Understand any sport in minutes
Plain-language rules, scoring explained, glossaries and stat guides — the layer every score app is missing. Written for smart viewers who've never watched the sport.
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Cricket
Bat-and-ball team sport where two sides of eleven trade innings, scoring runs while the bowling side hunts ten wickets.
⚽
Football
Two teams of 11 try to kick or head a ball into the opposing goal; most goals after 90 minutes wins.
🤾
Kabaddi
A contact team sport where a lone raider invades the rival half to tag defenders and escape home in a single breath.
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Tennis
Two players (or pairs) rally a ball over a net, scoring points when the opponent can't return it inside the lines.
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Basketball
Two teams of five score by shooting a ball through a hoop 10 feet up; most points when time runs out wins.
🏎️
Formula 1
The pinnacle of single-seater motor racing: 20+ drivers, hybrid rocket-ships, and a season-long world championship.
⛷️
Alpine Skiing
Racers ski down a gated mountain course against the clock — fastest time wins across four core disciplines.
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American Football
11-a-side gridiron sport where an offense gets four downs to gain 10 yards, aiming for touchdowns and field goals.
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Archery
Precision shooting at a ringed target, decided by set-based match play (recurve) or cumulative totals (compound).
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Athletics
Track and field: humanity's oldest contests of running fastest, jumping highest and farthest, and throwing longest.
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Australian Rules Football
Australia's 18-a-side game on a huge oval: kick goals for 6, behinds for 1, with marks, bounces and no offside.
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Badminton
Players rally a feathered shuttlecock over a high net; every rally scores a point, games race to 21.
⚾
Baseball
Bat-and-ball game where two teams of nine alternate hitting and fielding across nine innings to score runs.
🎯
Biathlon
Cross-country ski racing fused with rifle marksmanship — miss a target and you pay in penalty loops or minutes.
🎳
Bowling
Ten-pin bowling: roll a ball down a 60-foot lane to topple ten pins, chasing strikes, spares and the perfect 300 game.
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Boxing
Two fighters score with punches over timed rounds, winning by knockout or the judges' decision.
🛶
Canoeing
Paddle-powered racing in canoes and kayaks — flat-out sprints on still water or clock-beating runs through whitewater gates.
♟️
Chess
A two-player strategy board game where the goal is to trap the opponent's king in checkmate.
⛷️
Cross-Country Skiing
Endurance ski racing over rolling snow trails — two techniques, formats from 3-minute sprints to 50 km marathons.
🥌
Curling
Teams slide granite stones down ice toward a bullseye, sweeping the ice to steer them — chess with 20 kg pieces.
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Cycling
Bicycle racing on open roads and banked velodrome tracks, where drafting, tactics and teamwork decide who wins.
🎯
Darts
Players throw three darts a turn to race from 501 to exactly zero, finishing on a double — the home of the 180 and the nine-darter.
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Diving
Athletes launch from springboards or 10m platforms, pack somersaults and twists into two seconds of flight, and vanish into the water.
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Equestrian
Olympic horse sport in three disciplines — dressage, jumping and eventing — where horse and rider compete as one athlete pair.
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Esports
Organised competitive video gaming — pro teams and players compete in titles like Dota 2, CS2, Valorant and BGMI.
🤺
Fencing
Olympic sword-fighting sport of electric duels in three weapons — foil, épée and sabre — decided by split-second touches.
🏑
Field Hockey
11-a-side stick-and-ball game where goals only count from inside the shooting circle; India's most storied Olympic sport.
⛸️
Figure Skating
Skaters perform judged programs of jumps, spins and steps to music — scored on element difficulty, quality and artistry.
🥅
Floorball
Indoor hockey with lightweight sticks and a 23-gram perforated ball — huge in the Nordics, easy to start, fast as futsal.
☘️
Gaelic Football
Ireland's 15-a-side amateur game: kick or fist the round ball over the bar for points or into the net for a 3-point goal.
⛳
Golf
Players hit a ball from tee to hole in as few strokes as possible across an 18-hole course; lowest score wins.
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Gymnastics
Acrobatic routines on apparatus, scored on how hard the skills are (D-score) plus how cleanly they're done (E-score).
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Handball
A fast indoor game where teams of seven throw a ball into a goal, blending basketball-style passing with football goals.
