3. Basic information
While rowing, the athlete sits in the boat facing backwards (towards the
stern), and uses the oars which are held in place by the oarlocks to propel
the boat forward (towards the bow). This may be done on a canal, river,
lake, sea, or other large body of water. The sport requires strong core
balance as well as physical strength and cardiovascular endurance.
Whilst the action of rowing and equipment used remains fairly consistent
throughout the world, there are many different types of competition. These
include endurance races, time trials, stake racing, bumps racing, and the
side-by-side format used in the Olympic games. The many different
formats are a result of the long history of the sport, its development in
different regions of the world, and specific local requirements and
restrictions.
4. There are two forms of rowing:
In sweep or sweep-oar rowing, each rower has one oar,
held with both hands. This is generally done in pairs, fours,
and eights. In some regions of the world, each rower in a
sweep boat is referred to either as port or starboard,
depending on which side of the boat the rower's oar
extends to. In other regions, the port side is referred to as
stroke side, and the starboard side as bow side; this
applies even if the stroke oarsman is rowing on bow side
and/or the bow oarsman on stroke side.
A rower sculling in a single scull
In sculling each rower has two oars (or sculls), one in each
hand. Sculling is usually done without a coxswain, in
quads, doubles or singles. The oar in the sculler's right hand
extends to port (stroke side), and the oar in the left hand
extends to starboard (bow side).
5.
6. FOOTBALL
League system
The first league of professional football in Greece was officially
established as the Panhellenic Championship in 1927. The league ran
until 1959, when it was replaced by the Alpha Ethniki which ran until
2006 when it was then replaced by Superleague Greece.
Superleague Greece is the top-flight professional football division
within Greece. The league contains 16 clubs, with the winners of the
league becoming the Champions of Greece. The team with the most
national championships is Olympiacos, who have won 39 times - 5
Super League titles, 19 Alpha Ethniki titles and 15 Panhellenic
Championships.Two other P.O.K. clubs also dominate the history of
Greek football; Panathinaikos with 21 titles and AEK Athens with 11
titles.At the end of the season the bottom three clubs in Super League
are relegated to Beta Ethniki, to be replaced by teams promoted from
that division. Below the Beta Ethniki the league structure becomes
regionalised, with a North and South Gamma Ethniki, 12 regional
Delta Ethniki groups, and numerous Local championships one level
lower.
7. National team
The Greek national team's first match came on April 7, 1929
in a 1-4 loss to Italy. Greece have qualified for the FIFA World
Cup twice, in 1994 and in 2010. Greece have qualified for
the European Championship four times, their first in 1980,
their second in 2004, their third in 2008 and their fourth in
2012. 2004 was their most successful run as they became
champions by defeating hosts Portugal in the finals.
8. BASKETBALL
The Greek Basket League (GBL), commonly referred to as
the Greek Basketball League or Greek Basketball
Championship, is the highest professional basketball
league in Greece. It is run by HEBA (Greek: ΕΣΑΚΕ). The
league is also known as the Greek Basket League OPAP
for sponsorship reasons.
It is ranked as one of the top 3 level national domestic
leagues in European basketball by the ULEB League
Rankings System. It consists of 14 teams and runs from
October to June, with teams playing 26 games each
during the regular season, and the top 8 teams then
competing in the playoffs. The first official Greek
Basketball Championship was held in the 1927-28 season.
9. History
Basketball first came to Greece in the year 1910. By the 1927-28 season,
the first official championship began. There have been four different
official championship eras. The first era was the Panhellenic
Championship, which lasted from the 1927-28 to 1962-63 seasons, when
the champions of every regional district played each other to decide
the Greek Champion. The second era started in the 1963-64 season,
when the A National Category was founded.
