Popular Nostalgia

Sporting events are often interesting, and bookmark the passage of years well. Share and enjoy memories of sporting events throughout the years.

The first controversy of these games was a geographical one, Mexico City is 2640 metres above sea level, that is almost 11/2 miles. This meant there would be around 30% less oxygen making endurance events more difficult for most athletes, except those who lived at similar altitudes, such as some of the Africans. Most people [...]

My first and lasting memory of Tokyo was the BBC theme tune which I can hum to this day, how sad is that. These games were very eventful for British athletes and the story of Ann Packer is first in my mind. After losing out in the 400 meters to the Australian Betty Cuthbert (Packer [...]

I remember being woken up by my Dad one night in 1968. He shook me awake and said, “I just thought you would like to know that Bob Beaman has leapt over the sandpit”. It was amazing – the world record has since stood for twenty three years. It was such a long jump that [...]

Freddie Mercury died before he could perform at the opening of the Barcelona Olympic Games but his favourite opera singer, Montserrat Caballe went onto perform a spine-tingling live version of the theme penned by Queen.

896 ATHENS, Greece Dates: from 6 to 15 April 1896. Participants: 14 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), 43 events, 241 athletes (men only). Officially opened by: King George I. The Games of the Olympiad in Athens were financed by a donation of approximately one million drachmas from a rich businessman, Georges Averof, and by the sale [...]

The only other outstanding memory outside of the Olympic athletics was in the boxing stadium with the victory of a young heavyweight – a boxer from the United States called Cassius Clay. We all later knew him as Mohammed Ali. He later lobbed this gold medal into a river in protest against the treatment of [...]

I remember Abebe Bikila winning the 1960 Rome Olympics men’s marathon – barefoot! My image of him is just how slight he was and wondered where the energy came from to do what he was doing. He was the first person to win two Olympic marathons, winning the Tokyo in 1964. In between these two [...]

Al Oerter was an gold medal winning discus thrower from 1956 to 1968. He was among a group of gigantic shot put throwers and discus throwers who were nearly seven feet tall and very impressive to a young boy of seven! Al sadly passed away in 2007. About the Author Steve Haywood is a personal [...]

Herb Elliot never lost a race over 1500m or a mile. He broke the four minute mile on 17 occasions. He took middle distance running to a whole new level. As a young boy watching him compete, I’m sure he fired me up for my future spent running. It wasn’t just his physicality, it was [...]

Came second in the 100m dash (as it was called then!) at the 1960 Rome Olympics. She was a Barnsley lass, which generated a lot of local interest. She became something of a heroine and still has the track and stadium named after her at Cudsworth near Barnsley. About the Author Steve Haywood is a [...]

On a 14″ black and white screen, the Press sisters’ performance in the 1960 Rome Olympics is my first recollection of the games. I remember being a bit baffled because I couldn’t tell the difference between the Press sisters and the men. It later became obvious that they had disappeared about the same time as [...]

It was Queen Anne who first saw the potential for a racecourse at Ascot, which in those days was called East Cote. Whilst out riding in 1711, she came upon an area of open heath, not far from Windsor Castle, that looked an ideal place for “horses to gallop at full stretch.” The first race [...]

The Queen’s involvement with racing stretches back to before she came to the throne in 1952, with her first winner, owned jointly with her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, being Monaveen in a National Hunt race at Fontwell. On the death of her father, King George VI, the Queen inherited the Royal [...]

1780 Diomed, owned by Sir Charles Bunbury, wins the inaugural running of the Derby on Thursday, May 4. 1784 The distance increases from a mile to a mile and a half which still prevails today, though from 1991 the offi cial distance has been one mile, four furlongs and 10 yards. 1794 The smallest fi [...]

The Derby has been run on the Downs near Epsom since 1780 and is named after Edward Smith Stanley, the 12th Earl of Derby. The original race was The Oaks, named after Derby’s estate, and was exclusively for three-year-old fillies. The race became so successful that The Derby was created to find the best colts [...]