Sport and leisure

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As Tokyo hosts the summer Paralympics, Ian Brittain chronicles the history of competitive sport for disabled people. (Image by Getty Images)

The rise of the Paralympics . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A photograph of the England team that faced Australia at the Oval in the 1896 Ashes series

Batting for the British Empire: how Victorian cricket was more than just a game

Joep de Beer of Holland throws a javelin at the Stoke Mandeville Games

Q&A When and where were the first Paralympics held?

A runner is helped across a finish line

21 key moments in the history of the modern Olympics

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With the Olympics underway in Tokyo, Chris Harding looks back at 1964 – the last time Japan hosted the competition. (Image by Getty Images)

How the 1964 Tokyo Olympics redefined Japan . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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As the world’s best athletes congregate in Tokyo for the 29th Summer Games, David Goldblatt answers your questions on the history of the Olympics. (Image from Getty Images)

Olympic history: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medal winners on a podium

Q&A Who won the first Olympic medal? And what was the prize before that?

A man runs on an athletics track with a crowd behind him

Harry Edward: Britain’s first black Olympic hero

Crown Prince Olav on his ice yacht (Getty Images)

From Hollywood to war heroes: 10 Olympians who were more famous outside sport

Belgium and the Netherlands compete in a tug of war at the Antwerp Olympic

Olympic oddballs: 5 unusual Olympic sports from the past

Jesse Owens sprinting on a track at the Berlin Olympics.

A history of unsporting conduct at the Olympics

Tokyo Olympics 1964: Yoshinori Sakai prepares to light the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony. Born on the day that the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, he was a symbol of Japan’s postwar reconstruction and peace

Tokyo Olympics 1964: the Games that defined Japan

The first modern Olympics at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens

The first modern Olympics: what happened at the 1896 games?

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Jonathan Westaway explores why there was a boom in the popularity of endurance running following the First World War. (Image by Getty Images)

Running to escape the horrors of war . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

England's World Cup-winning captain, Bobby Moore (1941–93) kisses the Jules Rimet World Cup trophy after England's 4-2 win over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final at Wembley Stadium, London. Also pictured are Moore's team-mates George Cohen, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

In pictures: when England won the football World Cup