In 1969, the Hellenic Basketball Federation took over the duties of
overseeing the competition, and did so until the year 1992. The third era
of the championship existed between the 1986-87 and 1991-92
seasons, when the first division A1 National Category, with a regular
season and playoffs, and the second division A2 National Category
were formed. The fourth era of the championship began in the 1992-93
season, when the Hellenic Basketball Clubs Association (HEBA) took
over the competition and renamed the first division the HEBA A1, and
the second division the HEBA A2
10. The Greek League has been one of the most competitive
basketball leagues in Europe through the years and it was widely
regarded as the second best national league in the world after
only the NBA in the 1990s decade. It currently ranks among the
best national domestic leagues in the world (excluding the NBA),
such as Liga ACB in Spain and Lega A in Italy. It is considered one
of the 3 European "A" level leagues under the ULEB League
Rankings System. The league has several great powers which
belong to the most traditional European basketball clubs,
especially the Euroleague giants Panathinaikos and Olympiacos.
Other clubs that have had significant successes throughout the
history of Greek basketball are AEK Athens and Aris. Along with
PAOK, the aforementioned clubs are the most successful and
widely supported in Greece.
Despite the championship having been contested 71 times, only
nine different clubs have won it so far. The dominating club has
always been Panathinaikos, having claimed the championship 32
times. Since its foundation, only two teams have participated in
every season of the first division since 1963-64: Panathinaikos and
Aris.
11.
12. swimming
History
The sport of swimming has been recorded since prehistoric times; the earliest
recording of swimming dates back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago.
Written references date from 2000 BC. Some of the earliest references to swimming
include the Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, Beowulf, Quran and other
sagas. In 1778, Nikolaus Wynmann, a German professor of languages, wrote the first
swimming book, The Swimmer or A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming. Competitive
swimming as we know it today started in the United States started around 1800,
mostly using breaststroke. Many Americans often used swimming competitions to
settle differences in the frontier, such as property rights. In 1873, John Arthur Trudgen
introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front
crawl used by Native Americans. Due to a British dislike of splashing, Trudgen
employed a scissor kick instead of the front crawl's flutter kick. Swimming was part of
the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. In 1902 Richmond Cavill introduced
the front crawl to the Western world. In 1908, the world swimming association,
Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), was formed. Butterfly was developed in
the 1930s and was at first a variant of breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate
style in 1952.
13.
14. SAILING
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control
of its movement with large (usually fabric) foils called
sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes
the keel or centreboard, a sailor manages the force of
the wind on the sails in order to move the vessel
relative to its surrounding medium (typically water,
but also land and ice) and change its direction and
speed. Mastery of the skill requires experience in
varying wind and sea conditions, as well as
knowledge concerning sailboats themselves and an
understanding of one's surroundings.
While there are still some places in the world where
sail-powered passenger, fishing and trading vessels
are used, these craft have become rarer as internal
combustion engines have become economically
viable in even the poorest and most remote areas. In
most countries sailing is enjoyed as a recreational
activity or as a sport. Recreational sailing or yachting
can be divided into racing and cruising. Cruising can
include extended offshore and ocean-crossing trips,
coastal sailing within sight of land, and daysailing.
15. KANOE KAYAK
Canoeing is a paddle sport in which you kneel or sit facing forward in an open-decked
canoe, and propel yourself with a single-bladed paddle, under your own power.
Kayaking is a similar activity in a kayak which usually has a closed deck and is propelled
with a double bladed paddle. In a kayak the paddler typically sits with legs extended
forward.
In some situations canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking. Other than by the
minimum competition specifications (typically length and width (beam) and seating
arrangement it is difficult to differentiate most competition canoes from the equivalent
competition kayaks. The most common difference is that competition kayaks are
always seated and paddled with a double-bladed paddle, and competition canoes are
generally kneeled and paddled with a single-bladed paddle. Exceptions include Canoe
Marathon (in both European and American competitive forms) and sprint (high
kneeling position). The most traditional and early canoes did not have seats, the
paddlers merely knelt on the bottom of the boat. Recreational canoes and kayaks
employ seats and whitewater rodeo and surf variants increasingly employ the use of
'saddles' to give greater boat control under extreme conditions.
