Sports
In some sports, like in individual time-trials in the Tour de France, an official gives a countdown on the fingers of his hand to a starting driver. At the start, there is a countdown from 5 to 1. The numbers in this system are given with the following system:
- 5
- All fingers including the thumb
- 4
- All fingers excluding the thumb
- 3
- Thumb, index and middle finger
- 2
- Index and middle finger
- 1
- Thumb, but sometimes also the index finger
- "Top"
- All fingers are extended again, but the hand is held horizontal and moved away from the rider. This signals the rider can start.
Read more about this topic: Finger Counting
Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one’s behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behaviour, attire, grace, learning and all their words aimeth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“In the past, it seemed to make sense for a sportswriter on sabbatical from the playpen to attend the quadrennial hawgkilling when Presidential candidates are chosen, to observe and report upon politicians at play. After all, national conventions are games of a sort, and sports offers few spectacles richer in low comedy.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)