In light of this thread, and all the activities people have obviously engaged in over the course of their lives, I’m interested in seeing how wide our interests actually are, and how involved we’ve been.

So share your sporting history. How long have you done a certain sport? To what level?

Me:

Football (local league) ages 5-13
Football (regional premier) ages 13-20

Ice hockey (regional league) ages 7-16
Ice hockey (recreational) ages 17-46

Cycling (competitive) ages 14-18
Cycling (recreational) 19-Present

Climbing (certified) ages 20-24

Swimming (Red Cross certified) ages 5-19

Small craft boating (Red Cross certified) ages 13-21

Archery (recreational) ages 12-Whenever I see a bow

You?

Football, local leagues 6-10
Injured 10-14
14-24 Golf. Handicap of 2.
35-38 Motorbike race, club level, 1 trophy and 2 podiums
41-48 (Present) Cycling, some XC racing, some short circuit racing, but mostly recreation.

World of Sport – 1977 – 1985

Sports mixtures – 1974 – present

Sport Billy – 1980 -81

Sunday Sport – 1986 – 1990

Tie me Kangaroo down Sport – 1980

Since leaving school I have never ruined the joy of anything I like doing by turning it into a competition.

Tried and completely average at..
Cycling everywhere from birth
Rugby 13-15 (school team)
Skateboarding (12-15)
Short bursts of:
Hockey
Roller hockey
Basketball
Boxing (29-35ish) spars only, most fit I’ve ever been!
5-a-side football (40-50, last job, made redundant, so not since 🙁 )
Mountain bicycling (30- death)
Oh yeah, snowboarding (30- Not sure if I’ve given that up or not.)

Swimming (local and national level) – ages 5 – 16

Roller hockey (local leagues and national championship) – ages 13 – 18

Ice Hockey (regional leagues) – ages 13 – 21

Ice Hockey (recreational) – ages 27 – present (when my knees and shoulders can handle it)

Cycling (competitively) – ages 15 – 18

Cycling (recreational) – since I could ride a bike (go through phases of loving it then loathing it)

Running (competitively) ages 10 – 15

Kayaking (recreational) ages 18 – 23 (I’m assuming my old fibreglass kayak is still sat behind the boat sheds at Easthaven beach near Carnoustie).

Many many injuries which I pay for dearly today.

Football, primary school, up to age 9 (and for some reason I had a Gillingham FC school bag, and now loathe the sport)

Cycling, recreational, riding half way across the county (way more than kids that age would be  allowed now), age about 13 onwards I guess

Archery, once, aged about 13 (got a bullseye first shot, then never picked up a bow ever again)

Longjump and 800m, age about 12-14

Hockey (proper one on grass, not Ice Hockey), only in 6th form

Skiing, from about age 27 onwards, at least 1 week per year

Useless at any sport with a bat (any kind of hitting object) and/or ball. Never competed in any sport, and have no real intention of doing so, which probably makes it only an activity rather than a sport?

Got more hobbies than sports.

5-11 Swimming
11-18 Running
16 Road Cycling (About 4 club time trials)
17-35 Climbing (Absolutely obsessively until the joints unaffected by fell running started to come loose) with a bit of mountain biking thrown in.
22-30 Fell running (till the ankles gave up)
20s a bit of dingy sailing/wind surfing but not enough to become competent
35- Mountain biking leading onto road riding (obsessive again).
About a ten year gap somewhere in the middle of the biking due to small kids.
Today an increasing amount of mountain biking & road riding (commuting), and some running (as long as I concentrate to make sure my knees and ankles are bending in the right directions). Archery although I’m more interested in making bows (and arrows) than shooting them.

Sailing: 4 – current (all sorts of boats, big and small, from sailfish’s to TP52’s, very competitively)

Windsurfing: 18 – current (from late 80’s dayglo to wave head and now slalom pot hunter)

Surfing: 7 – current (used to be short proners, last 8 years SUP Surfing short boards, not competitive yet but popping over to Ireland for an event in a few weeks… first competitive event ever, as long as I don’t take it seriously I’ll enjoy it)

MTB/CX’er: 19 – until a few years ago (mix of XC racing, pissing about in the woods, long distance CX’er some big events and lots of “where shall I go today?”)

