Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Killy, Jean-Claude zhäN-klōd kēlēˈ [key], 1943–, French skier. He grew up at his father's ski resort and began skiing at the age of 3. At 18 he was a senior member of the French national team. ...

(Encyclopedia) bobsledding, winter sport in which a bobsled—a partially enclosed vehicle with steerable sledlike runners, accommodating two or four persons—hurtles down a course of iced, steeply banked, twisting...

(Encyclopedia) Corinth kôˈrĭnthôs [key], city, capital of Corinth prefecture, S Greece, in the NE Pelopo...

(Encyclopedia) Paralympic games, series of international sports contests for athletes with physical, visual, and intellectual impairments. The games grew out of a gathering of British World War II veterans organized...

(Encyclopedia) Lake Placid, village (1990 pop. 2,485), Essex co., NE N.Y.; settled 1850, inc. 1900. In the Adirondack Mts. at an altitude of 1,800 ft (549 m), the village surrounds Mirror Lake. It is a famous resort...

(Encyclopedia) Theagenes of Thasos, fl. 5th cent. b.c., ancient Greek athlete. He excelled in boxing and the pankration, which combined wrestling and boxing, and won 10 victories at the Isthmian Games, nine at the N...

(Encyclopedia) Otto I, 1815–67, first king of the Hellenes (1833–62). The second son of King Louis I of Bavaria, he was chosen (1832) by a conference of European powers at London to rule newly independent Greece...

(Encyclopedia) Commonwealth games, series of amateur athletic meets held among citizens of countries in the Commonwealth of Nations. Originated (1930) as the British Empire games, the series is held every four years...

(Encyclopedia) Leonidas of Rhodes rōdz [key], fl. 2d cent. b.c., ancient Greek athlete. He won three different foot races—the stadion, about 200 m, the diaulos, about 400m, and the hoplitodromos, in which athlete...

(Encyclopedia) Bolt, Usain St. Leo, 1986–, Jamaican sprinter. Unusually tall (6 ft 5 in./1.96 m) for his sport, he won the gold medal for the 200-m sprint at the 2002 world junior championships and then broke the ...