Surprising Facts About Sports and Athleticism

The longest recorded tennis match lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes over three days at Wimbledon in 2010.

Olympic gold medals are actually made mostly of silver, containing only about 6 grams of gold.

The Tour de France is the world's longest bicycle race, covering around 3,500 kilometers over 23 days.

The fastest recorded tennis serve is 263 km/h (163.4 mph) by Australian player Sam Groth in 2012.

Basketball was invented by a Canadian physical education instructor, James Naismith, in 1891 using peach baskets as hoops.

The first modern Olympic Games, held in 1896, featured only 13 countries and 280 athletes competing.

In 2019, Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, though it was not an official record due to assisted conditions.