My Science School

Michael Phelps is without doubt the best swimmer of all time and one of the greatest Olympians ever. He finished his Olympics career, which he started as a 15-year-old at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Phelps has 28 medals in total: his 23 gold medals are more than double the count of his nearest rivals, and its not as if other swimmers have accrued silly numbers of medals, either. Apart from Spitz, Matt Biondi (USA, eight golds) and Jenny Thompson (USA, eight golds), no other swimmer worldwide has managed more than six gold medals in total. 23 is astonishing.

 Having not picked up a single medal on his debut, he ran riot in the next four editions that he participated to finish with an all-time record haul at the Olympics, in addition to the innumerable medals that he has picked up in swimming championships worldwide.

Phelps towers over the rest of the individuals in the Olympics medal tally and he is often peerless when looking to compare with other athletes. So instead, if we were to consider Phelps as a country, where would he be on the all-time medals tally? With 23 golds - 13 of which were individual golds - three silver and two bronze, Phelps the one-man country will have less than one-fourth of the over 200 countries that participate at the Olympics above him. And this is through the history of the games - meaning Phelps currently has a medal haul that is better than over 150 countries, including India. Yet this ranking sells him short in some ways, because four of the countries ahead of him are Germany, which over time has competed as Germany, West Germany, East Germany and the Unified German Team. Russia, the Soviet Union and and the 1992 Unified Team (made up of the 15 former Soviet republics) account for three more countries ahead of Phelps. If measured against the 205 countries now in Rio, the Republic of Phelps has more gold medals than all but 32 of them.

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The fastest pit stop in the history of the sport was achieved by Red Bull Racing during the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo on November 17, 2019. Race winner and current champion Max Verstappen was behind the wheel as the pit crew members pulled an incredibly fast pit stop, breaking the record for the fastest F1 pit stop for the third time in just the 2019 season.

In Formula 1, pit stops occur when the F1 cars stop in the pit stalls for maintenance, change of tyres, repairs or any adjustments. The most visual evidence of why the sport is a team sport, smooth pit stops showcase pinpoint precision, teamwork, and split-second decisions, the result of which could be the difference between winning or losing. And the time they took? Their orchestrated effort took just 1.82 seconds as they worked in perfect harmony. Most of us might have taken longer to read just the headline of this fact.

Well, the slowest ever F1 pitstop was set at the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix – and it wasn’t completed until three days after the race. Valtteri Bottas pitted his Mercedes from second in the Principality for a routine stop. However, the right front wheel nut machined itself to the car – meaning the tyre wasn’t going to budge at all. Ferrari even offered Mercedes a sledgehammer to get it off post-race, but the car was taken back to Mercedes HQ with the old tyre still attached. Only on the Tuesday after the race did Mercedes finally manage to get the wheel nut off.

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The coveted gold medals that are awarded at the Olympics are actually made of silver. To be specific, gold medals are required to be made of at least 92.5% silver and must contain at least six grams of gold.

The last time gold medals were made of solid gold for the Summer Olympics were way back at the 1912 Stockholm Games, 110 years ago. If you come to think of it from this perspective, silver medals are basically the same as gold medals without the gold gilding. But then, if you are to ask the Olympians which one they would prefer, there is no arguing - they want to finish first and not second. The bronze medals, by the way, are made of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

Though the Olympic Games started in ancient Greece, the first Olympic medal wasn’t given until the 1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece, where winners were given a silver medal and an olive branch. Runner-ups received a laurel branch and a bronze medal. The prizes were a nod to the Ancient Olympic Games, where winners received an olive branch from a wild olive tree in Olympia that was intertwined to form a circle.

Gold medals, however, weren’t given until the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, which started the three classes of medals we know today: gold for first place; silver for second place; and bronze for third place. Though the design of medals has varied since the 1896 Olympics, for the most part, the design selected for the 1928 Olympics remained for more than 70 years until it was redesigned at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The redesign was due to controversy around the use of the Roman Colosseum on the medals rather than a building with Greek roots. Each medal, however, must include the following details: the five rings symbol, the Greek goddess of victory Nike in front of the Panathinaikos Stadium in Athens, and the official name of the respective Games (such as Games of the XXXII Olympiad Tokyo 2020), according to the International Olympic Committee.

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Did you know that tennis is one of the noisiest sports in the world? Players, both male and female, often grunt while playing their shots and grunting has become a facet of the game for decades now. Even though grunting gives certain players an advantage terms of their own performance, some players take it to a whole new level. Maria Sharapova, a retired Russian former world number one, is one of them.  Sharapova once stated that grunting was a natural habit for her and not taught. During her playing career from 2001-2020, she was not only one of the best players in the women's singles circuit, but also one of the best grunters.

Sharapova's grunts have once been measured at 101 decibels. In case you were wondering how loud that is, that sound is comparable to a jet taking off from the ground. Sharapova -- who returned to tennis in April after serving a 15-month doping ban -- wasn't offered a wild card entry for the French Open but is expected to make it through qualifying and land in the main draw at Wimbledon -- tennis' most prestigious tournament. Meanwhile Azarenka, who also isn't competing at Roland Garros, hinted in a tweet last week she would surface at the famous SW19 postcode after intending to make her own comeback -- the Belarussian gave birth to son Leo in December and hasn't played since last year's French Open -- at a Wimbledon warmup.

While some TV viewers in the past have complained about the loudness of grunts and other fans have opted for earplugs or even mimicked those sounds when in the stadium, it turns out that grunting can aid performance on the tennis court.

