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:
“It was so hard to pry this door open, and if I mess up I know the people behind me are going to have it that much harder. Because then there’s living proof. They can sit around and say, “See? It doesn’t work.” I don’t want to be their living proof.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 87 (June 17, 1991)
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—Christine H. B. Grant, U.S. university athletic director. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A42 (May 12, 1993)
“Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn;
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen,
And desolation saddens all thy green;
One only master grasps the whole domain,
And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain;”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)