Sport | Europeana Blog

Legends of La Liga: Ferenc ‘Pancho’ Puskás and Hungarian footballers in El Clásico

Hungary reached the football World Cup final in 1954 and, although they didn’t win, its Hungarian national team of the 1950s became legendary. This is the story of Ferenc ‘Pancho’ Puskás and the ‘Golden Team’ generation which made its mark on Spanish football.

The Ice Follies: how a Swedish family changed American entertainment history

This photograph shows Frank Otto Skeppstedt, his wife and four children stoically posing for a studio photographer. The formal portrait gives away nothing of their extraordinary family history. At the time this picture was taken, the Skeppstedts (now Shipstads) had settled at St. Paul, Minnesota, after having emigrated from Sweden.

World Cup of Art

Welcome to the World Cup of Art! The matches are between the artworks related to countries playing in the FIFA World Cup, available on Europeana. And you can influence the score by voting for the artworks you like! The rest is the same as in football: exciting, diverse and unexpected. All participating artworks: […]

8 moments from Olympic Games history

The 2016 Olympic Games came to a close last night in Rio de Janeiro with an energetic closing ceremony. 2016’s Games saw history being made – first gold medals for nations such as Puerto Rico, Singapore and Bahrain, new World and Olympic records set as well as many personal achievements for the athletes. Our collections […]

Warm up with some winter sports

It’s winter again – it’s cold outside, and the skies have turned dark and gray. Most mornings, you won’t even want to leave your cosy bed. That all changes, however, when you’re heading out to enjoy some winter sports. Here, we look at some old photographs of people ice skating, skiing and sledding – we hope they’ll […]

Dancing on ice in an attic

It’s nearly time to bring out the skates. There’s a promising nip in the air, and although we have a long way to go before the canals and lakes are frozen over, you can always practice your moves at an ice rink. Image credit: Gemeentearchief Weert, CC-BY SA To inspire you, we found this curious […]

‘Women, beware of bicycle face!’

It is hard to imagine that a little over a century ago, women were discouraged from riding their bicycles. In the late 19th century, medical professionals made up a disease called ‘Bicycle Face’ to discourage women from cycling. The increasing availability of cycles brought women mobility and the independence to travel alone. This of course […]

19 Vintage Photographs of the Tour de France

Today, the most prestigious cycling race, Le Tour de France, kicks off in Leeds, England on 5 July 2014. Every year, it’s watched by audiences in 190 countries and attracts over 15 million spectators. This year, Tour de France participants will cycle through four countries to end in Paris on 27 July. A lot has changed […]

World Cup Mania: 18 Vintage Football Photographs

Football is the world’s most popular sport. Its success is in its simplicity. With just some land, goal markers and a ball, anybody can play it. This popular sport is not just a game. To many, it is the stuff of life. In some countries, football is part of the national culture: families, friendships and communities […]

Racing Through France

When Sylvester Howard Roper attached a small steam engine to an cranky iron-frame bicycle near Boston in 1867, one question burned in his mind; How fast will it go? Guillame Perreaux probably asked himself the same thing in Paris that same year, when he also attached a steamer to one of Pierre Michaux’s pedal-velocipedes. However, […]

XIV Summer Paralympics

Once again the world will be watching London as the city hosts the XIV Summer Paralympics. The spectacular opening ceremony will begin this evening with over 4,000 athletes from 166 nations expected to take part in 20 different sports across 503 events. The Paralympic Games were created by Ludwig Guttmann in 1949, a German neurosurgeon […]

New Virtual Exhibition: European Sport Heritage

In the latest Europeana Virtual Exhibition we showcase some of the greatest sporting events of Europe, such as the Olympics, Paralympics and the UEFA Champions Cup, as well as lesser-known ancient sports like the extraordinary Gladiator and Naumachia Games and the traditional Scottish Highland Games. The virtual exhibition is available in English, French, German and Spanish. […]

The Championships: Wimbledon

The 2012 Wimbledon Championships open today at the All England Club in London. Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world started in 1877 and is considered by many as the most prestigious. It is one of the major Grand Slams, the other three Majors being the Australian Open, French Open and US Open. Wimbledon […]

Athens 1896: Rebirth of the Olympic Games

On April 6th 1896, the games of the First Olympiad were officially opened in Athens by King George I, coinciding with Easter Monday and the anniversary of Greece’s independence. As Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Athens was perceived to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was […]

Sports Records

New world records attract worldwide attention year after year. Although they are mostly about individual performances, they bolster our collective idea about the human race and its capabilities. This kind of thinking is something very integral of our true nature; despite basing our superiority on the planet on wit, we still greatly value our physical […]

Wimbledon finals weekend

Our intern Lauri Poutanen from Finland writes about the Wimbledon tennis tournament. The Wimbledon Tennis Championships are under way again for the 125th time. Since the first tournament in 1877, Wimbledon has become a place of pilgrimage to tennis fans around the world. Its leading role as one of the four prestigious Grand Slam tournaments […]