Olympia – the epic film of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, was the first documentary feature film of the Olympic Games ever made and remains one of the greatest sports films of all time. The film was directed by Leni Riefenstahl, one of Hitler’s golden girls, but you need to look past the Nazi propaganda subtext and enjoy the Olympics action in all its glory. The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker (Festival of Nations) and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit (Festival of Beauty). Here are the German versions of the film, and for those who do not understand the Germann language, it can still be appreciated for the beauty of the cinematography, which was groundbreaking in many ways. See more Olympic Art Projects
Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker (Festival of Nations)
Under 18 Australian Football players who compete in the TAC Cup (now known as the NAB League) take part in a fitness testing day each year, in March before the start of the season. This video of the 2012 testing day shows the 20m sprint, vertical jump, AFL agility test and beep test. The current players (boys and girls) do the yo-yo test instead of the beep test. See more about the NAB League Testing Days with all recent results.
Here is the final for the AFL player 100m sprint race from the 2020 AFL Grand Final day. The sprint this year was held during the quarter-time break for the first time, as the usual half-time was taken up by the entertainment show. The winner was the Geelong’s Jordan Clark. Unfortunately for Geelong, they were not able to replicate the victory in the main match. See more about the Grand Final Sprint.
The AFL player sprint race was again held at half time of the 2019 AFL Grand Final. The winner was Ben King from the Gold Coast Suns, the first time a Suns player has won the event. Thankfully there were no ring-ins this year, with all the 18 participants coming from AFL clubs. Last year’s race included a couple of amateur U18 players, with one of them, Godfrey Okereneyang from the Coolamon Hoppers Club, winning the final. See more about the history of the Grand Final Sprint.
The NFL Quarterback Challenge was a long-running competition held up until 2007. This video of the 1998 event featured Brett Favre winning the long-distance throw with 74-yards.
It wasn’t the best ever in the competition, the longest was 80 yards (73 meters) by Vinnie Testaverde achieved in 1988. Equal second were Kordell Stewart and Drew Bledsoe with 73 yards, followed by Steve McNair with 72 yards.
Check out our page which in which we have collated many of the results, featuring many great names in NFL history. Peyton Manning was second in 2002 with 68 yards, and the competition was won by Tom Brady in 2003 with 62 yards.
Here is another variation of the yo-yo test, the Water Polo Intermittent Shuttle Test (WIST), designed to mimic the demands of the sport of water polo, based on the running Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1. Swimmers shuttle across 7.5m in the pool, with 10-second recovery after every 15m. The test may have the same timings as the yo-yo intermittent recovery test level 1, but the swimming distance is reduced to compensate for the slower swimming rate. This test is part of the suggested fitness testing for water polo players, and on our new list of swimming fitness tests.
Here is the final for the AFL player sprint race held at half time of the 2018 AFL Grand Final. The winner was Godfrey Okereneyang from the Coolamon Hoppers Club, representing young footballers from around the country. The 16-year-old Okereneyang is a player from the GWS Academy. The highest placed AFL player was Jordan Murdoch from Geelong, who finished third. A little embarrassing for the professional footballers (the same thing happened in 2016). See more about the history of the Grand Final Sprint.
The camel jumpers in Yemen look impressive, though the ramp up to the take-off point gives them a good lift. It would be interesting to see how they would go doing a standard long jump, or for a long jumper or high jumper to have a go at camel jumping!
They usually jump between 4 to 6 camels, though the hight of the ramp and the height of the camel would obviously vary, and they also sometimes have saddles on the camels, so standardization is an issue. A new Olympic sport? There are a few things to sort out first, and sourcing a standard set of camels would be the first thing. See more about Camel Jumping.
Imagine a sports league where enormous machines, controlled by an athlete sitting within, would compete in challenges like racing through obstacle courses, overcoming hurdles such as pushing giant boulders and scaling tall hills, or even fighting each other. You can only imagine such a sport at the moment as only one has been built yet, and it is still a little slow and cumbersome. But one day …. See more about Mech Racing, and other New Sports.
A description of all the physical tests conducted at the AFL annual pre-draft combine, with information about how the tests relate to football performance. This video was produced before some changes to the testing list in 2017, when the beep test and was replaced with the yo-yo intermittent test and the 3-kilometre time-trial was reduced to a 2km run. See more about the AFL combine.
