Sport in New Zealand largely reflects the nation's colonial heritage, with some of the most popular sports being rugby union, rugby league, cricket, association football, basketball, horse racing and netball, which are primarily played in Commonwealth countries. New Zealand has enjoyed success in many sports, notably rugby union (considered the national sport), rugby league, cricket, America's Cup sailing, world championship and Olympics events, and motorsport.

Other popular sports include squash, golf, hockey, tennis, cycling, and tramping, baseball and a variety of water sports, particularly sailing, rowing, and surf sports. Winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding are also popular, as are indoor and outdoor bowls.

Administration
Sport New Zealand is the main government agency responsible for governing sport and recreation in New Zealand. It was established in 2003 by the Sport and Recreation New Zealand Act 2002, consolidating three agencies into one, and was known as Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) until February 2012. Sport New Zealand is accountable to the government through the Minister of Sport and Recreation. A subsidiary of Sport New Zealand, High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ), is responsible for managing the country's high performance programme.

Participation

The New Zealand Secondary School Sports Council (NZSSSC) runs an annual census of sport participation amongst secondary school students (age 13 to 18). The data only includes students that had a "meaningful engagement" in the sport, e.g. representing their school in a team.

Major sports

Rugby union

Rugby union is the national sport in New Zealand. It has the largest spectator following of all sports in New Zealand. New Zealand's men's national rugby team, the All Blacks, has the best winning record of any men's national team in the world, and is currently ranked second in the world. The All Blacks won the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, and again on home soil in 2011. They won their third World Cup in 2015 in England, becoming the first holders to successfully defend their title. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka, a Māori challenge, at the start of international matches. This practice has been mimicked by several other national teams, notably the national rugby league team, and the basketball teams. New Zealand's women's national rugby team, the Black Ferns, also has the best winning record of any women's national team in the world, and is currently ranked second in the world. The Black Ferns have won a record six championships at the Women's Rugby World Cup in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2017, and 2021.

Outside Test matches, there are three widely followed competitions:
 Super Rugby (previously Super 6, Super 10, Super 12, and Super 14), the elite club competition in the southern hemisphere. It has involved teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa since its formation, and in 2016 added teams in Argentina and Japan (with the Japan team also playing select "home" matches in Singapore). It is played from summer right through until winter (February to August), with a 3-week break in June for international tests to take place.
 Mitre 10 Cup (previously Air New Zealand Cup and ITM Cup), created in 2006 as a successor to the National Provincial Championship (NPC), involves professional provincial New Zealand teams and is played mainly during the Winter and spring months, from August to November.
 Heartland Championship, an amateur competition of lower-level New Zealand provincial teams, also created in 2006 as a successor to the NPC and is also played in the winter and spring months, from August to November.

In the sevens variant of rugby union, the men's national team has been the main force in the sport since the creation of the World Rugby Sevens Series in 1999, winning the World Series 12 times in its 16 seasons. They have also won the Rugby World Cup Sevens thrice, in 2001, 2013 and the most recent edition in 2018, and won the first four gold medals awarded in sevens at the Commonwealth Games (1998–2010). The country also hosts one round of the World Series each season at Westpac Stadium in Wellington. In women's sevens, the national team is about as dominant as the men; they won the first three editions of the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series (2013–2015) and are the current holders of the Rugby World Cup Sevens, winning the women's tournaments in 2013 and 2018. New Zealand hosted the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup. It was the first ever Women's Rugby World Cup to be held in the southern hemisphere and also the first Women's Rugby World Cup where the host nation was crowned as the champion.

Cricket

Cricket is the national summer sport and the second most popular sport in New Zealand, which is one of twelve countries competing in Test match cricket. The provincial competition is not nearly as widely followed as rugby, but international matches are watched with interest by a large portion of the population. This parallels the global situation in cricket, whereby the international game is more widely followed than the domestic game in all major cricketing countries.

Historically, the national cricket team has not been as successful as the national rugby team. New Zealand played its first Test in 1930, but had to wait until 1956 until its first Test victory. The national team began to have more success in the 1970s and 1980s. New Zealand's most famous cricketer, the fast bowler Richard Hadlee who was the first bowler to take 400 wickets in test cricket, played in this era.

New Zealand has traditionally been stronger in one-day cricket, having reached the final of both the 2015 and 2019, beating South Africa and India in the semi-finals but ultimately losing to Australia and England in the final. (They tied the match in 2019 but lost on boundary countback).
The team also won the 2000 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy and reached the 2009 final, and won the bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

Martin Crowe and Kane Williamson won the prestigious 'Player of the Tournament' award in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and 2019 Cricket World Cup respectively. Geoff Allott was the highest wicket taker in the 1999 Cricket World Cup along with Shane Warne. Fast bowler Kyle Mills is the highest wicket taker in ICC Champions Trophy matches. Martin Guptill was the highest run-scorer in the 2015 Cricket World Cup and even broke the record of the highest score in World Cup matches during his knock of 237 against West Indies in the quarter-final. Trent Boult was the highest wicket taker in the 2015 Cricket World Cup along with Mitchell Starc. Kyle Jamieson was the Player of the Match in the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship final.

In Twenty20 cricket, New Zealand has twice reached the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup, doing so in 2007 and 2016, and has reached the final in 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup by defeating England in the semi-final. Many New Zealand cricketers regularly feature in T20 leagues around the globe every year.

In June 2021, they beat India in the ICC World Test Championship Final in Southampton to become the inaugural World Test champions. They were hence ranked the number one Test team in the world. New Zealand has won two multinational ICC tournaments- 2000 edition(now referred to as ICC Champions Trophy) under Stephen Fleming and ICC World Test Championship under Kane Williamson.

New Zealand's Women's Team, the White Ferns have reached the final of their World Cup four times, winning the 2000 edition of the tournament.

There is also a London New Zealand Cricket Club based in London, England, for New Zealanders living in or based in the United Kingdom.

Netball

Netball is the most popular women's sport, both in terms of participation and public interest in New Zealand. As in many netball-playing countries, netball is considered primarily a women's sport, with men's netball largely ancillary to women's competition. The sport maintains a high profile in New Zealand, due in large part to its national team, the Silver Ferns, which with Australia, has remained at the forefront of world netball for several decades. In 2008, netball in New Zealand became a semi-professional sport with the introduction of the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. The sport is administered by Netball New Zealand, which registered 125,500 players in 2006.

Rugby league

Unlike Australia, where rugby league is the dominant rugby code, rugby union is the more popular code in New Zealand. The New Zealand domestic league is semi-professional and enjoyed by many great sports fan.
The New Zealand national side has competed in the Rugby League World Cup since 1954. They were the previous World Champions, winning the World Cup for the first time on 22 November 2008 at Lang Park, Brisbane. The team also reached the 2013 Rugby League World Cup (hosted by England and Wales) final on Saturday 30 October 2013. They lost to Australia in the final, 34–2. The team's most recent title came in the 2014 Rugby League Four Nations tournament by beating Australia, which brings their Rugby League Four Nations championships total to two.

Association football

Football has always been a significant sport in New Zealand, and was introduced by the first English settlers. It is considered the regional sport of Greater Wellington, which in turn is the only region in New Zealand not to have rugby as the most popular sport. This is exemplified by Wellington having New Zealand's only major professional side, the Wellington Phoenix, which plays in the Australian A-League. Football's greater regional popularity has been due to extensive support among the city's half a million people, especially since inner city clubs were formed immigration from Europe and the Middle East in the postwar period. These clubs were often ethnically based, including Wellington Olympic AFC (Greek), Wellington United (Dutch and Hungarian), and Island Bay United (Italian). The Miramar Rangers have often been considered Wellington's local powerhouse. Several Wellington Phoenix players have gone on to have major success overseas, such as Sarpreet Singh, Roy Krishna, Marco Rojas and Liberato Cacace. Wynton Rufer, considered the country's greatest ever footballer, was born and raised in Wellington.

Nationally, the sport is administered by New Zealand Football, which changed its name from "New Zealand Soccer" in 2007 to move in line with common usage around the world. Use of term "football" to refer to the sport is increasingly favoured by news sources and publications.

The New Zealand national team, nicknamed the "All Whites", has qualified for the FIFA World Cup twice. At their first appearance in 1982, the All Whites were knocked out in the first round with three losses. Their next appearance in 2010 saw another first-round exit, but with considerably more success on the field; the All Whites earned three draws, including a 1–1 result against defending champion Italy, ending up as the only team that was not beaten in this edition. The country's only professional football team, Wellington Phoenix FC, plays in the A-League which is otherwise an all-Australian competition.  The two major domestic competitions are the New Zealand Football Championship, which is played between eight regional teams, and the Chatham Cup which is a knock-out competition played between clubs. Neither the Phoenix nor the NZFC franchises play in the Chatham Cup.

Auckland City FC won the semi-professional OFC Champions League competition in a record eight times; 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, and earned the bronze medal at the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup held in Morocco. Nowadays, the Navy Blues are looking into the possibility of joining the A-League as the second New Zealand team after the Wellington Phoenix.

Football is especially popular amongst young people. In 2017, football was played by 25,037 secondary school students, making it the fourth-most popular sport behind netball, rugby union and basketball.

New Zealand hosted the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Cup, the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in 2008 and the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup and will co-host the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup alongside Australia.

Other Sports

Thoroughbred horse running

The various Cup days in the major cities attract large crowds, the biggest ones being Auckland Cup week and the Wellington Cup festival. Horses often travel to Australia and vice versa for racing and breeding purposes. The world-famous Phar Lap and many Melbourne Cup winners were bred in New Zealand. Thoroughbred racing is the most prominent type of horse racing in New Zealand, although there is still a strong following of Standardbred harness racing (or "trotters" and "pacers" as they are sometimes known).

Athletics (track and field)

Athletics is New Zealand's second-most successful Olympic sport with 24 medals, of which 10 have been gold. Arthur Porritt was New Zealand's first Olympic athletic medallist, winning bronze in the 100 metres at the 1924 Summer Olympics. The race was later immortallised in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, although at Porritt's request his character in the film was renamed "Tom Watson".

The nation in particular has been strong in middle-distance events. New Zealand men have won Olympic gold in the 1500 metres three times: Jack Lovelock in 1936, Peter Snell in 1964 and John Walker in 1976. Snell also won back-to-back gold medals in the 800 metres in 1960 and 1964.

The national governing body is Athletics New Zealand, which formed in 1887 as the New Zealand Amateur Athletics Association and adopted its current name in 1989.

Australian rules football

Australian rules football is a growing sport in New Zealand with programs established under the reorganised governing body of AFL New Zealand. Australian rules football was previously much more popular in New Zealand, with a team competing at the 1908 Melbourne Carnival. Participation dropped after World War I. The game was re-established in New Zealand in the 1970s.

