
This game of American origin in played between five
‘hoopsters’ a side, both attempting all the while to throw an
inflated large-size rubber ball into a ring fixed to a ten-feet high
post at either end of the court. That is why the tall dominate this
game, but not always. The Soviet Union in fact put into the fray
a player standing seven-feet, two inches tall at the Olympic
basketball tournament in Maxico in 1968. He was the tallest
player in the history of Olympic basketball. The game of
basketball made its entry into the Olympic in 1936. Right from
96
that date till 1968, the United States won the Basketball crown,
the largest spell of Championships for any country in any game.
The USA, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia constitute
the Big three in international Basketball. At the Montreal
Olympics, the United States regained the Basketball crown,
defeating Yugoslavia in the final. Yugoslavia had earlier
deposed the Munich champions USSR. But the Soviet girls
made up for this dicomfiture ; they won the gold and the
American girls carried the silver. The United States did not take
part in the Moscow Olympics where the Europeans dominated
the basketball competition for the first time. Yugoslavia won the
men’s division, while the Soviet Union won the women’s title.
Badminton enjoys the distinction of a game that has won
considerable renown for the country through a lime of skilful
exponents of the game, foremost among whom are Nandu
Natekar and Prakash Padukone.