Basketball.

The world's greatest sport ever. But of course, it hasn't been around since the world began. No, somebody had to have invented it. And that somebody would be James Naismith.

Born in Almonte, Ontario, Canada, this Canadian Gym Teacher and Physician would soon be the founder of basketball. It all started in December of 1891. Naismith was teaching in Springfield, Massachusetts and was asked by Luther H. Gulick, the Headmaster of the school for Christian Works to make a new sport. The main idea of the sport was mainly to be played inside when it was too cold to go outside. The new sport also had to keep athletes in their top conditions between the baseball and football season. Naismith began to work. The first game-ball was a soccer ball.

The first baskets were peach baskets that Naismith cleverly thought of hanging on the wall. From there, the legacy of basketball began. Originally, there was 9 men to each team, but the objective was still the same; to pass the ball to other players on your team and put the ball in the opposing team's net, or basket back then. From there, basketball caught on like a wildfire.

During 1885 highschools and colleges began to adopt the game, and by 1898, the first Pro. League was founded. After the first game played, Naismith drafted 13 rules and regulations, but many more were yet to come. The hoops we know today were invented in 1906. They were steel, with a net hanging from its rim.

篮球被誉为世界上最伟大的运动之一。篮球的发明者是James Naismith。1891年，James Naismith在马塞诸塞当体育老师的时候，校长让他为基督教想出一种运动，这种运动一定要在室内进行，运动员在比赛时还要有棒球和足球比赛时的激情。经过思考，他想出了一个办法：在墙上挂网子，然后把球扔向这个用网子做的篮子里，篮球运动由此而生。最初，参加篮球比赛的每个队伍有9个队员，比赛规则是：球员把球传给本队队员，然后将球投向对方的筐子里。直到1898年，第一支专业篮球队成立。


Table Tennis

Like many other sports, table tennis began as a mild social diversion. Descending, along with lawn tennis and badminton, from the ancient medieval game of tennis. It was popular in England in the second half of the nineteenth century under its present name and various trade names such as Gossima and Whiff-Whaff. After the name Ping-Pong (an imitation of the sound made by the ball striking the table and the vellum bats that were used) was introduced by J. Jaques & Son, the game became a fashionable craze.

The game was popular in Central Europe in 1905-10, and even before this is a modified version had been introduced to Japan, where it later spread to China and Korea. After a period when it had dropped out of favor in Europe, the game was revived in England and Wales in the early twenties. By that time 'Ping-Pong' had been registered as a trademark, so the earlier name of table tennis was re-introduced. National associations were formed and standardization of the rules began, both in Europe and the Far East. Then, over the next sixty years, table tennis developed into a major worldwide sport, played by perhaps thirty million competitive players and by uncountable millions who play less seriously. However, the game itself has not changed in essence since its earliest days, though it is faster, more subtle and more demanding than it was even only twenty years ago.

乒乓球、网球和羽毛球都是由网球演变而来的。19世纪初期，乒乓球运动在中欧很受欢迎，后来其运动方式稍加修改，传入日本，后来又传到了中国和韩国。乒乓球曾经一度销声匿迹，到了19世纪20年代早期，它又在英格兰和威尔士重获新生。那时很多国家的乒乓球协会成立，在欧洲和远东，乒乓球的比赛规则也被设立。其后的60年间，乒乓球发展成为一项世界著名的运动。

Badminton
As to the beginning of badminton, there are a lot of stories. One saying that it started in Japan, the other says that it started from India. But one thing is for sure, which is that badminton was started in the U.K., in about 1800, which was developed from tennis. You may discover that there are a lot of similarities between the two. In the year of 1870, a sort of ball made of feather and wood as well as a bat woven with strings were invented. Ever since 1873, the sport of badminton become more and more prosperous, when the field was a gourd like, with two wider spaces at both ends and a narrow stretch of land in the middle where a net was set up. This gourd-like field was changed to a square shape in 1901.

In 1893, the first badminton committee was established, which was then the British Badminton Association, holding a championship competition in 1899 nation wide. In 1934, an international badminton association was founded with its headquarter in London. The members are Canada, Denmark, Britain, France, Ireland, Holland, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Ever from then on, there have been more and more badminton competitions. Especially popular in Asia and Europe today, badminton became a full competition sport at the Olympic Games in 1992.

关于羽毛球的起源，有很多种说法，一种说法认为羽毛球起源于日本，另一种说法它起源于印度。可以确定的是，现代羽毛球运动于1800年左右诞生于英国，由网球变化而来。1870年，用羽毛、软木做的球和穿弦的球拍出现。从1873年起，羽毛球运动逐渐繁荣起来.1893年，世界上最早的羽毛球协会在英国成立。1934年，加拿大、丹麦、英国、法国、爱尔兰、荷兰、新西兰、苏格兰和威尔士等国发起了国际羽毛球联合会，国际性的羽毛球比赛日渐增多。1992年，羽毛球被列为奥运会正式比赛项目。