Leagues currently exist in Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato, and Wellington. The national team won the Australian Football International Cup in 2005.

New Zealanders who have played in the Australian Football League, the premier Australian rules football competition, include Joe Sellwood, Wayne Schwass, Thomas O'Halloran, Danny Dickfos, Trent Croad and Karmichael Hunt.

American football
American football is a small sport in New Zealand with programs established in Auckland, Waikato, Hawkes Bay and Wellington. The governing body is the New Zealand American Football Federation.

The New Zealand national team is called the New Zealand Steelblacks.

Baseball

The Auckland Tuatara of the Australian Baseball League are currently the only professional baseball team playing in New Zealand. The Tuatara began their inaugural season during the 2018–19 Australian Baseball League season, and originally played their home games at McLeod Park in Te Atatū South. For their second season, they moved their home games to North Harbour Stadium in Albany, New Zealand.

The New Zealand national baseball team are known as The Diamondblacks.

Basketball

The Auckland-based New Zealand Breakers are the only New Zealand-based team in the National Basketball League of Australia. Four players from New Zealand have gone on to play in the NBA: Steven Adams, Aron Baynes, Sean Marks, and Kirk Penney.

On the international stage, the Tall Blacks (New Zealand's national team) came in 4th place at the 2002 FIBA World Championship.

Beach volleyball
Beach volleyball is a growing sport in New Zealand. In 1996 brothers Glenn and Reid Hamilton represented New Zealand in the first ever beach volleyball event at the Summer Olympics at Atlanta, USA. In 2012 Kirk Pitman and Jason Lockhead reached 20th in the world rankings. Anna Harrison (née Scarlett) and Susan Blundell were the highest ranking female pairing reaching 33rd in the world rankings.

In 2018 Beach Volleyball made its Commonwealth Games debut. Tauranga brothers Sam and Ben O'Dea claimed the bronze medal while Shaunna Polley and Kelsie Will gained 5th place.

The national governing body is Volleyball New Zealand.

Equestrian
Equestrian sportsmen, sportswomen and horses make their mark in the world, with Mark Todd being chosen international "Horseman of the Twentieth Century", and many juniors at Pony Club level. Mark Todd won a gold medal in eventing at the 1984 Olympic Games, and again at the 1988 Games. He won Bronze at the 2012 London games. A Bronze Medal was also won in the Teams Event at the 1988 Games. Further medals were won at the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Games.

Boxing
Amateur boxing was earlier a popular sport in New Zealand, but during the 1950s there was a move to stop schools promoting boxing championships and the sport is now only of minority interest. Despite this there has been success at Commonwealth and Olympic Games level.

Professional boxing in New Zealand has produced Joseph Parker, Geovana Peres, Daniella Smith, Maselino Masoe, Bob Fitzsimmons, Torpedo Billy Murphy, Cherneka Johnson, and Floyd Masson all World Champions. Herbert Slade, David Tua, Kali Meehan, Lani Daniels, Michelle Preston and Tom Heeney were all contenders for a World Championship.

Canoeing
New Zealand enjoyed success in canoeing and kayaking at the Summer Olympics in the 1980s with sprint kayakers such as Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, winning four gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles games, and gold, silver and bronze at the 1988 Seoul games. The sport had a lower profile in the 1990s and 2000s, with the single Olympic medal success in the time being Ben Fouhy's silver medal at the 2004 Athens games. In the early 2010s, canoeing and kayaking returned to international success with sprint kayaker Lisa Carrington winning multiple gold medals at the World Championships and Olympic Games.

Cycling

New Zealand has produced a number of notable cyclists, across a variety of disciplines including track cycling, road cycling, mountain biking, Downhill and BMX. New Zealand won two cycling medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics – Hayden Roulston took silver in the Men's 4000 m Individual Pursuit, while the men's team pursuit team took bronze. At the 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, the New Zealand team took a total of five medals, equalling the country's record medal tally previously achieved at the 2012 and 2014 Worlds, with Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins winning the gold in the men's team sprint for the third time in four years and Mitchell additionally becoming the first New Zealander to medal in the individual sprint. In road racing, George Bennett became the first New Zealander to take an overall win in a UCI WorldTour event when he won the 2017 Tour of California. New Zealand is famous in Downhill Racing too; riders as Sam Blenkinsop, Brook McDonald, Nathan Rankin and Wyn Masters are some of the fastest downhill racers in the world. The sport is governed in New Zealand by Cycling New Zealand.

Extreme sports
Extreme sports are increasingly popular in New Zealand, both with residents and tourists. Bungee jumping and zorbing were both invented in New Zealand.

Futsal
The New Zealand national futsal team, nicknamed the Futsal Whites, is the representative side for New Zealand in international futsal and is governed by New Zealand Football (NZF). New Zealand made the bid for the 2020 FIFA Futsal World Cup but lost out to Lithuania.

Gliding
New Zealand hosted the 1995 World Gliding Championships at Omarama in North Otago, near the centre of the South Island. The Southern Alps are known for the excellent wave soaring conditions. In 2002 and 2003, Steve Fossett tried to beat the world gliding altitude record there (see: Gliding New Zealand and external links below).

Golf
New Zealand's Michael Campbell won the 2005 U.S. Open Golf Championship.

The New Zealand amateur team of Campbell, Phil Tataurangi, Steven Scahill and Grant Moorehead won the Eisenhower Trophy (World Amateur team event) in 1992 in Vancouver.

Sir Bob Charles has won the British Open and a number of other titles.

Lydia Ko, born in Seoul but raised from infancy in New Zealand, was #1 in the women's World Amateur Golf Ranking, and won two events on the US-based LPGA Tour before turning professional in 2013. She has since won seven more LPGA events, and for a time was #1 in the Women's World Golf Rankings for professionals. The first of Ko's two stints as #1 in the professional rankings began in February 2015, before her 18th birthday, making her the youngest player of either sex to reach the top of the world rankings. Later in 2015, Ko won her first major championship, the Evian Championship, becoming the youngest player of either sex to win a professional major championship, and became the youngest-ever LPGA Player of the Year.

Tournaments and competitions include New Zealand Open, New Zealand Women's Open, New Zealand Amateur and New Zealand PGA Championship.

Hockey
In New Zealand, like most other Commonwealth nations, "hockey" without an identifier refers to field hockey, as opposed to ice hockey and other kinds of hockey. The New Zealand Hockey Federation (also known as Hockey New Zealand) administers the sport in New Zealand, and had 48,174 registered players in the 2013 winter, of which 52.8 percent were female and 47.2 percent were male.

The New Zealand men's national team and women's national team are both known as the "Black Sticks". The best result attained thus far by the men was a gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The best placing by the women thus far has been a 4th placing at both the 1986 Women's Hockey World Cup and the 2012 Summer Olympics.  In the Commonwealth Games they have won a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. , the men's team is ranked 8th and the women's team is ranked 4th in the world by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

Ice hockey
Ice hockey has been played in New Zealand since 1937, but is a fairly small sport and has currently around 1600 active players.

The national governing body is New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation which is made up of 3 Regional Associations. Since 2005 the NZIHF organizes the New Zealand Ice Hockey League that currently consists of five teams, two teams from Auckland, one from Dunedin, one from Queenstown and one from Christchurch.

New Zealand's men's national ice hockey team is called the Ice Blacks and the women's the Ice Ferns.

Indoor Bowls
New Zealand Indoor Bowls was introduced in 1908 and today is made up of 37 centres and 767 clubs covering all of New Zealand. Membership peaked in 1963 with 73,100 affiliated members, today it has an estimated 20,000 members currently affiliated. Many members are attracted to the sport due to the competitiveness and skill required to successfully compete with being named as an interprovincial representative being a goal of most players.

Kabaddi
New Zealand has a small but growing kabaddi following. The men's national team took part in the 2012 Kabaddi World Cup, and the women's team surprisingly reached the final on debut in the Women's 2013 World Cup, a feat which they repeated in 2014. The sport is run in New Zealand by the New Zealand Kabaddi Sports Federation.

Kickboxing
Kickboxing is a growing sport in New Zealand. New Zealand have had multiple world champions including Ray Sefo, Mark Hunt, Israel Adesanya, Michelle Preston and many more.

King in the Ring in a regular eight-man kickboxing tournament that happens between three and five times a year in New Zealand.

Kī-o-rahi
Kī-o-rahi is a traditional Māori ball sport played in New Zealand with a small round ball called a ki. It is a fast-paced sport incorporating skills similar to Australian Rules, rugby union, netball and touch. In 2005 Ki-o-rahi was chosen to represent New Zealand by global fast-food chain McDonald's as part of its 'Passport to Play' programme to teach physical play activities in 31,000 American schools. The New Zealand Ki-o-rahi representative organisation, Ki-o-Rahi Akotanga Iho, formed with men's and women's national teams, completed a 14 match tour of Europe in September and October 2010.

Motorsport

Despite New Zealand not having a major car industry since the 1990s, it is very successful at motorsport.  There are many levels of competitive motors sport series in New Zealand, which are most simply broken down into watersports (hydro-planing, jetski racing and thundercat racing), automobile racing (Club and national level circuit racing and rallying, with some international events, as well as speedway) and finally motorcycle racing (street, circuit and dirt/motocross).

To date, New Zealand has seen one Formula One World Champion, Denny Hulme, in 1967. Six other New Zealanders have raced at Grand Prix level: Bruce McLaren (four wins), Chris Amon, Howden Ganley, Mike Thackwell, Brendon Hartley and Liam Lawson. Bruce McLaren founded the McLaren racing team, which was named after him.

In addition to their Formula One careers, Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren won the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans sports-car race. Earl Bamber won the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, and won again in 2017 with fellow kiwi Brendon Hartley. Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme won four Can-Am sports-car racing championships, from 1967 to 1970. Scott Dixon won the Indianapolis 500 in 2008, and the IndyCar Series championship in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020. Dixon has won 53 races to date in his IndyCar career, the second most after American driver A. J. Foyt.

New Zealand has many drivers currently competing on a high level on the world stage: Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen and Fabian Coulthard are among several New Zealand drivers who have contested the Australian-based Supercars Championship, which holds a round in New Zealand each year, currently at the Pukekohe circuit. Greg Murphy has won the pinnacle race of the Supercar season, the Bathurst 1000, four times. Brendon Hartley won the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2015. Two New Zealanders currently compete in the American IndyCar Series: Scott McLaughlin for Team Penske, and Scott Dixon for Chip Ganassi Racing.

A1 Team New Zealand was a front-runner since the series inception. Jonny Reid won seven races for the team helping it twice claim second place in the Championship, 2006–07 & 2007–08. On 20 January 2008, Taupo Motorsport Park hosted the fifth race in the 2007–08 A1 Grand Prix season.

