Polo is a four-a-side game whose players are mounted on horses and use wooden mallets or sticks to strike a plastic ball in an attempt to score goals. An area of five hectares is required.
Related topics: sport
Field of play
The ground is a prepared surface that includes the field of play and the safety zone. A full size field of play is 275m long (goal posts to goal posts) by 180m wide if unboarded, and by 140m wide if boarded.
Goal posts
The goal posts are 7.3m apart (inside measurement), able to be widened to 14.6m to decide a tie and centred at each end of the field. The goal posts are 3m high and light enough to give way if collided with.
Markings
Broken lines or full markings are used across the grounds. Marks on the boards or flags (clear of the safety zone) are useful as a guide to the umpires. A line of tees clear of the centre spot are marked on the centre line. A double tee as shown in the following diagram helps keep teams apart at the throw in.
Boards
Boards keep the ball in play, allow the ground to be narrowed and spread the game more evenly across the field. They are 27.5cm in height and made of treated timber 2.54cm thick. A metal peg is inserted down the middle to secure them to the ground. They are tongued and grooved at the ends or joined by a metal plate. A board must be easily replaceable during a match if damaged. A triangular arris rail, 10m x 5cm, is fitted at the base of the board to deflect the ball back into play. Boards are curved from the 27m line to 13.6m into the back line.
Safety zone
The safety zone extends at least 9m beyond the sidelines/boards and at least 27m beyond the back line. Clubs must ensure that the safety zone behind the goals is long enough so that a player going through the goal at speed can stop safely.
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Archery is the art of shooting arrows from a bow at a target.
Track and field jumping events consist of four events: high jump, long jump, pole vault and triple jump.
The four standard throwing events — shot put, discus, hammer, and javelin — all involve the use of implements of various weights and shapes that are hurled for distance. In all throwing events, the object being thrown must land in a specified landing area. White lines 5cm wide delineate the area.
Track and field facilities are usually designed as multi-purpose facilities (tracks with playing fields inside).
Badminton is an indoor racquet game played by one or two players opposing an equivalent number across a net.
Baseball is a bat and ball game between two teams of nine players each and is played on an enclosed field under jurisdiction of one or more umpires. The team that scores the greater number of runs is the winner.
Basketball is played by two teams of five players each. The aim of each team is to score in the opponent’s basket and to prevent the other team from scoring.
Billiards, pool and snooker are played indoors on a pocket table.
Bocce is played on soil, oyster shell or asphalt courts approximately 20m−27m long and 2.5m−4m wide, sometimes with wooden boards of approximately 15cm in height surrounding the court.
Lawn bowls can be played as singles, pairs, triples and four-player teams and is played on a flat, grassed (or synthetic) surface called a green.
Boxing is a sport in which two participants of similar weight fight each other with their fists in gloves in a series of one-to-three-minute intervals called ‘rounds’. The bout takes place in a roped area called a ring.
Canoe polo is a competitive ball game between two teams of five players each. Players paddle solo kayaks on a well-defined area of water, attempting to score goals against the opposition. The team that scores the most goals wins.
Cricket is a high scoring bat and ball sport played between two teams, usually of 11 players each.
Croquet is a competitive sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing arena. The object is to score through all hoops in the correct order. It is played as either singles or doubles (team).
Information for track events, road events, BMX and mountain biking.
Players throw darts at a circular target divided into different scoring areas. Games are played by individuals, pairs or teams of any numbers. Players aim to reduce a starting number exactly to zero.
Diving is an individual sport, with separate events for men and women. Most diving competitions consist of three disciplines – 1m, 3m and tower, or platform.
Equestrian is the only Olympic sport where riders and their horses are established teammates and one of the few where men and women compete on equal terms.
Fencing is a form of sword fighting which has a long history with its roots in the tradition of chivalry. Two rivals stand opposite each other and feint, lunge, parry and riposte until one scores the required number of hits to win.
Ultimate flying disc or frisbee is a seven-a-side sport played with a flying disc. It is played on a rectangular field with a zone at each end. The object of each team is to score a goal by having a player catch a pass in the end zone that they are attacking.
Australian rules football, also known as Australian football, Aussie rules, or simply ‘football’ or ‘footy’ is a code of football played with a spheroid ball on large, oval-shaped fields with four posts at each end.
Football, commonly known as soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players each. It is played on a rectangular grass field, with a goal at each end. With the exception of the two goal keepers, players may not handle the ball, but must propel the ball with their head or feet.
Gaelic football is described as a mixture of Australian rules football, soccer and rugby. It is played with a ball similar to a soccer ball, on what looks very much like a rugby pitch, yet it is played in a similar fashion to Australian rules. Gaelic football is 15-a-side game played by both men and women.
Gymnastics is the name given to a series of exercises practised by men and women. Emphasis is placed on strength, dexterity and artistry. The disciplines in gymnastics recognised by the Federation International de Gymnastique (FIG) and Gymnastics Australia are artistic, rhythmic, aerobic, trampoline and acrobatic.
