Who was the first person to be called ‘World Champion’ and in what sport ?
I had a hunch that the sport might be “real (royal) tennis”.
I have the facts and I’m voting “yes”…the first recorded World Champion was indeed in real tennis: it was the Frenchman Clerge, in 1740.
Darnit! Fixed link.
Sounds good to me.
I did try an internet search but had no joy with it.
Tks !
Alexander the Great?
Sport: conquest.
I wonder just how ‘international’ that 1740 event was ?
Ghengis Khan?
Alexander the Great?
Julius Caesar?
Arthur Ashe?
By 1740, most countries in NW Europe had courts. France had thousands in Paris alone, but there were also courts in England (Hampton Court, 1530), Scotland (Falkland Palace,1539), Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and (I think but I’ll have to check) Germany. The St. Petersburg court in Russia may have been built later. Whether players of all of those countries were participating in championship tournaments is a different matter.
Unfortunately, the “Real Tennis on the Web” site (www.real-tennis.com) has been down for a while, and that’s the best source for finding the relevant info.
In any case, the 1740 Jeu de paume championships would have a better claim to the term ‘International’ than the Super Bowl (US only) or the baseball World Series (US and Canada), both of whose winners profess to be “World Champions”!
Og.
Smash!