Rallying is a popular sport at all levels in New Zealand, and has previously hosted rounds of the World Rally Championship (the last time being in 2012) and hosts the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship each year. A highly competitive national championship is run each year, and some drivers also take part in the Australian Rally Championship, most notably the late Possum Bourne, who was a seven-times Australian Rally Champion. Hayden Paddon is New Zealand's top rally driver competing in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai.

Ivan Mauger, born in Christchurch on 4 October 1939, won a record 6 motorcycle speedway World Championships in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1977 and 1979. He also finished on the podium of the World Final in 1967 (3rd), 1971 (2nd), 1973 (2nd) and 1974 (2nd). Mauger also won the Speedway World Team Cup riding for Great Britain in 1968, 1971 and 1972, while winning the title for a fourth time with the New Zealand team in 1979. Mauger was also the Speedway World Pairs Champion in 1969 and 1970 as well as the Long Track World Champion in 1971, 1972 and 1976, a total of 15 World Championships in speedway racing. With his Long Track title in 1971 he also became the first rider to have won all four World Championship competitions, while winning in 1972 saw him become the first rider to win both the Speedway and Long Track World Championships in the same year. In 1999, Ivan Mauger was voted the best speedway rider of the Millennium by the readers of Speedway Star and Vintage Speedway magazines.

Barry Briggs, born in Christchurch on 30 December 1934, is a New Zealand motorcyclist who won four individual Speedway World Championships (1957, 1958, 1964 and 1966) and took part in a record 87 world championship races. Briggs also won the Speedway World Team cup with Great Britain in 1968 and 1971. Between 1954 and 1970, Briggs appeared in a record 17 consecutive World Individual Finals.

Ronnie Moore became New Zealand's first motorsport World Champion when he won the 1954 Speedway World Championship, backing that up to win a second time in 1959. Moore also won the World Pairs Championship with Ivan Mauger in 1970. Although born in Hobart, Australia in 1933, Moore's parents moved to New Zealand while he was still a child and he always considered himself to be a Kiwi and rode under the New Zealand flag.

Since then Graeme Crosby and Aaron Slight have both risen to the top of World Championship motorcycle racing, in 500cc and Superbikes respectively but championships have been elusive. Also John Britten designed a revolutionary motorcycle called the Britten V1000. Shayne King became the first rider from New Zealand to win the 500cc Motocross World Championship in 1996. Stefan Merriman is a four-time winner of the World Enduro Championship for enduro motorcycling.

In 2003 Wade Cunningham become New Zealand's first ever Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile world champion by winning the Karting World Championship. Cunningham later raced in the US Indy car series.

Orienteering
Orienteering is a popular sport in New Zealand, that combines cross-country running with land navigation skills across a range of settings. Variations of the sport popular in New Zealand include bicycle orienteering, ski orienteering, and rogaines. Orienteering is a popular sport for youth and juniors, and New Zealand regularly sends competitors to both the World Orienteering Championships and the Junior World Orienteering Championships. Orienteering in New Zealand is organized by the New Zealand Orienteering Federation. Matt Ogden won the middle-distance event at the 2012 Junior World Orienteering Championships in Slovakia.

Rowing

Rowing has been a consistent medal winner at the Olympic Games with the first coming in 1920. New Zealand have won medals at every Olympics between 1968 and 2016, with the exception of 1980.

At the World Rowing Championships of 2005, in Kaizu, Gifu, Japan, New Zealand won 4 gold medals in 4 consecutive races – now known as the "Magic 45 minutes".

In 2006, Nathan Cohen became the first New Zealander to win a gold medal at the World University Games in any sport, rowing a single scull.

In addition a number of Rowing World Cup events have been won by New Zealanders. Rowing New Zealand is the governing body.

Lake Karapiro in the Waikato and Lake Ruataniwha in the Mackenzie Basin are the two premier rowing venues in New Zealand. Karapiro hosted the 2010 World Rowing Championships.

Sailing

New Zealand sailors have won a large number of international events, including Olympic Games medals in 1956, 1964, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016. New Zealand holds the  America's Cup sailing title, having won it three times in the challenge's history.

Surf lifesaving (surf sports)
In New Zealand, surf lifesaving sport encompasses a number of different disciplines, including surf swimming, board paddling, surf ski, beach flags, beach sprint, Ironman with competitors starting from the age of 7. Surf lifesaving is a relatively popular minor sport with and estimated 8,000 competitors of which 2,500 attend Ocean Athletes (Junior Nationals 10–14) and Nats (Senior nationals). The New Zealand team also known as the Black Fins have also been highly successful in recent years placing 2nd in the 2010 World Championships and are currently the only country apart from Australia to have won World Champs, (1956, 1998, 2012, 2014, 2016) which is respectable considering the comparatively small size of the sport in the country.

America's Cup
Auckland hosted consecutive America's Cup regattas in 2000 and 2003. In 2000, Team New Zealand successfully defended the trophy they won in 1995 in San Diego, but in 2003 they lost to a team headed by Ernesto Bertarelli of Switzerland whose Alinghi was skippered by Russell Coutts, the expatriate Kiwi who helmed the victorious Black Magic in 1995 and New Zealand in 2000 as well as many other Kiwis. Coutts and Brad Butterworth, along with several other Team New Zealand members, defected to Bertarelli's Alinghi team, taking with them a wealth of experience that allowed the new team to win the America's Cup on the first challenge. Coutts was later dismissed from the Alinghi team; he fought a court battle with Bertarelli to allow him to sail in the 2007 America's Cup contest in Spain, but reached a settlement that kept him out of that contest. The 2021 America's Cup will be held in Auckland's Waitematā Harbour after New Zealand won the 2017 America's Cup.

Winter sports

New Zealand has several areas for skiing and snowboarding, on both islands. Whakapapa and Turoa are the only commercial resorts on the North Island; Queenstown, Wānaka and Christchurch are the top locations in the South Island to access the mountains. In addition to the commercial ski resorts, New Zealand has many non-profit club fields across both the North and South Islands, particularly in the region of the Southern Alps close to Christchurch such as Craigieburn Valley, Broken River and Temple Basin. In the North Island, there are club field skiing options on Mount Taranaki at the Manganui area and also on the Eastern aspect of Mount Ruapehu at Tukino.

International snowboarders from New Zealand include Mitch Brown, who placed 25th at the 2006 Winter Olympics in the men's halfpipe, and his sister Kendall Brown, who placed 15th at the 2010 Winter Olympics in the women's halfpipe.  Also New Zealand snowboarder Jacob Koia is currently sitting in 18th position on the TTR world rankings. Notable skiers include Claudia Riegler and Olympic medallist Annelise Coberger.

Softball
New Zealand's men's softball team, nicknamed the "Black Sox", have been highly successful on the international stage despite the sport being the second most popular summer sport behind cricket in NZ. The Black Sox shared the honours at the World Championships in Lower Hutt in 1976 with the US and Canada, and won outright in 1984, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2013 and 2017. They were the runners up at the 2009 World Champs to Australia. They were 3rd in the inaugural World Championships in Mexico City 1968 ; this team was affectionately known as "The Pilgrims".

The New Zealand women's national softball team are nicknamed the White Sox.  They won the World Championships in 1982.

Squash

Squash has been played competitively in New Zealand since 1932. In 2010, there were 220 clubs affiliated with the national organisation, Squash New Zealand. Competitions are played at club, regional and national level.

Dame Susan Devoy won the World Open Championship a record four times, in 1985, 1987, 1990, and 1992. She also won seven consecutive British Open titles from 1984 to 1990, and an eighth in 1992.

At the Squash in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Joelle King and Jaclyn Hawkes won gold in the women's doubles. King and Martin Knight won silver in the mixed doubles.

New Zealand hosted the Women's World Team Championships in 2010. They were held at International Pacific College in Palmerston North.

In the Squash at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Joelle King won gold in the women's singles and Paul Coll took silver in the men's singles. King won gold again with Amanda Landers-Murphy in women's doubles. King and Coll won bronze in the mixed doubles.

Surfing and surfsport

Surfing in New Zealand has ahistory dating back as far as 1963, when the first national championships were held at Mount Maunganui and won by Peter Way. Surfing has since become more popular with many New Zealanders competing on the international scene. In 1976, New Zealand hosted the Amco/Radio Hauraki Pro at North Piha which became the first event of the very first year of the World Professional Surfing Tour. The event was won by Michael Peterson. In 1987, Iain Buchanan would go on to compete on the world tour finishing 34th overall, the highest placing ever for a New Zealand surfer. New Zealand's top surfer Maz Quinn at a young age won the Billabong Pro-Junior Series in Australia in 1996, then competed in the World Pro Junior final in France coming second overall to Taj Burrow. Maz Quinn placed 7th on the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) in 2001 to qualify for the World Championship Tour (WCT) – the first Kiwi to do so. Woman's surfing has also come far in recent years with New Zealand surfer Paige Hareb currently sitting in 8th position on the ASP World Tour of Surfing.

Surf lifesaving is also popular in New Zealand, with national championships being held yearly.

Quidditch
Quidditch was introduced to New Zealand around 5 years ago and is currently played mainly at the university level, though some attempts have been made to introduce the under 16 version 'kidditch' to schools. New Zealand is currently listed as an 'emerging area' as there are "more than zero teams but... [no] regular competitive activity". The governing body is QuANZ (Quidditch association of New Zealand) which reports to the IQA (International Quidditch Association). Each year QuANZ hosts an international camp, inviting players from NZ, Australia, and other countries to take part in a 3-day training weekend, held in Christchurch. The national team 'Black Brooms/Tawhai Pango' made their international debut at the 2018 IQA World Cup in Florence, Italy. The team performed better than expected with a final ranking of 20th out of 29 after beating Finland but losing to Malaysia and Germany in pool play, then beating Switzerland and losing a second game against Malaysia. The final game was lost to The Netherlands in the play off for the 19/20 rank. Currently New Zealand's biggest contribution to quidditch as a sport is in overseas leagues where many New Zealanders play for regional teams in Australia and England. The current president of Quidditch UK is NZ born Matthew Bateman.

Tennis

Tennis was introduced to New Zealand in the 1870s, soon after the modern form of the game was invented in England.

The first New Zealand Tennis Championships were played at Farndon in Hawkes Bay in 1886.

Māori participation in tennis began soon after, with many Māori playing at a high standard by the 1890s. Sir Maui Pomare, the first Māori to qualify as a doctor, won the USA Inter-Varsity Tennis Championships in 1899 while he was studying there. This began a great legacy of Māori participation in tennis, with many players of high calibre emerging over the years, most recently professional players like Kelly Evernden, Rewa Hudson and Leanne Baker. But perhaps the doyenne of Māori tennis was Ruia Morrison, who played with great honour in international competitions, and at Wimbledon, in the early days of the professional era.

