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Swimming: The primitive man, as they say, was compelled to learn swimming to avoid drowning. A little development, in the method of swimming was brought out by the natives of South America. There are evidences of swimming as a competitive sport.

As in the case of many sports and games, development and popularity in swimming as a competitive sport came through Modern Olympics. USA, USSR, the GDR and Australia are the makers of superstars in the world swimming.

Table Tennis: It is believed that the credit for origin of table tennis goes to England. In the later part of the 18th century cork balls were used. Subsequently they were replaced by celluloid balls.

When International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) was formed in 1926, rules, which were introduced then, have since been modified. Later on, this game became very popular in Asian and European countries. China is the "Ping-Pong" king in the world of TT, had its Olympic debut in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Tennis: There are different opinions regarding the origin of Tennis. While some link its origin to Persia and Greece, some attribute it to Egypt. There are reasons to believe that French people invented and developed this game in the middle of the 15th century when no nets or rackets were invented as we see today.

Later on, an Englishman named Walter C Windfield modernized this game by introducing rackets and nets and measurement of court. The game soon became popular among the royal families of England. Tennis was introduced in the Olympic Games as a medal event in 1988.

Track And Field: Events like walking, running, jumping, throwing, etc. which are competitive sports in track and field in Modern Olympics, were essential to pre-historic man to move from one place to another, to save himself from wild animals for his food.

Individual ability in these important events became the origin of the athletic competitions. Ancient Olympics started in 776 B C with five disciplines, i.e., races like 200 yards, half mile, two and half miles, jump like long jump. In the Modern Olympics, however athletics hold the pride of place with a string of events.

Volleyball: Minonette, renamed as "volleyball", was an American invention by Mr Willian G. Morgan during the end of the 18th century. The USSR, Japan and China are the superstars in the game.

Weightlifting: Lifting of weight might have originated from the pre-historic man using it for blocking the entrance of the caves where he lived, there are evidences in ancient Egypt that strong lifters were required to lift big stones for the construction of pyramids which were the pride of expired kings of Egypt.

One-hand lift and two-hand lift were popular at that time. There were no body weight categories. Weight lifting as we see it today, was introduced by Europeans. The first Modern Olympics in 1896 at Athens saw only two weightlifting events, i.e., one-hand lift (dumb bell) and Two-hand lift (bar bell).

When the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) came into being in 1920, strict rules and procedures were formed by eliminating dumb bell (one-hand lift) and established five body weight classes with three actions of lifts, namely the press, Snatch and Clean and Jerk.

When press action was eliminated from weightlifting competitions from 1976, the following 10 weight classes were introduced in Modern Olympics.

Fly: upto 52kgs, Bantam: upto 56kgs, Feather: upto 60kgs, Light: upto 67.5kgs, Middle: upto 75kgs, Light-Heavy: upto 82.5kgs, Middle-Heavy: upto 90kgs, 100-kg Class: upto 100kgs, Heavy: upto 110kgs and Super-Heavy: over 110kgs.

USSR and some East European countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia are the Olympic and world record supermen in this field.

Yachting: Yachting is of English origin in the middle of 16th century, with Lords and Kings essentially lured to it. Later on, many changes were made in the design of yachts rules and regulations of the yacht racing.

The sport of yachting was introduced in 1990 Paris Olympics. The International Yachting Federation was formed in 1907 and the rules and regulations were last revised in 1964. Modem Olympics has six different categories of yachting. Finn (Two Men). Flying Dutchman (Two Men), Star (Two Men), Sailing (Three Men), 470 Category (Two Men) and Tornado Category (Two Men)

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