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With a history of thousands of years, Kabaddi is an intrinsic part of India's sporting lore. Following the success of the Pro Kabaddi League and the inclusion of the sport in the Asian Games, kabaddi has truly become global in recent years. Kabaddi's rise to global fame, however, can be traced back to the 1936 Olympics that was held in Berlin. Even though it wasn't part of the official  programme at the Games, it found a stage and the audience as an exhibition just ahead of the Olympics.

With the world assembled and the request to showcase it approved, a contingent from Maharashtra played a 40-minute exhibition game on the premises of the city's university. Those watching were so drawn to it, that they had to play two more games to meet the demand. It is often wrongly reported that kabaddi was a demonstration sport at the 1936 Olympics. The truth is that it was never an official part of the Games, but it was showcased and received well, giving it a global exposure. Asian countries, in particular, took a huge interest in the sport in its early years but was soon followed by European and African nations. Kabaddi was included as an official demonstration sport at the first-ever Asian Games in 1951 and then again in 1982. Since 1990, it has been a regular medal event at these continental Games. The formation of the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) – the world governing body for kabaddi - in 2004 with a long-term goal of establishing kabaddi as an Olympic sport also gave a further push to the sports’ global appeal. Three men’s kabaddi World Cups have been held since, in 2004, 2007 and 2016 with the Indian kabaddi team winning gold medals in all three and Iran finishing runners-up on each occasion. Kabaddi in Asian Games has also been dominated by India, with the country clinching top honours in each of the editions held from 1990 to 2014. With women’s kabaddi being included in the Asian Games from 2010, India won gold at the 2010 Guangzhou and 2014 Incheon Games.

The 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, though, marked a tectonic shift in the world of kabaddi. Iran won gold medals in both the men’s and women’s categories after defeating India in both the finals. It was the first time India failed to claim the top podium spot at any major global kabaddi event, demonstrating how the sport is gradually becoming more and more competitive with every passing year.

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Chris Gayle, the Jamaican cricketer is a left-handed batsman and bowler. Born on 21st September 1979 in Kingston, Jamaica. This batting all-rounder was playing for the West Indies national cricket team for 20 years from 1999 to 2019. Chris Gayle is one of the finest IPL players ever, he is playing from the 2nd season of Indian Premier League edition. So far, Gayle has played for 3 different IPL teams. He was playing for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2009 and 2010. From IPL 2011 to 2017, Gayle was playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL team, and after that he joined Kings Eleven Punjab. Chriss gayle hold so many records in ipl history :

Highest Individual score in IPL history

This is one record which will most likely not be broken anytime soon. Hitting 175 in a T20 match is outrageous and doing it in just 66 balls is even more extraordinary. The ground was the Chinnaswamy and the Unfortunate opponents were the Pune Warriors in 2013. He started with hitting huge Sixes of all bowlers and he showed no mercy to anyone that day. Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers were spectators in the show of the Universe Boss. He broke the record of Brendon McCullum who hit a smashing 158 in the very first match of the IPL. This was a once in a lifetime innings by a special cricketer and all the fans were privileged to have witnessed it.

Most sixes in an innings

Chris Gayle and sixes is like the greatest love story in cricket. And he has hit so many sixes that it is difficult to keep count. However, there was one day where he hit a century just by dealing in sixes as he smashed 17 sixes in an innings against Pune in 2013 where he hit 175 runs. Seeing his towering sixes was a delight for all the name not named Pune. And he did all this while smiling as if nothing was happening. He is a once in a lifetime cricketer, the likes of which we may never see again. That exhibition of six hitting that day will be remembered forever.

Most number of hundreds in IPL

This record is also held by the Universe Boss Chris Gayle. It shows how consistent he was in the tournament hitting 6 hundreds in such a difficult format to score hundreds. His first IPL hundred came against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens in 2011 where he single handedly won RCB the match. His next few hundreds came against Kings X1 Punjab and Delhi Daredevils where he smashed then to all parts. Then came that innings of 175 against Pune and after that again he scored against Punjab and finally for his 6th century he scored it for Punjab against Sunrisers Hyderabad and won them the match.

Only player to win back to back Orange caps

Winning one Orange cap is considered to be the best batting feat in the IPL, winning 2 with years in between is also amazing but to win it back to back is only the stuff that the Universe Boss can do. In 2011, when he joined the RCB team he hit 608 runs in just 12 matches and then the following year he bettered it by hitting 733 runs at a crazy average of 61.

Only batter to hit 350 IPL sixes

350 sixes is an insurmountable number for the other batters but for the Universe Boss Chris Gayle it is like any record for him. To understand the enormity of this record the second best is AB De Villiers with almost 100 sixes behind him. No one hits sixes with as much ease as Chris Gayle and probably never will.

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India won the second Test at Lord's against England in 2014 to take a 1-0 win in the five-match series. Following the drawn Test at Nottingham, the two sides met at London in Lord's.

England won the toss and elected to field first. Even though wickets were falling around him, Ajinkya Rahane scored 103 to spearhead India's first innings total of 295.

Gary Ballance top-scored for England in their first innings.

His 110 and Liam Plunkett's unbeaten 55 helped England take the lead, as they posted 319.

Murali Vijay's 95 along with quick-fire fifties from Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar from the lower order helped India to 342 in their second essay. Chasing 319 to win the Test match, England were undone by Ishant Sharma. He picked up seven wickets as England were bowled out for 223, allowing India to win the match by 95 runs. Ishant Sharma was named the player of the match for his match-winning heroics in the final innings

DID YOU KNOW?

Despite winning this Test and taking a lead in the series. India went on to lose the remaining three matches in the five-match series, losing the series 3-1.

This victory was only India's second Test victory against England at the historic venue.

India's first victory at Lord's came way back in 1986. India had won by five wickets on that occasion.

While India lost at Lord's when they next played a Test at the venue in 2018, they won again in 2021 - by 151 runs.

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