New Zealand and Australia, combined as Australasia, were founding members of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in 1913.

New Zealander Tony Wilding was the World No. 1 player in 1913. He was Wimbledon Champion in 1910, 1911, 1912 and 1913. He was a pivotal figure in helping Australasia win the Davis Cup in 1907, hold it in 1908 and 1909, and to win it again in 1914. He was killed in action during World War I on 9 May 1915 in the Battle of Aubers Ridge, northern France.

New Zealand has competed in the Fed Cup since 1965, when they played Argentina (won 2–1) and Australia (lost 0–3). At a Fed Cup regional tournament held in Christchurch in 2007, New Zealand played Jordan (won 3–0), India (lost 1–2), Chinese Taipei (lost 1–2), Kazakhstan (won 3–0), and Hong Kong (won 2–1).

New Zealand's representatives at the Olympic Games have been: 1912, Stockholm – Tony Wilding (Australasia); 1988, Seoul – Belinda Cordwell and Kelly Evernden (singles) and Bruce Devlin with Kelly Evernden (men's doubles); 1996, Atlanta – Brett Steven; 2008, Beijing – Marina Erakovic.

The Heineken Open is part of the ATP International Series played in Auckland each year, just before the Australian Open.

Triathlon
Hamish Carter of New Zealand won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics and bronze at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, and was rated world number one for several years. Other successful triathletes from New Zealand include Bevan Docherty, who won the ITU world championship, and a silver in Athens (both in 2004). He has also gained a bronze medal in Beijing 2008, and a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games (Melbourne in 2006).

On the women's side, Samantha Warriner was ranked number 1 in the world. She won silver at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, and Andrea Hewitt took bronze at the same event.

Volleyball
Volleyball is the second most popular sport for girls in NZ aged 13–18 and sixth for boys. Volleyball has been growing in popularity at school level in recent years especially amongst girls.

The national governing body is Volleyball New Zealand which is made up of 14 Regional Associations. Within each Association there are clubs and/or representative teams. The main events on the calendar each year are the National Secondary Schools Championships and the National Club Championships.

The New Zealand women's national volleyball team won the gold medal on several occasions.

International competitions

Olympic Games

New Zealanders first competed at the Summer Olympic Games in 1908, with Australia as a combined Australasia team. The New Zealand Olympic Committee was formed in 1911 and was recognised by the IOC in 1919. New Zealand first competed as an independent nation in 1920 and has attended every games since with the exception of the 1980 Moscow games, which New Zealand boycotted (four New Zealand athletes did compete at the 1980 games though under the NZOC flag). The nation first attended the Winter Olympic Games in 1952, and has competed at all but two (1956 and 1964) Winter Olympic Games since.

After the 2018 Winter Olympics, New Zealand as a nation has won 120 medals: 46 gold, 28 silver, and 46 bronze. All but three of those medals were won at the Summer Olympic Games. In addition, three medals, one gold and two bronze, were won by New Zealanders in 1908 and 1912 as part of Australasia. New Zealand ranks 34th on the all-time Olympic Games medal table by total medals, and 29th when weighted by medal type. The most successful sports of New Zealand have been rowing (24 medals, including 11 gold) and athletics (24 medals, including 10 gold).

New Zealand's most celebrated Olympian is probably middle-distance runner Peter Snell, who won three gold medals and broke several world records during the 1960s.

Commonwealth Games

New Zealand is one of only six nations to have competed at every Commonwealth Games since they were founded as the British Empire Games in 1930. The country has hosted three editions of the games: the 1950 British Empire Games and the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, and the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

New Zealand national teams

National team colours
New Zealand's national sporting colours are black and white (or silver). The silver fern is a national emblem worn by New Zealanders representing their country in sport.

National team names
The national men's rugby union team is known as the "All Blacks".  The national women's netball team is known as the "Silver Ferns". Historically, rugby and netball dominated team sport in New Zealand, and the national teams of other sports have acquired names which have been formed with reference to these two (see: list below). The women's rugby team is known as the "Black Ferns", rather than the "All Silvers". Some of these names seem to have arisen as genuine nicknames (e.g. "Tall Blacks", "Wheel Blacks"), and some are neologisms developed as marketing devices (e.g. Black Sticks (hockey), Black Caps (cricket)). New Zealand Badminton temporarily named their teams "Black Cocks". The men's national soccer team is called the "All Whites", as they play in an all-white strip. At the time the national soccer team was formed, an all-black strip would not have been allowed.

Two notable exceptions to the "Black/Ferns" naming scheme are the "Kiwis" (men's Rugby League) and "SWANZ" (the name formerly used for women's soccer).

Notes

References

https://www.stuff.co.nz/.../basketball/.../basketball-increasing-as-sport-of- choice-among-new-zealand-youth
Retrieved 19 July 2017

External links
 Participation in Sport URL accessed on 23 January 2006
 Top Sports and Physical Activities URL accessed on 23 January 2006
 SPARC Facts complete (pdf) URL accessed on 23 January 2006
 New Zealand Orienteering Federation URL accessed on 23 January 2006

Sport in New Zealand


Luk Keng Pier () is a small public pier adjoining Luk Keng Village, Yam O, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. There is only a kai-to ferry route to and from Tsing Lung Tau in Tsuen Wan for villagers to travel to the urban area. This closed transportation relationship between Yam O and Tsing Lung Tau explains why Northeast Lantau is part of the Tsuen Wan District, instead of the Islands District. It was the only public transportation for Luk Keng Village and the whole of Yam O before Sunny Bay station on the MTR opened.

See others
Luk Keng Village
Yam O

References

Piers in Hong Kong
Yam O
Tsuen Wan District

Luk Keng Pier


Furia à Bahia pour OSS 117 (released in the United States as OSS 117–Mission for a Killer) is a 1965 French/Italian international co-production Eurospy spy-fi film. It was the third OSS 117 film directed by André Hunebelle and produced by Paul Cadéac.  Frederick Stafford made his film debut taking over the role of OSS 117 from Kerwin Mathews.

The film was shot on Brazilian locations and featured action scenes arranged by Hunebelle's stunt coordinator Claude Carliez with production design by Paul-Louis Boutié.  It was based on Jean Bruce's 1955 novel Dernier quart d'heure his 44th OSS 117 book that was published in English in 1965 under the title Live Wire (UK) and The Last Quarter Hour (USA). The American edition featured commentary by Pierre Salinger, who was acquainted with Josette Bruce, Jean Bruce's widow. Josette would take up writing OSS 117 novels in 1966.

Plot
Secret Agent OSS 117, Colonel Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath (Frederick Stafford) has his Alpine ski holiday interrupted to receive a briefing on a series of suicide attacks performed by trusted assistants of their targets that they blow up with themselves.  Using the cover of a journalist named Hubert Delacroix, de La Bath flies to Brazil to meet his contact Thomas Ellis (Claude Carliez) who believes the killers have been drugged and hypnotised to perform their assassinations.

At Rio de Janeiro, de La Bath is paged over the airport loudspeaker system by a woman who identifies herself as Consuela Moroni (Perrette Pradier), Ellis's assistant.  Noticing his being watched by two men who photograph him and Consuela's paging of him over the loudspeaker as a serious breach of secret agent protocol, de La Bath is suspicious.  As Consuela takes him to a dockyard to meet Ellis, de La Bath takes the keys out of the car and leaves Consuela inside.  His instincts are proved correct when he's attacked by three thugs, one who uses bolas as a weapon against him.  De La Bath defeats the assassins with martial arts and their own bolas.  Seeing the same two men from the airport watching him from a car, he uses a forklift truck to lift their car into the air. Consuela has vanished, but de La Bath has her car and drives to his hotel.

On a car radio he hears that Ellis has been in a serious car accident and hospitalised. As he visits the hospital to see Ellis, he meets Anna-Maria (Mylène Demongeot).  She flew Ellis to the hospital after his automobile accident outside her ranch in Bahia.  An assassin disguised as a Doctor shoots Ellis on the operating table as well as some of the medical staff before OSS 117 throws him out of a window.

Anna-Maria gives OSS 117 Ellis's wallet that contains his address as well as a key ring. He takes Anna-Maria to her house in Rio where she is being watched. Visiting Ellis's address he meets the real Consuela (Annie Anderson) who knows little except that she fears for her life and doesn't have the key to Ellis's safe, however she arranges a meeting the next day with Ellis's associate in Rio near the Christ the Redeemer of the Andes statue.

Returning to his hotel room the false Consuela/phony Moroni is in de La Bath's room and spends the night with him.  Still suspicious, de La Bath leaves Consuela in bed as he goes to the toilet, playing a tape recording of him whistling and using the bathroom as he dresses and leaves out the window to reenter the room after the false Conseula has let two thugs in who attempt to kill de La Bath in his bath.  De La Bath captures them and leaves all three bound and gagged on his bed.  They remain like that until the water from de La Bath's bathtub that is still running floods the bathroom causing a guest below to complain to the management of his being soaked.  The three are arrested by the Rio police.

Prior to meeting Ellis's associate Carlos (François Maistre), de la Bath visits Anna-Maria who has been drugged with the suicide attack formula.  She attempts to blow them both up with a hand grenade that de la Bath uses to dispatch the two thugs who drugged her.

Carlos has the key to the safe and reveals that what caused Ellis's car "accident" was a friend in the front seat attempting to assassinate him with a hand grenade.  Carlos accompanies OSS 117 back to Ellis's apartment where he waits outside to give warning.  In the apartment the real Consuela has been murdered by the same two thugs at the airport and dockyard who are attempting to open the safe with an acetylene torch. They use it as a flamethrower to kill de la Bath but he kills them with it.  Warned by Carlos of another group of assassins entering the building, de la Bath leaves the torch running filling the room with gas.  He ignites it from a window as the group of assassins enter the room.

Finding flowers in Ellis's safe that Ellis discovered to have been used to create the drug, de la Bath and Anne-Marie drive to her home in Bahia where another assassination attempt takes place by setting the road they are driving on aflame.  Arriving at Anne-Marie's ranch courtesy of the unsuccessful assassin's vehicle, her friend Leandro (Raymond Pellegrin) flies them to the remote region of the Indians who harvest the flowers.  They discover the locale is the headquarters of a secret neofascist organisation who wish to take over South America.

Cast
 Frederick Stafford : Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, aka 0SS 177
 Mylène Demongeot : Anna-Maria Sulza
 François Maistre : Carlos
 Raymond Pellegrin : Leandro
 Jacques Riberolles : Miguel Sulza
 Perrette Pradier : Consuela Moroni I
 Guy Delorme : Karl
 Annie Anderson : Consuela Moroni II
 Jean-Pierre Janic : Ludwig
 Michel Thomass : Russian client
 Richard Saint-Bris : Hotel manager
 Eric Vasberg : Henchman
 Henri Attal : Killer #1
 Dominique Zardi : Killer #2

Reception
The film was the 11th biggest hit of the year in France with admissions of 2,686,432.

