An almanac of world sport
Where sport comes from,
and how it actually works.
Most sports writing tells you who won. This is the other half: how each game was codified, what its laws really say, where its trophies came from, and who decides the rules. Traced to governing-body texts, competition archives and museum records.
Sources cited on every page Claims dated and verified No betting content
Contents
- 01 Origins & History Where each sport actually came from — who codified it, when, and which rules changed along the way. Dated to primary sources rather than repeated folklore. 13 entries
- 02 Trophies & Competitions The history of the trophies themselves and the competitions behind them — what they are made of, who made them, and how each contest has changed shape. 6 entries
- 03 Rules & Techniques The actual laws of the major world sports in plain language — scoring, positions, officiating and the techniques that follow from them. 116 entries
- 04 How Sport Is Run Governing bodies, qualification formats and competition structure — who sets the rules, who runs the tournaments, and how teams actually get in. 56 entries
Recently published
- 01 Artistic Swimming Now Makes You Declare What You Are About to Do Teams submit a coach card listing every element and its difficulty — and if the routine does not match the card, a base mark strips the value out.
- 02 Australian Rules Football: The Mark, the Bounce, and 'Prior Opportunity' Catch a kick of fifteen metres and play stops for you. Run fifteen metres without bouncing and you lose the ball. The same number governs both.
- 03 The Biological Passport Catches Doping Without Finding a Drug It does not look for a substance. It builds a picture of your normal blood and steroid values, then flags when your own body stops matching it.
- 04 The Shoe Rules Athletics Actually Enforces: 20mm, 40mm, and a Check After You Race World Athletics measures soles at two fixed points on one standard shoe size, and inspects shoes only after the event — never in the call room.
- 05 Why an Athlete Betting on Their Own Sport Is Punished Harder Than Losing Leagues do not mainly fear players throwing games. They fear the information a player has before anyone else does.
- 06 Boccia's Ramp Assistant Must Face Away From the Court A BC3 athlete plays through a ramp and an assistant — and the assistant is forbidden to look at the game they are helping to play.
- 07 Biathlon Rules: A Miss Costs 150 Metres, Except When It Costs a Minute Standing targets are more than twice the width of prone ones — and the penalty for missing changes format to format.
- 08 BMX at the Olympics: One Discipline Is a Race, the Other Is Judged Eight riders and a gate in racing; two 60-second runs and a score out of 100 in freestyle park — and the finals count them differently.
- 09 The Bosman Ruling: The Day Football Stopped Being Exempt From Employment Law On 15 December 1995 a European court decided footballers are workers — so an out-of-contract player could leave for nothing, and nationality quotas fell.
- 10 The College Football Playoff Stopped Rewarding Conference Titles With Byes Twelve teams, five automatic bids, and a switch to straight seeding — so winning your conference no longer buys a week off.