Sporting Facts to satisfy your Sports Trivia appetite
The world of sports is one that’s famous for producing intriguing statistics and we love learning sporting facts. Whether you’re swotting up so can help your quiz team to glory, or just want to impress your friends and family with your knowledge, this list of our ten favorite pieces of sports trivia is for you.
1. Golf Balls Have, On Average, 336 Dimples
The dimples on a golf ball are designed to make it more aerodynamic. Allowing it to travel further in the air. There are no official rules about how many dimples a golf ball can have and most feature between 300 and 500.
Golf ball manufacturers will manipulate the number, shape, size, and even edge angles to optimize ball flight and trajectory.
2. Olympic Gold Medals are Predominantly Made from Sterling Silver
The Olympic medals aren’t fully made with the same metals that they’re named after. For example, the gold medals only contain about six grams of gold. Otherwise, at least 92.5 percent is made from silver. The last fully gold medals given out dates back to 1912.
Despite their name and colour, the gold medals presented to winners at the Olympic Games haven’t been made from solid gold since 1912. The modern gold medals are made from sterling silver and feature just small quantities of the precious metal (the Rio 2016 versions were 1.34 percent gold).
3. Formula One Driver, Sebastian Vettel, Wears Lucky Coins in His Racing Boots
F1 drivers are well-known to be a superstitious bunch and three-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel is no exception. When driving for Red Bull, he revealed that he usually wears lucky coins tucked into the laces of his boots.
4. Sports Have Been Played on the Moon
In 1971, Alan Shephard and Edgar Mitchell made history when they became the first people to play sport on the moon. The Apollo 14 astronauts participated in what Mitchell later jokingly described as “the first lunar Olympics”. Shephard hit a golf ball while Mitchell threw a makeshift javelin – it was actually a staff they’d used in one of their scientific experiments.
5. Michael Phelps Has Won More Olympic Golds Than Mexico
The American swimmer added five gold medals and a silver to his collection in Rio 2016. To take his Olympic medal haul to a record-breaking total of 28. According to Time Magazine, he’s won more Olympic golds during his career than many countries, including Portugal and Mexico, have won since 1896.