Notes

External links

 Original French trailer http://www.cinemovies.fr/bande-annonce-9946-30135.html

1965 films
1960s spy thriller films
Films directed by André Hunebelle
Films set in Rio de Janeiro (city)
Films shot in Rio de Janeiro (city)
1960s French-language films
French spy thriller films
French sequel films
1960s French films

OSS 117 Mission for a Killer


Soochipara Falls also known as Sentinel Rock Waterfalls is a three-tiered waterfall in Vellarimala, Wayanad, India. It is surrounded by deciduous, evergreen and montane forests. Locally referred to as Soochipara ("Soochi" meaning "Needle" and "Para" meaning "Rock"), the 15-20 minute drive from Meppadi to Sentinel Rock Waterfalls has views of a number of Wayanad's tea estates.  The Sentinel Rock Waterfalls is 200 metres (656 feet) and offers a cliff face that is used for rock climbing. The water from Soochipara Falls later joins Chulika River or popularly known as Chaliyar River after Velarimala Hills near Cherambadi (Tamil Nadu) in Kerala.

Once people reach the parking area, they have to pass through a security check at the entrance where they make sure you don't carry any plastic. It takes 10-15 minutes walk to the waterfalls and water flow is less during summer, which makes it easy to reach the rocks where water falls. One have to walk around 1.2 kilometres to reach the waterfalls. It is advisable to drink enough water before the walk down to the falls,

Gallery

See also
List of waterfalls in India
List of waterfalls in India by height

References

External links

Waterfalls of Kerala
Geography of Wayanad district

Soochipara Falls


Sodium iodide (chemical formula NaI) is an ionic compound formed from the chemical reaction of sodium metal and iodine. Under standard conditions, it is a white, water-soluble solid comprising a 1:1 mix of sodium cations (Na+) and iodide anions (I−) in a crystal lattice. It is used mainly as a nutritional supplement and in organic chemistry. It is produced industrially as the salt formed when acidic iodides react with sodium hydroxide. It is a chaotropic salt.

Uses

Food supplement
Sodium iodide, as well as potassium iodide, is commonly used to treat and prevent iodine deficiency.  Iodized table salt contains 10 ppm iodide.

Organic synthesis

Sodium iodide is used for conversion of alkyl chlorides into alkyl iodides.  This method, the Finkelstein reaction, relies on the insolubility of sodium chloride in acetone to drive the reaction:

R–Cl + NaI → R–I + NaCl

Nuclear medicine
Some radioactive iodide salts of sodium, including Na125I and Na131I, have radiopharmaceutical uses for thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism or as radioactive tracer in imaging (see Isotopes of iodine > Radioiodines I-123, I-124, I-125, and I-131 in medicine and biology).

Thallium-doped NaI(Tl) scintillators
Sodium iodide activated with thallium, NaI(Tl), when subjected to ionizing radiation, emits photons (i.e., scintillate) and is used in scintillation detectors, traditionally in nuclear medicine, geophysics, nuclear physics, and environmental measurements. NaI(Tl) is the most widely used scintillation material. The crystals are usually coupled with a photomultiplier tube, in a hermetically sealed assembly, as sodium iodide is hygroscopic. Fine-tuning of some parameters (i.e., radiation hardness, afterglow, transparency) can be achieved by varying the conditions of the crystal growth. Crystals with a higher level of doping are used in X-ray detectors with high spectrometric quality. Sodium iodide can be used both as single crystals and as polycrystals for this purpose. The wavelength of maximum emission is 415 nm.

Radiocontrast
António Egas Moniz searched for a radiocontrast agent for cerebral angiography. After experiments on rabbits and dogs he settled upon sodium iodide as the best medium.

Solubility data
Sodium iodide exhibits high solubility in some organic solvents, unlike sodium chloride or even bromide:

Stability
Iodides (including sodium iodide) are detectably oxidized by atmospheric oxygen (O2) to molecular iodine (I2). I2 and I− complex to form the triiodide complex, which has a yellow color, unlike the white color of sodium iodide. Water accelerates the oxidation process, and iodide can also produce I2 by photooxidation, therefore for maximum stability sodium iodide should be stored under dark, low temperature, low humidity  conditions.

See also
 Gamma spectroscopy
 Scintillation counter
 Teratology

References

Cited sources

External links

Alkali metal iodides
Inorganic compounds
Iodides

Metal halides
Phosphors and scintillators
Sodium compounds
Chaotropic agents
Rock salt crystal structure

Sodium iodide


Singapore Airlines is an airline based in Singapore. It carries people from Singapore to 5 continents in the world. It is a major airline in Southeast Asia as well as on the "Kangaroo Route" from Australia to the UK from Singapore. The company was the first airline to operate the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger jet with a nickname of "superjumbo" – as well as the Boeing 787-10 and the longer range version of the Airbus A350-900. It was used to fly the longest planned flight in the world, from Singapore to Newark but only to be flown by the Airbus A340-500 until they were dropped in November 2013 until they operate it back with the new Airbus A350-900ULR in October 2018 with modified fuel system. In addition, there is also a low-cost airline, called Scoot. Scoot is the airline that has a mix of Airbus A320 and Boeing 787.

Singapore Airlines was given "Airline of the Year" by Skytrax in 2008. Its hub, Singapore Changi Airport, was given "Airport of the Year" in 2006.

Fleet
The Singapore Airlines fleet features exclusively wide-body aircraft from four aircraft families: the Boeing 777, Airbus A380, Airbus A350, and the Airbus A330. As of 31 October 2017, there were 111 aircraft registered in the Singapore Airlines fleet.

Singapore Airlines introduced the Airbus A330-300 in January 2009. It was the first aircraft in the fleet to feature a new regional business class product with 30 lie-flat leather seats in a 2-2-2 configuration, which has since been retrofitted on other regional aircraft in the fleet.

Five further A330s were delivered in 2009, progressively replacing older Boeing 777-200s on medium-haul routes, and the fleet stood at 19 examples by June 2011. All the aircraft were acquired on five-year leases with the option to extend if necessary, designed to fill the airline's capacity requirements until the delivery of Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s.

The airline committed to an additional 15 A330 aircraft in June 2011, which were delivered between 2013 and 2015, continuing to replace older Boeing 777s in the fleet. The A330 fleet was the second largest by type in the airline as of 31 August 2016 (after the Boeing 777 fleet) with 27 aircraft in service. In January 2016 the airline confirmed its intention to eventually replace all A330 aircraft with Airbus A350s in a medium-range configuration by 2019.

Singapore Airlines placed an order for 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft in 2006, with a further 30 orders placed in 2013. The airline took delivery of the first of the aircraft in February 2016 and flew its delivery flight to Singapore on 2 March. The airline began operating regular services using the A350 on the Singapore-Amsterdam route from 9 May 2016.

On 13 October 2015, Singapore Airlines announced that it had placed orders for seven Airbus A350-900ULR (Ultra-Long Range), which will see the return of non-stop flights between Singapore and both New York and Los Angeles. The A350-900ULR will be configured with approximately 170 seats, compared to 253 in Singapore Airlines' standard A350-900, and will be fitted with the airline's all-new business class seat design due in 2018.

Destinations

References

Airlines of Asia
Transport in Singapore
Star Alliance
IATA members
1970s establishments in Asia
Organizations based in Singapore

Singapore Airlines


Midwest Magic Jubilee is an annual magic convention held in Missouri.

History

The Jubilee was founded in 1956 by the Assembly 8 of St. Louis (the St. Louis chapter of Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.)),  and Ring One St. Louis (the St. Louis chapter of International Brotherhood of Magicians (I.B.M.)). It originally switched locations each year from St. Louis to Kansas City, though currently its permanent home is in St. Louis, which is also the headquarters of both S.A.M.'s Assembly 8 and I.B.M.'s Ring One.

Event
The Jubilee hosts between 150 and 250 attendees. It features a mix of magic lectures, demonstrations, and magic stage & close up competitions. Evening magic shows bring in professional magicians from all over North America, and dealers from all over the world.

Notable attendees
The Jubilee was said to have been Dai Vernon's favorite convention, as he attended several times.

Many of the following stars and close-up magicians have appeared at the Jubilee:
 1957: Bud Dietrich, Joe Scott, Paul LePaul, Gene DeVoe, john Fabjance, Ernie Heldman, Jay Marshall, Senator Crandall, and Brother John Hammon.
 1960: Gene Devoe, Don Lawton, John Fabjance, and Bev Taylor.
 1970: Bud Dietrich, Jim Ryan, Roy Mayer, Jay Marshall, John shirley Derek Dingle, Harry Monti, and Harold Russell.
 1974: Walter Zaney Blaney, Roger Klause, Mike Rogers, and Dai Vernon.
 1975: Ab Dickson, Johnny Brown, and Father Paul Zipfel.
 1977: J. B. Bobo, Ken Klosterman, Jim Ryan, Gene Anderson, O'Dowd & Sandra, Brother John Hamman Mike Caveny, and John Cornelius.
 1978: Dai Vernon, Andre Kole, Joe Cossari, Phil Goldstein (Max Maven), Dan Garrett, Mike Brazill, Jack Chanin, Paul Gertner, Marcom, Joe Palen, and Don James.
 1979: John Mendoza, David Hoy, J B Bobo, Tom Ogden, David Ginn Larry West El Doveno, Van Cleve, and Slydini.
 1981: Jay Marshall, Lance Burton, Mac King, Ab Dickson, Sjhintaro Fujiyama, the Great Tomsoni, John Mendoza, and Karrell Fox.
 1982: Jay Scott Berry, Terry Seabrooke, George Schindler, Jonathon Neal Brown, Mark Kornhauser, Trevor lewis, and Derek Dingle.
 1983: Mike O'Dowd, Ali Bongo, Glenn Falkenstein, Randi, Marvyn Roy, and Del Ray.
 1984: Harry Blackstone jr. Mike Ammar, Mark Kornhauser, David Ginn, Roger Miller, Al Goshman, and Howie Schwarzman.
 1985: Hans Morretti, Jeff McBride, Tom Mullica, Mike Rogers, Marcos, Bob Little, Don Lawton, David Roth, Petrick & Mia, Dave Cresey, and Richard Kaufman.
 1986: Goldfinger and Dove, Jeff Hobson, and Howard Hale.
 1987: Dai Vernon, Jay Marshall, Fukai & Kimika, Larry Becker, Kohl & co. Chris Kenner, Michael Ammar, Hiawatha Johnson, Hiawatha Johnson, John Carney, Stan Allen, Don Lawton, Tom Mullica, and Mike Caveney.
 1989: Jay Marshall, Karari, Brother John Hammon,  Tina Lennert, Dana Daniels, Stan Allen, Rocco, Frank Garcia, Meir Yedid, Korari, and Dai Vernon.
 1991: Don Alan, Jade, Mac King, Michael Weber, Tony Chapek, Jade, Terry Seabrook, Robert Dorian, Chuck Fayne, Joaquin Ayala, and Mark Wilson.
 1993: Hank Mororehouse, David Roth, Colombini, Jay Scott Berry, John Cornelius, Columbini, Dick Ryan, Jon Racherbaumer, and Terry Evanswood.
 1995: Satoru Furakawa, David Williamson, Martin Lewis, Justin Willman, and Billy McComb.
 1997: Kevin James, Pat Page & Alan Shaxon, Jon Racherbaumer, Nick Lewin, Chris Korn, Scotty York, Tom Mullica, and Eddie Fields.
 1999: John Calvert, Justin willman, Jade, topas, Vito Lupo, Aye Jaye, Bob Little, peter White, and Hank Moorehouse.
 2002: Dana Daniels, Danny Cole, John Mendoza, Kevin James, Rachel Wild, Diamond Jim Tyler, and Gaeten Bloom.
 2003: Lee Asher, Tony Miller, Mike Powers, David Sandy, Tom Jones & Rachel wild, Pete Marucci, Max Maven, and Chris KornSimon Lovell.
 2006: Whit Haydn, Mike Powers, Jason Dean, Jay Sankey, Howie Schwarzman, Julie Sobanski, Tony Miller, and Oscar Munoz.
 2007: Jason Dean, Michael Finney, Tom Burgoon & David Evangelista, Sterling Steal, Howie Schwarzman, Julie Sobanski, David Solomon, Bill & Ruth Pitts, Sonny Fontana, Mark Mason, and Todd Lamanske.
 2010: John Calvert
 2011: Eugene Berger, Paul Gertner, Shawn Farquhar, Simon Lovell, Eric Buss, Andrew Goldenhersh, Richard Turner, Authur Stead, Scott Wells, and Dan Harlan.
 2012: Losander, Chris Capehart, Chris Randall, Dan Garrett, and Eli.