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Ice Hockey
Six-a-side collision sport on ice — the fastest team game on earth, built around line changes, power plays and goalies.
🥋
Judo
Japanese grappling sport: win instantly with a perfect throw, a 20-second hold-down, or a submission.
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Karate
Japanese striking art contested as point-fighting (kumite) and judged solo forms (kata) under World Karate Federation rules.
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Kho Kho
An Indian tag sport where a team of chasers relays pursuit with cries of 'kho!' to tag dodging defenders.
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Lacrosse
North America's oldest team sport: netted sticks, a flying rubber ball, and hockey-style goals — Olympic again at LA 2028.
🤼
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
Full-contact combat sport combining striking and grappling, fought in a cage under the Unified Rules — the sport of the UFC.
🤺
Modern Pentathlon
Five sports, one champion: fencing, swimming, an obstacle course and the laser run decide the most complete all-round athlete.
🥊
Muay Thai
Thailand's 'art of eight limbs' — ring fighting with fists, elbows, knees and shins, where balance and dominance decide the score.
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Netball
A fast, no-dribble court game of seven a side where only two players may shoot, into a hoop with no backboard.
🎾
Padel
Doubles racquet sport in an enclosed glass-walled court: tennis scoring, underarm serves, and walls that keep the ball alive.
🚣
Rowing
Crews race narrow shell boats backwards down a straight 2000m course, propelled only by oars and raw endurance.
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Rugby
Full-contact 15-a-side sport where teams carry, pass (backwards only) and kick an oval ball to score tries and goals.
⛵
Sailing
Boats race around a course powered only by wind, where reading gusts and rules beats raw speed — lowest points across a series wins.
🤸
Sepak Takraw
Southeast Asian 'kick volleyball' — teams of three volley a woven ball over a net using feet, knees, chest and head.
🔫
Shooting
Precision target sport with rifle, pistol and shotgun events, where medals are decided by tension-filled elimination finals.
🛹
Skateboarding
Judged trick competition on street-style obstacles or curved park bowls, blending difficulty, style and consistency.
🛷
Sliding Sports
Bobsleigh, luge and skeleton: gravity racing down an iced track at up to 150 km/h, decided by hundredths of a second.
🎱
Snooker
A cue sport of frames and breaks on a big green table, where players pot reds and colours in sequence — or trap rivals in snookers.
🏂
Snowboarding
Riders compete on one board across judged trick events (halfpipe, slopestyle, big air) and raced events (cross, parallel).
🥎
Softball
Baseball's faster, more compact sibling: seven innings, a bigger ball, and blistering underhand windmill pitching.
⛸️
Speed Skating
Ice racing in two forms: long track (pairs against the clock on a 400 m oval) and short track (pack racing with tactics and contact).
🧗
Sport Climbing
Competitive climbing on artificial walls across three disciplines — boulder (power puzzles), lead (endurance height) and speed (pure racing).
🎾
Squash
Two players share a four-walled court, hitting a small rubber ball to the front wall; every rally scores, games race to 11.
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Surfing
Riding ocean waves in judged heats, where surfers score on the quality of manoeuvres performed on their two best waves.
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Swimming
Racing through water in four regulated strokes, where hundredths of a second and a fingertip on the wall decide medals.
🏓
Table Tennis
Players rally a 40 mm ball across a table with rubber-faced rackets; games race to 11 points, spin decides everything.
🦵
Taekwondo
Korean kicking sport where electronic body and head sensors score points, with spinning head kicks worth the most.
🏊
Triathlon
Continuous endurance race of swimming, cycling and running back-to-back — the clock never stops, even in transitions.
🥏
Ultimate Frisbee
Seven-a-side flying-disc sport: advance the disc by passing into the end zone to score — self-officiated, no referees.
🏐
Volleyball
Two teams of six rally a ball over a high net, trying to ground it on the opponent's court within three touches.
🤽
Water Polo
Teams of seven swimmers battle to throw a ball into the opponent's goal, treading water the entire match.
🏋️
Weightlifting
Olympic sport of lifting a loaded barbell overhead in two lifts — the snatch and the clean & jerk — for a combined total.
🤼
Wrestling
Grapplers score points for takedowns, throws and exposing the opponent's back, or win instantly by pin.
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