics (American Association), an American professional baseball team, 1882–1890 * Philadelphia Athletics (1890–91), an American baseball team * Philadelphia Athletics (NFL), a professional American football team, 1902–1903 Other uses * Athletics (band), an American post-rock band See also * Athlete (other) * Athletic (other) Athletic may refer to: * An athlete, a sportsperson * Athl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically attached to the boat, and the rower drives the oar like a lever, exerting force in the ''same'' direction as the boat's travel; while paddles are completely hand-held and have no attachment to the boat, and are driven like a cantilever, exerting force ''opposite'' to the intended direction of the boat. In some strict terminologies, using oars for propulsion may be termed either "pulling" or "rowing", with different definitions for each. Where these strict terminologies are used, the definitions are reversed depending on the context. On saltwater a "pulling boat" has each person working one oar on one side, alternating port and starboard along the length of the boat; whilst "rowing" means each person operates two oars, one on each side of the b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronze Medal Icon
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such as arsenic or silicon. These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as ultimate tensile strength, strength, ductility, or machinability. The three-age system, archaeological period in which bronze was the hardest metal in widespread use is known as the Bronze Age. The beginning of the Bronze Age in western Eurasia and India is conventionally dated to the mid-4th millennium BCE (~3500 BCE), and to the early 2nd millennium BCE in China; elsewhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300 BCE and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BCE, although bronze continued to be much more widely used than it is in mod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