Notable jubilee events
John Calvert celebrated his 99th birthday at the Jubilee in 2010.

The 50th anniversary Jubilee event took place in August 2006.

References
 Allmagic.com Calendar
 History of Magic in St. Louis by Don Rataj

External links
 Official website

Magic conventions
Recurring events established in 1956
Conventions in Missouri

Midwest Magic Jubilee


Jae R. Ballif (born 1931) was a provost of Brigham Young University (BYU).

Ballif was the son of Ariel S. Ballif and his wife, Artemesia Romney Ballif.  Artemesia was the daughter of George S. Romney and Artemesia Redd and the sister of Marion G. Romney.  Jae's brother Ariel, Jr. was prominent in Utah theater.

Ballif graduated from Brigham Young High School in Provo, Utah, in the Class of 1949.  He then received his bachelor's degree from BYU in 1953, graduating in the same year as his mother, and he joined the BYU faculty in 1962. He received a Ph.D. from U.C.L.A in 1962.

Ballif was the founding dean of the BYU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, formed in Fall of 1972.

Ballif was the author of Conceptual Physics along with William E. Dibble.

Ballif is a Latter-day Saint.  In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he served as a bishop, stake president and stake patriarch. He also wrote In Search of Truth and Love.
From 1977 to 1979, he served as president of the Massachusetts Boston Mission. He later served as a sealer in the Provo Utah Temple.

Ballif contributed the article on the "Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood" to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism.

Ballif was provost of BYU from 1979 to 1989, after which he returned to being a member of the school's physics faculty.

References

External links
short bio of Ballif
short bio of Ballif

1931 births
Living people
20th-century Mormon missionaries
American Mormon missionaries in the United States
21st-century American physicists
Brigham Young University alumni
Brigham Young University faculty
Mission presidents (LDS Church)
Romney family
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
American Latter Day Saint writers
Patriarchs (LDS Church)
Latter Day Saints from Utah
Brigham Young High School alumni

Jae R. Ballif


Blast or The Blast may refer to:

Explosion, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner
Detonation, an exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front
A planned explosion in a mine, quarry or other situation in order to fragment rock

Film
 Blast (1997 film), starring Andrew Divoff
 Blast (2000 film), starring Liesel Matthews
 Blast (2004 film), an action comedy film
 Blast! (1972 film) or The Final Comedown, an American drama
 BLAST! (2008 film), a documentary about the BLAST telescope
 A Blast, a 2014 film directed by Syllas Tzoumerkas

Magazines
 Blast (magazine), a 1914–15 literary magazine of the Vorticist movement
 Blast (U.S. magazine), a 1933–34 American short-story magazine
 The Blast (magazine), a 1916–17 American anarchist periodical

Music
 Blast (American band), a hardcore punk band
 Blast (Russian band), an indie band
 Blast, a Danish band with which Hanne Boel performed
 Blast (album), by Holly Johnson, 1989
 The Blast (album), by Yuvan Shankar Raja, 1999
 "The Blast" (song), by Reflection Eternal, 2001
 "Blast", a song by Momoiro Clover Z, 2017

Science and technology
 BLAST (protocol), file transfer software
 BLAST (telescope), Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope
 BLAST (biotechnology), Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, an algorithm used in bioinformatics
 Blast cell or precursor cell, in cytology, a type of partially differentiated, usually unipotent cell
 Blast disease, a disease of cereal crops
 Blast injury, a complex type of physical trauma resulting from direct or indirect exposure to an explosion
 BLAST network, a proposed rapid transit system for Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
 Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time, a transceiver architecture
 FreeX Blast, a German paraglider design

Other
 Blast! (comics), a 1991 British comic
 Blast! (musical), a 2001 Broadway musical
 Blast! Entertainment, a defunct video game developer and publisher
 C. L. Blast (1934–2016), recording name of Clarence Lewis
 Bus Line Service of Turlock (BLAST), the former name for the public bus service operated by Turlock Transit in Turlock, California, US
 Blast Premier, a Counter-Strike esports league

See also
 Blaster (disambiguation)
 Blasting (disambiguation)
 Blast Off (disambiguation)

Blast


"Smooth Criminal" is a song written by Michael Jackson. It is the theme song of Jackson's 1988 movie Moonwalker. It reached number 1 in the Netherlands, Flanders, and Spain.

On April 10, 2006 it was released again as a single from the Visionary: The Video Singles box-set. It was number 1 in Spain again.

In 2001, Alien Ant Farm released a cover version of the song. It was their first single. It was a number-one hit.

In 2023, English band Genesis will release their cover version of the song. This will be their only single.

Michael Jackson songs
1988 songs

Smooth Criminal


Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey is a 1988 American biographical drama movie directed by Michael Apted and was based on the 1985 book of the same name by Dian Fossey. It stars Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, Julie Harris, Iain Glen, Iain Cuthbertson, Maggie O'Neill and was distributed by Universal Pictures. It was nominated for 5 Academy Awards in 1989.

Other websites

1988 drama movies
1980s biographical movies
1988 adventure movies
American adventure movies
American biographical movies
American drama movies
Movies based on books
Movies set in Africa
Movies about apes
Movies about animal rights
Movies about animal cruelty
Movies about scientists
Movies about hunters
Jungle movies
Movies set in Rwanda
Movies set in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Movies directed by Michael Apted
Universal Pictures movies
Warner Bros. movies
Movies set in the 1980s


Lauchlin Bernard Currie (født 8. oktober 1902 i New Dublin i Nova Scotia i Canada, død 23. desember 1993 i Bogotá i Colombia) var en kanadisk-amerikansk økonom og påstått sovjetisk agent.

Currie studerte ved London School of Economics og disputerte ved Harvard University. Han tjenestegjorde som økonomisk rådgiver for president Franklin Roosevelt under andre verdenskrig. Fra 1949 til 1953 ledet han et stort oppdrag for Verdensbanken i Colombia, og ble colombiansk statsborger etter at USA hadde nektet å fornye hans pass i 1954 etter at han hadde avslørt amerikanske koblinger til Nazi-Tyskland.

Informasjon fra Venonaprosjektet viser at han hadde overført informasjon til sovjetisk etterretning i sin tid som Roosevelts assistent.

Referanser

Litteratur
 Haynes, John E. and Klehr, Harvey, 2000. Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. Yale University Press.
 Haynes, John E. and Klehr, Harvey, 2003. In Denial: Historians, Communism, & Espionage. Encounter Press.
 Schecter, Jerrold and Leona, 2002. Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History. Potomac Press.
 Weinstein, Allen, and Vassiliev, Alexander, 2000. The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era. Modern Library Press.
 Alexander Vassiliev, "Notes on Soviet SVR archives."
 Robert J. Hanyok, "Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939–1945. Ft. Meade, MD: National Security Agency, Center for Cryptologic History, 2005; "Currie, known as PAZh (Page) and White, whose cover names were YuRIST (Jurist) and changed later to LAJER (Lawyer), had been used as sources of information by Soviet agents since the 1930s, though there has been much dispute as to whether their involvement was witting or otherwise. They had been identified as Soviet sources in Venona translations and by other agents turned witnesses or informants for the FBI and Justice Department. From the Venona translations, both were known to have been sources of information for their so-called "handlers", notably the Silvermaster network."
 United States. National Counterintelligence Center. A Counterintelligence Reader. NACIC, no date. vol. 3, chap. 1, pg. 31.
 File card of Patterson contacts in regard Silvermaster, box 203, Robert P. Patterson papers, Library of Congress
 General Bissell to General Strong, 3 June 1942, Silvermaster reply to Bissell memo, 9 June 1942, Robert P. Patterson to Milo Perkins of Board of Economic Warfare, 3 July 1942, all reprinted in Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, 30 August 1955, 84th Cong., 1st sess., part 30, 2562–2567.
 Lauchlin Currie testimony, 13 August 1948, U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, 80th Cong., 2d sess., 851–877.
 Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, 21 February 1946, FBI Silvermaster file, serial 573.
 Report on Currie interview, 31 July 1947, FBI Silvermaster file, serial 2794.
 Michael Warner and Robert Louis Benson, Venona and Beyond: Thoughts on Work Undone, Intelligence and National Security 12, no. 3 (July 1997), 10–11.
 Anonymous Russian letter to Hoover, 7 August 1943, reproduced in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939–1957 (Washington, D.C.: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), 51–54.