Handball is a fast-paced game involving two teams of seven players who pass, throw, catch and dribble a small ball with their hands while trying to score goals. The team with the most goals wins the game. A game consists of two 30-minute halves with a 10-minute half-time break.
Hockey, or field hockey as it is known in some parts of the world, is a team game of 11-a-side played by men and women. It is played with a stick and a ball and most often played on grass or synthetic surfaces.
Judo means 'the gentle way' in Japanese. The moral code of judo is politeness, courage and sincerity. Judo is a combat sport that demands both physical prowess and great mental discipline.
Karate (kara meaning empty and te meaning hand) is a martial art whose protocols and technical language have emanated from ancient Japan. Its wide spectrum of techniques include a myriad of blocks, strikes, kicks, evasions and throws.
Kendo literally means ‘the way of the sword’. Kendo is one of Japan’s oldest martial arts and the one most closely associated with the Samurai. The concept of Kendo is to discipline the human spirit through the principles of the katana (Japanese sword).
Lacrosse is a team sport that is played with either 10 players (men) or 12 players (women), each of whom uses a netted stick to pass and catch a hard rubber ball with the aim of scoring goals. The team scoring the most points after two halves wins.
Netball is an international sport and played by two teams of seven players, based on throwing and catching. The object is to score goals from within a defined area by throwing a ball into a ring at one’s own end of the court.
Polocrosse is a combination of polo, lacrosse and netball. It is played on horseback. Each rider uses a cane stick ─ made up of a polo stick shaft to which a squash racquet-type head with a loose twisted-thread net is attached ─ in which the ball is carried.
Rugby league is a team sport, played by two teams of 13 players. The aim is to carry an oval ball up the field towards the opponent’s in-goal where the ball is grounded to score a try, worth four points. Having scored the try, the team has the right to attempt to kick a goal worth a further two points if successful. The opposing team attempts to prevent the attacking team from carrying out this objective by tackling the player with the ball.
In rugby union football, the objective is to run an oval ball into the opposing team’s goal area or to kick the ball through the uprights of the opposing team’s goal. In a rugby match, play rarely stops completely, and players may only advance the ball by running or kicking. They are not permitted to make forward passes. Rugby union is played by teams with 15 players, although there is also rugby sevens, a quicker game with seven players a side.
Competitive shooting consists of a number of events across the four disciplines of rifle, pistol, running target and shotgun. All events are conducted as individual and team events.
Skating includes speed skating, roller derby, roller and roller in-line hockey.
There are two forms of softball played around the world ─ fast pitch and slow pitch softball.
Squash is an indoor racquet sport. The game is played by two players (or four players for doubles) with ‘standard’ raquets in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball. The object of the game is to keep the ball in play while making it difficult for the opponent to do so.
Swimming is an individual and team aquatic sport which is included in Olympic and other international level competitions. The four competitive strokes are the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. At international level, swimming is governed by the rules of Federation Internationale to Nationale Amateur (FINA).
Table tennis is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth to each other with bats (called racquets or paddles). The game takes place on a table divided by a net.
Taekwondo literally means 'the way of hand and foot' or, more specifically, 'the way of kicking and punching'. Taekwondo is a combat sport originating in Korea and is now one of the most widely practiced martial arts in the world. It is the national sport of Korea and is an Olympic sporting event.
Tennis is a game played between either two players (singles) or two teams of two players (doubles). Players use a stringed racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent’s court so that they fail to return the ball.
Tenpin bowling is a sport in which a player (bowler) rolls (bowls) a bowling ball down a narrow, straight, flat, wooden or synthetic ‘lane’ with the object of scoring points by knocking down as many of the ten pins as possible set in a triangular formation at the end of the lane.
Touch, or touch football, comes from two rugby codes ─ rugby league and rugby union. Although the skills of touch are close to those of these two sports, there is no body contact at all. For example, there are no tackles, scrums or hard kicking, and there are no goal posts. The emphasis is on running and agility, with hand passing and catching as key skills.
The sport of volleyball has two disciplines ─ beach volleyball and indoor volleyball. Traditional six-a-side indoor volleyball is referred to as Olympic volleyball. Beach volleyball is played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net, while Olympic volleyball is played on a hard court.
Water polo is a team water sport, which can be best described as a combination of swimming, rugby and wrestling. Players swim the equivalent of up to 5km in a single game. To score, players throw the ball into the opponent’s goal which floats on the water. Apart from the goalkeeper, who is allowed to touch the bottom of the pool in the goalkeeper’s area, players cannot touch the bottom of the pool in any active part of the game. Each game is played over four eight-minute periods.
Weightlifting requires a combination of power, speed, technique, concentration and timing. It is a sport in which competitors attempt to lift heavy weights mounted on steel bars called barbells.
Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in the world. Origins of wrestling can be traced back thousands of years through depictions in cave drawings in France and Egyptian murals. It is practiced in nearly every country. The two main styles that are showcased in the Olympic Games are Greco-Roman and freestyle.
A list of references used for the sports dimensions guide.
