the highest achievements of individual athletes or teams as established by official competition in those sports in which achievements can be objectively determined in precise units of measurement, such as time, distance, weight, or points. Results are entered as records in accordance with the terms and rules approved by the appropriate international, regional, or national sports federation. Pertinent factors include the level and scale of the competitions, the presence of the nec-
essary number of qualified judges, and the use of standard sports equipment. Depending on the level and nature of the competitions, sports records are categorized as world records (the absolutely highest achievements), Olympic records (for the Olympics), regional records (by continent), and national records. The USSR also keeps sports records for Union and autonomous republics, krais, oblasts, cities, and sports societies. World sports records are approved by international sports federations after submission by national federations.
The first official record was set in 1867 in the 100-meter dash. As of 1974, world sports records were kept in the following sports for the indicated number of events: track and field, 40; swimming, 31; weight lifting, 27; cycling, 20; speed skating, 14; shooting, 56; archery, 12; aviation sports, 808 (aircraft modeling, 58; helicopter sport, 110; airplane sport, 414; parachuting, 46; glider sport, 40; aerostat and dirigible flights, 100; and spacecraft flights, 40); automotive sports, 1,360; model car sport, 4; motorboating, 429; motorcycling, 192; and underwater sports, 22. Only regional sports records are kept for a number of sports, including radiosport, military-sports combined events, and naval combined events. In some sports—generally, national sports—only records of individual countries are kept; the USSR, for example, keeps all-Union sports records in gorodki (a game similar to skittles).
In rowing, sailing, tobogganing, skiing, and a number of other sports, results are determined to a substantial extent by natural conditions at the competition site: the condition of the snow cover, the complexity of the route, water density, wind strength, and so forth. In such sports individual course records are kept.
IU. S. LUKASHIN and L. L. CHISTYI
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