Canadiske økonomer
Økonomer fra USA
Canadiske professorer
Professorer fra USA
Personer fra Nova Scotia
Spioner for Sovjetunionen
Personer tilknyttet NKVD
Personer tilknyttet MGB
Spioner fra USA under den kalde krigen

Lauchlin Bernard Currie


Theodor Pištěk (born 25 October 1932 in Prague) is a Czech painter, costume designer, set designer and former racing driver. His costume designs and film sets are internationally acclaimed. He won an Oscar for his costumes for Amadeus, directed by Miloš Forman. For Forman's next film, Valmont, Pištěk won a César Award and was nominated for an Oscar. In 2003 he received the Czech Lion Award for Unique Contribution to Czech Film, in 2013 he was awarded the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, and in 2017 he received the Golden Slipper for Outstanding Contribution to Films for Children and Young People.

Life

Theodor Pištěk is the son of two actors, Theodor Pištěk and Marie Ženíšková. He inherited his family's artistic talent and love of automobiles: his great-grandfather František Ženíšek was a painter, and his grandfather Julius Ženíšek worked for the Wright Company and was the founder and owner of the Ford Motor Company´s branch in Austria-Hungary; in 1895 Julius Ženíšek became one of the first to own a racing car. The actions of his business partner bankrupted the company, and the family was forced to sell František Ženíšek's valuable collection of paintings.

After four years at a grammar school, Theodor Pištěk switched to the School of Applied Arts in Prague (1948–1952), where his fellow students included Aleš Veselý and Milan Ressel. Pištěk learned to drive when he was just 16 years old, and at the age of 18, after passing his driving test, he joined the Automotoklub and started competing in car races. In 1952 he was accepted by the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he was studying under Vratislav Nechleba, a prominent portrait painter. At the time of his studies, a number of respected pre-war artists and historians (Miloslav Holý, Vlastimil Rada, Vladimír Sychra, Otakar Španiel, Jan Lauda, Václav Vilém Štech) held professorships at the Academy, and among the students were Jan Koblasa, Karel Nepraš, Bedřich Dlouhý, František Mertl, Jiří Valenta, Milan Ressel, Hugo Demartini, Aleš Veselý and Jaroslav Vožniak. His graduation painting, Boxer, earned him an extension to his studies in the form of an honours year in Antonín Pelc's studio. A mastery of painting was important, but Pištěk and his fellow students and friends were more interested in modern art. They countered the oppressiveness of communist rule with all manner of absurdist extracurricular activities. In 1962 Pištěk and a group called The Šmidras founded an amateur ice hockey club called Palette of the Motherland, whose president he was in 1977–1979.

In 1958 Theodor Pištěk married Věra Filipová, an assistant film director, with whom he had two sons (Jan, born 1961 and Martin, born 1967). In the following year he designed costumes and sets for František Vláčil's film The White Dove. He had a studio in Břevnov in Prague, next door to Zbyněk Sekal's studio, thanks to whom Pištěk met the art critic Jindřich Chalupecký and exhibited as a guest with the May 57 group in 1964–1968. The two artists remained close friends until Sekal emigration in 1968; Pištěk subsequently visited him in Vienna, where he met the sculptor Karl Prantl.

Pištěk's first solo exhibition was in 1960 at the Film Club in Prague. In 1964–1968 he was included in exhibitions by the Concretist Club. In 1964 he acquired a new studio from Hugo Demartini in Vinohrady. In the 1960s he was a racing driver, and he competed on circuits and in the European Cup (1967–1969). In 1967 he worked as a costume designer on František Vláčil's films Markéta Lazarová and The Valley of the Bees, and was one of the artists who designed the Czechoslovak pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal. In 1972–1973 he was nominated for the Czechoslovak national circuit racing team. Pištěk stopped racing in 1974, but he drew on his experience as a racing driver to co-write with Vláčil the screenplay for a film called Rally. Since 1975 Pištěk has concentrated on painting. He is usually considered a photorealist, but in the Eastern Bloc such paintings almost always had a clandestine symbolism that could be read between the lines.

In 1977 a cycle of paintings by Pištěk received a special mention from the jury at the International Festival of Painting in Cagnes-sur-Mer in France, together with a grant that allowed him to visit artists' studios. After his success in France several Czech galleries bought his paintings. In the 1980s he worked as a costume designer for Miloš Forman, winning an Oscar for Amadeus (1984), for which he was also nominated for a British Academy Film Award. For his work on Forman's next film, Valmont (1989), he was nominated for the same two awards, and he won a César Award from the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma. In the United States he accepted an invitation to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 1987 he exhibited artworks and costume designs at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle and the Lincoln Center in New York, as well as Indianapolis and Sydney in Australia. Pištěk's exhibition in Seattle was curated by Meda Mládková and introduced by Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In 1990 Theodor Pištěk became the chairman of Václav Havel´s Prague Castle's arts council and was commissioned to design new uniforms for the Prague Castle Guard. He initiated the Jindřich Chalupecký Award for young artists, becoming one of its founders (alongside Václav Havel and Jiří Kolář).

In 1996 Pištěk had to vacate his studio, and he moved from Prague to Mukařov, where he had earlier designed and built a house. In 2000 President Václav Havel awarded him a First Grade Medal of Merit, for his achievements in art. In 2004 the Czech Film and Television Academy gave him the Czech Lion Award for Unique Contribution to Czech Film. At the 2013 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival he received a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. In 2012–2013 he had a major retrospective at the National Gallery in Prague. and in 2019/2020 another retrospective in the Brno House of Arts.

Work

Paintings, reliefs, installations
Theodor Pištěk mastered classic realistic oil painting while studying under then prominent portrait painter professor Vratislav Nechleba. For his graduation painting, Boxer, his studies were extended to include an honours year. At the end of the 1950s he worked on portrait painting, but surprisingly his subsequent paintings did not draw on his training at the Academy, instead anticipating a Constructivist element in his art, to which he periodically returned in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and after 1990 in his three-dimensional installations. In 1960–1961 he created geometrical relief compositions in plaster as positive and negative diptychs (In and Out, 1960; Reverse, 1961).

In the early 1960s he was in close contact with Zbyněk Sekal, whose studio was next door. They influenced one another when creating material paintings, and their work was based on similar feelings about life. It was at this time that Pištěk made a series of relief assemblages from automobile components (Synagogue, 1962; Crucifixion, 1963) and Art Informel reliefs from dismantled car radiators (Notes from a Missing Person, 1963; Execution, 1964). He also made his first three-dimensional installation, The Ten Commandments (1964).

As a counterpart to his material relief paintings, Theodor Pištěk painted airy black and white compositions in ink and nitrocellulose lacquer that combined simple geometrical forms with structures he had observed in the organic world. They are also his response to post-surrealist symbolism, something a fellow student from the Academy, Jaroslav Vožniak, was working on at this time. The subjects of these paintings were sometimes light-hearted (How to Play Ball, 1966) and sometimes fraught (How to Escape, 1965; Trap, 1965; Unsuccessful Attempt, 1966).

Following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Pištěk's drawings resembled targets with bullet holes, and their composition was accented by the use of monochromatic blocks of colour (August Picture I–III, 1968–1969). His series of drawings in ink and nitrocellulose lacquer continued until the beginning of the 1970s (View Inside, 1970; Half-Life, 1970) and was followed by coloured compositions of geometrical forms (Reflection, 1971) and small-format oil paintings in which the geometrical order of blocks of colour was broken by small irregularities (Fall, 1973; House, 1973). He returned to monochrome paintings in ink and nitrocellulose lacquer in the early 1980s in compositions of artificial architecture (Where I Will Live Next, 1982), which later became three-dimensional labyrinths (City, 1997).

At the height of communist repression during the normalization era, Pištěk's work featured wrapped figures and objects that served as abstract existential symbols. Fingers emerging from the wrappings indicate that these are not statues inside (Family Portrait, 1976; The Nude Maja, 1980). The motif of a wrapped head (Self-Portrait by the Window I-II, 1981) is in itself terrifying, and the emptiness or ornateness of the background makes this symbol of cruelty even more disturbing. Also from this time is a cycle of illusionistic paintings in which crumpled fabric or paper bound with twine veils a hidden reality that can be glimpsed in places where the fabric or paper has been ripped. Usually the opening reveals an endless blue sky with little clouds, but the painting Czech Horizon (1979) shows only black earth under a dark sky. In the triptych Farewell to Youth (1981) Theodor Pištěk symbolically bid his racing career goodbye.

Pištěk applied his mastery of trompe-l'œil to a series of paintings of gleaming automobile and motorcycle parts (Angelus, 1978; Gold Fever, 1978) or the impersonal objects that surround us (Tonca Still Life, 1981; Homage to Papin, 1981). Photography provided inspiration. This faithful hyperrealist depicting of the surface of things was not just an aesthetic phenomenon, but also a way for Pištěk to measure himself against other painters. Ultimately he came to resist his categorisation as a photorealist painter, instead describing his program as "Neo-Romanticism". He did not want viewers to see only verism, illusion and perfection in his work, but to offset the modern cult of ugliness and hopelessness with a "new professionalism" that sought through flawless painting to evoke an atmosphere or recall a moment or story from the past that we had begun to doubt ever really happened.

Pištěk's paintings from this period guide the viewer from sensory enchantment to seeking the mystery behind a painting. They were influenced by the film world in which he operated, and like film backdrops they created fictitious settings and brought new impulses into Czech modern art. Various disconnected narratives intersect (The Price of Elegance, 1973–1974; Landscape with a Honda, 1977), and the illusion of reality is constantly undermined by the painter's interventions. The minutely detailed and technically flawless illusionistic painting served to deceive the viewer's senses. A seemingly torn canvas is in fact intact (Ecce Homo, 1983); a collage with photographs glued on and scraps of paper held by drawing pins is only a fiction in a painting (Portrait of a Friend, 1976; Midget, 1977; D Day, H Hour, 1980). Paintings include references to other artists (Dalí in Self-Portrait; Millet in Angelus) and entirely personal messages such as digital numerals showing Pištěk's date of birth in an apparently torn canvas he created for his fiftieth birthday (From My Life, 1982).

Pištěk has repeatedly returned to Biblical themes. His Joseph wears overalls and is depicted sitting on a wooden plank as he rolls a cigarette. This scene of Joseph in his carpentry workshop is rendered as a torn poster that seems to have been tacked to a second picture plane showing a sports car; several nails have fallen out of the poster. The corner of the picture of the car has also been ripped off to reveal the background: a blue sky with a little cloud (Joseph N, 1978). Ecce Homo (1983) shows a racing driver in a balaclava as a modern paraphrasing of the Man of Sorrows. The cross has been replaced with an exploded view of an engine in the background, Christ's wounds are symbolised by illusionistic cuts painted over the driver's hands, and the canvas looks as if it has been slashed in reference to the scourging of Christ. The Last Supper (1983) cycle of paintings, a number of variations on a vacant table in front of a window with a view of an empty landscape, presents another of Pištěk's themes: a dead, empty space devoid of people, which creates tension by referring to a familiar narrative to which nothing more can be added.

