Champion Glossary: Sports Terms Explained
Record books and comeback stories have their own language. This glossary explains the words you will meet across Shining Champion, in plain English.
Court 18, June 2010: Voo de Mar, CC BY-SA 2.0
A to Z
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Allround | In speed skating, a championship that combines sprint and distance races into one overall ranking. |
| Anchor leg | The final leg of a relay, usually run or swum by the team's strongest finisher. |
| Clean sweep | Winning every event or every medal available, like Klaebo's six golds in 2026. |
| Comeback | Winning after trailing badly in a game, or returning to the top after injury, illness or time away. |
| Drought | A long run of seasons without a title, such as Boston's 86 years without a World Series before 2004. |
| Dynasty | A team that wins several championships over a short period. |
| Grand Slam | In tennis and golf, the four biggest tournaments of the year. Winning all four in one season is also called a Grand Slam. |
| Hat trick | Three goals by one player in a game. |
| Iron horse | A nickname for an athlete who never misses games, first given to Lou Gehrig. |
| Major | One of the four most important tournaments in golf or tennis. |
| Olympic record | The best mark ever set at the Olympic Games, which can differ from the world record. |
| Pacer | A runner who sets the speed for others in the early part of a race, then usually drops out. |
| Personal best | An athlete's own best ever mark, often shortened to PB. |
| Photo finish | A finish so close that officials use a high-speed camera image to decide the order. |
| Playoff | Extra holes, games or rounds played to break a tie. |
| Ratification | The official process of checking and approving a world record, including wind, timing and drug test checks. |
| Three-peat | Winning three championships in a row. |
| Triple Crown | Winning three linked titles, such as horse racing's three big races in one season. |
| Underdog | The team or athlete expected to lose. |
| Walk-off | In baseball, a hit that wins the game in the home team's last inning, so everyone walks off the field. |
| Wind-legal | In sprints and jumps, a result with a tailwind of 2.0 metres per second or less, the limit for records. |
| World record | The best mark ever recorded in an event and approved by the sport's world governing body. |
How a world record becomes official
Breaking a record is only the first step. In athletics, for example, the time or distance must be measured with approved equipment, the wind must be within the legal limit for sprints and jumps, and the athlete must pass a drug test. Then the national federation sends the paperwork to World Athletics, which ratifies the mark.
That is why a time can be the fastest ever run but still not count, as with Eliud Kipchoge's 1:59:40 in Vienna, where rotating pacers and other special conditions were used.
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Facts on this page were checked against these sources (updated Oct 12, 2026). Spot an error? Email hello@fireempireshop.com.