Since the turn of the 1980s and 90s Pištěk's paintings have included architecture that recalls film sets (Variations on a Given Theme 1–3, 1989). In the mid-90s Theodor Pištěk returned to geometrical abstraction in his paintings of empty and stylised architecture, where he worked with various kinds of false perspectives and lighting (Variations 1–6, 1995–1996; Building 1–2, 1995; Down 1–2, 1996; Column, 1997). The illusion produced in two dimensions is both magnified and contradicted by the impression of a tangible mass emerging from the picture plane and simultaneously guided along lines into the depth of the painting, where it surprisingly loses its shadow and the concrete becomes abstract. "My work moves in spirals, always beginning with the details and gradually freeing itself from them. The image becomes empty and is simplified to the minimum."

Pištěk's contemplative Conversations with Hawking (2005–2019) are fragile geometrical constructions that delineate areas of black space interwoven with spot heights and marks indicating the motion of heavenly bodies.

Besides his film work, for which Theodor Pištěk has received the highest honours, his painting is also highly valued. In 2013 his painting A Visit to the Harrachs (1979) was auctioned for CZK 3,240,000, while in 2016 Seagull Flying into a Dream (1984) was auctioned for CZK 2,900,000. His painting Adieu, Guy Moll (1992-2017) became the most expensive artwork by a living Czech artist ever sold at auction (CZK 21,200,000).

Objects

Conceptual installations
Pištěk's conceptual installation of sacred objects in the former riding school in Hluboká nad Vltavou had a dramatic gradation and scope, and within the context of postmodern scepticism it offered an updating of the psychological values of collectively valid myths. On an altar in the foreground, which he titled Homage to Böcklin's "Centaur Watching Fish", he placed the scoop of an excavator arching over a fish in a glass sphere. At the head of the riding school he installed an altar painting with an illusionistic landscape in the Baroque style, to which he added brightly coloured geometrical forms that quoted the American postmodernist Frank Stella. In front of this painting was a pyramid with a pile of refuse that was titled Reliquary. The side altars, hidden in a labyrinth, depicted the Crucifixion as the hanging chassis of a racing car and the Visitation made of an old petrol pump, with car doors as the angel's wings. According to Jiří Šetlík, Pištěk's subjective interpretation of our sick world unmasks our faith in consumerist idols.

Pištěk's three-dimensional objects for his exhibition at the Prague City Gallery (1999) worked with the contrast between image and sound. Garden was a pavilion made of massive children's building blocks surrounded by a forest of hanging poles protecting the pavilion's privacy, with a soundtrack of whispered conversations too quiet to be heard. Next to Garden was Forest, a glass pyramid filled with fragments of wood and rubbish from fly tipping, together with romantic forest still lifes and a soundtrack of chainsaws and falling trees. Other objects relate to Pištěk's film work and his racing career. At the entrance to his retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery in Prague he installed his labyrinthine City and behind it a large glass box with a pile of film costumes, while in the middle of the exhibition space was a racing car. His conceptual diorama The End of the Forest was an artificial forest made of suspended poles through which visitors could look at a painted landscape covering the entire wall (Trade Fair Palace, National Gallery in Prague, 2012). This stepping out of the picture plane into the third dimension is an agenda that Pištěk had earlier described in the introduction to a catalogue as "Neo-Romanticism".

Costumes and set design

Uniforms

 1990 uniforms, banners and insignia for the Prague Castle Guard

Film
Pištěk has worked on 111 films with many Czech and Slovak directors, including Oldřich Lipský, Jiří Menzel, Jiří Krejčík, Juraj Herz; as well as with many others, including Janusz Majewski, Bob Hoskins and Jerzy Skolimowski. Some of his works:
 The White Dove (1959), directed by František Vláčil (costumes and set design)
 Markéta Lazarová (1967 ), directed by František Vláčil (costumes)
 The Valley of the Bees (1967), directed by František Vláčil (costumes)
 Amadeus (1984), directed by Miloš Forman
 Valmont (1989), directed by Miloš Forman
 The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), directed by Miloš Forman

Television
 Arabela (1979)
 Mr Tau (1980)
 The Visitors (1982)
 Dune (1998)
 Children of Dune (2000)

Theater
 Miss Julie (1972), Divadlo na Zábradlí, directed by Jiří Krejčík
 The Queen of Spades (1972), Smetanovo divadlo
 Don Giovanni (2006), National Theatre in Prague

Musical theater

 Dracula (1994), directed by Jozef Bednárik
 Rusalka (1998), directed by Jozef Bednárik
 The Count of Monte Christo (1999), directed by Jozef Bednárik

Collections
 National Gallery in Prague
 Moravian Gallery in Brno
 Museum Kampa
 Regional galleries in the Czech Republic
 Galleria Arturo Schwarz, Milano
 Galerie Schüppenhauer, Cologne
 Galerie Volkmann, Münster
 Private collections home and abroad

Important exhibitions
 2012/2013 Theodor Pištěk: Ecce Homo, National Gallery in Prague

 2019/2020 Theodor Pištěk: Angelus, House of Arts in Brno

References

Sources

Monographs
 Helena Musilová (ed.), Theodor Pištěk: Ecce homo, 168 s., Národní galerie v Praze 2012,
 Jiří Šetlík, Jana Brabcová (ed.), Theodor Pištěk, 388 s., Galerie Pecka Praha 2007,
 Jiří Šetlík, Theodor Pištěk, 24 s., Galerie hlavního města Prahy 1999,
 Jindřich Chalupecký a kol., Theodor Pištěk, 140 s., Alšova jihočeská galerie v Hluboké nad Vltavou, Galerie hlavního města Prahy 1993
 Martin Dostál (ed.), Theodor Pištěk - Angelus, 168 s., Dům umění města Brna, KANT 2019,

Bachelor´s thesis
 Pavlína Doubravová, Hyperrealistické tendence v tvorbě Theodora Pištěka, bakalářská práce, FF a UDU JČU v Českých Budějovicích, 2012 On line

Catalogues
 Theodor Pištěk, 1978, Macourek Miloš, kat. 12 s., SČVU Praha
 Theodor Pištěk: Obrazy, kresby, film, 1982, Kotalík Jiří Tomáš, kat. 20 s., SČVU Praha
 Theodor Pištěk, 1984, Neumann Ivan, kat. 32 s., Galerie umění Karlovy Vary
 Theodor Pištěk: Obrazy, 1988, Janoušek Ivo, kat. 16 s., Ústřední kulturní dům železničářů, Praha
 Theodor Pištěk: Hluboká 93 - 94, 1995, Šetlík Jiří, kat. 48 s., AJG Hluboká nad Vltavou
 Theodor Pištěk, 2006, Machalický Jiří, kat. 10 s., Galerie Montanelli Praha
 3x Theodor Pištěk, 2007, Machalický Jiří, Mládková Meda, kat. 20 s., Museum Kampa – Nadace Jana a Medy Mládkových, Praha
 Šedesátá, ed. Magdalena Juříková, Galerie Zlatá husa, Praha 2004, , s. 308-313

Other (selection)
 Fascinace skutečností - hyperrealismus v české malbě / Fascination with relity - Hyperrealism in Czech painting, Muzeum umění Olomouc 2017,
 Příliš mnoho zubů / Too Many Teeth, Musilová Helena (ed.), kat. 147 s., Retro Gallery Praha, Praha 2017,
 Postava k otvírání / The figure examined, Nováčková Zuzana, Štefančíková Alica, Svoboda Petr, kat. 132 s., Galerie Benedikta Rejta, Louny, Galerie výtvarného umění v Mostě, 2016
 Před obrazem, Dospěl Milan a kol., kat. 158 s., Galerie Kodl, Praha 2015,
 Stavy mysli: Za obrazem / States of Mind: Beyond the Soubor: Stálá expozice GASK, David Bartoň a kol., kat. 208 s., Galerie Středočeského kraje (GASK), Kutná Hora 2014,
 České moderní a současné umění 1890 – 2010: 2. díl, Dolanská Karolína a kol., kat. 189 s., Národní galerie v Praze 2010,
 Šedesátá / The sixties ze sbírky Galerie Zlatá husa, Juříková Magdalena, Železný Vladimír, kat. 414 s., Galerie Zlatá husa, Praha 2004,
 Hyperrealismus, Beran Zdeněk, Vítková Martina, kat. 31 s., Západočeská galerie v Plzni 2002,
 Současná minulost: Česká postmoderní moderna 1960–2000, Tetiva Vlastimil, kat. 176 s., Alšova jihočeská galerie v Hluboké nad Vltavou 2000,
 Umění zrychleného času: Česká výtvarná scéna 1958–1968, Alena Potůčková (ed.), kat. 147 s., České muzeum výtvarných umění, Praha 1999
 Umění zastaveného času / Art when time stood still: Česká výtvarná scéna 1969–1985, Alena Potůčková (ed.), kat. 268 s., České muzeum výtvarných umění, Praha 1996
 Skutečnost an iluze: Tendence českého radikálního realismu, Tetiva Vlastimil, 169 s., Alšova jihočeská galerie v Hluboké nad Vltavou 1993
 Forum '88, Hlaváček Josef, Kříž Jan, Nešlehová Mahulena, Petrová Eva, Šetlík Jiří, Wittlich Petr, kat. 96 s., neoficiální výstava v Pražské tržnici 1988
 Netvořice ´81, Hlaváček Josef, Kříž Jan, Šetlík Jiří, katalog neoficiální výstavní akce u Bedřich Dlouhého v Netvořicích 1981
 Czech stage costumes / Le costume tchèque de théâtre, Marešová Šimáčková Sylva, Bubeník Květoslav, Vejražka Vítězslav, Divadelní ústav, Praha 1972

External links

 World Base of Hyperrealism
 Information system abART: Theodor Pištěk
 Internet Movie Database: Theodor Pištěk
 National Theatre Prague: Theodor Pištěk
 Czech-Slovac Film Database: Theodor Pištěk
 Theodor Pistek´s interviews for Czech Radio

Czech painters
Czech contemporary artists
Czech male painters
20th-century male artists
21st-century male artists
1932 births
Living people
Artists from Prague
Czech costume designers
Academy of Fine Arts, Prague alumni
Best Costume Design Academy Award winners

Theodor Pištěk (artist)


Scaphocephaly is a medical disorder. It describes a long narrow head that looks like an overturned boat. It is a type of cephalic disorder.

Scaphocephaly is one type of skull synostosis, or joining of two bones. It can be corrected by surgery if the child is young enough.

Disorders

Scaphocephaly