Road Cycling (racing): 19-23 (no good at it, semi pro low level team, did some UK events and got a spot on the Kellogs TOB where we did shit) packed all that crap in until 37 when my old riding buddy brought a bike down when he came to stay and at the time I was sailing ^^ and thought “oh shit, not that again” but went out and caught the bug again and then continued until a couple of years ago when I lost the bug. Done loads of “Tour” and “Classics” stages, most of the Eastern Dolomites/Italian Alps/Pyrenees)

Trail Running: current, love it. Took it up because i got bored of riding bikes. (not competitive, done the QECP Night Marathon and their Easter Marathons and the West Meon 100. Hoping to have a go at the SDW e2e, but I need to do a lot more training yet. Looking to do next years Trailrunfest and the Northumberland coastal trail run… had a bad stomach hernia just before last Xmas that had me taking off running all together which was a bitch to deal with, now slowly back to hacking QECP and the Downs all be it at a much lower pace than before… but that’s coming back)

Tried these, but never really took them up:

Skiing/Snowboarding/Hang Gliding/Scuba Diving/Kite Surfing

Amateur level troll 2008 to 2012.

Never made the big league and got a 10 year internet ban.

Freed up a load of time and qualified for the 70.3 World Championships, won a regional road race league and now one of the fastest TTers in the country.

But now I’m back and trying to out eat a good training plan.

Used to be a pretty good skateboarder, downhiller and smoker.

I’m hoping my colour blindness will allow me try out for the Team GB  Paralympic Snooker  squad in 2020

Played some rugby for school, 11-16.
Karate (made 1st Dan/qualified as coach) 14-18 I trained properly.
Cycling has been a thing from when I was taken to a bike shop aged 3 to get a tricycle, and demanded a bike. Raced a lot of XC from 15 to 18, been riding constantly, done the odd CX and XC race and a few endurance races over the years, couple of podiums as I’ve started riding further to work over the past 7 years so got fit/lighter. Took up track racing about 6 or 7 years ago, at my peak I was racing against (And getting consistently lapped by) upcoming pros in the top tier of the local track league, I reckon I’ll be racing harder than I have for a couple of years this season as my personal life’s been a bit up and down (I almost sold the track bike a year and a half ago). One or two enduros too, which I reckon are the only MTB event I want to do next year (too many weekends wasted riding round in circles when I could be in the hills otherwise).
Autotests and nav rallies during uni and a couple of years after. My current road car and the one before it are no good for autotesting. One day I’ll get something small with a good handbrake and take it up again. My ex was happier sitting in the silly seat than my current gf, so no chance of nav rallies unless I can find a suitable volunteer!
I used to run quite a bit, raced XC for school, fastest sprinter in the school I was at. I haven’t run much in the last few years, I think at my peak I probably was at the level of a mediocre club level runner. I still want to run a marathon one day.
Oh and I took up skiing a few years ago – more a pastime than a sport, but I have managed to go down Fly Paper once when it was open and the light was good. I still fell, of course.

Oh and a bit of climbing, for about the last 10 years. Strictly recreational though, never done a single comp.

Racquet sports! Yeah, forgot badminton and tennis. Played a lot of badders – probably the only thing I was ever in the above average category of, but again, a change of job meant I stopped.

football, badminton, swimming, mtbing/cycling.

Recreational, at best! 😆

The only sporting activities I have ever done with a passion and invested time and money into have been climbing/mountaineering, caving/potholing, and mountain biking. Taken up in that order, and with some degree of participation in all of them still.
Competitively, the only one I do is mountain bike orienteering, where I have had fair success. I have finished in the top 5 in the UK league for the past 5 years or so. However, this is probably more a reflection on how few people take part, rather than any sort of ability on my part.

Football – 5 to 38. Various levels, mainly as a goal keeper but played 10 years as a centre back too. Got as high as semi-pro in my mid-20’s, played Sunday league for years and played my last game in over 35’s leagues last year. Stopped as I wasn’t enjoying it anymore, may yet still come out of retirement if the call comes again. My dad played his last game aged 62 so I have that to aim for!

Athletics – 10 to 16. Started as a sprinter, ended up as a high-jumper. Competed in the nationals but was never quite good enough to be really good. Once beat (Olymipc medalist) Mark Lewis-Francis over 100m.

Basketball – 14 to 18. A missed chance as I was pretty good at this, loved it at college and school and really should have played at uni but never did and so never got back into it. A shame.

Cricket – 18 to 30. Mostly an average club cricketer, batsman and wicket-keeper, once averaged 45 in a season which was pretty good.

Skiing – Not sure this counts, but twice a year for the last 10 years or so.

Cycling – Basically, as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of playing in the woods on my bike with mates. It was almost all off road until maybe 6 years ago when I bought a road bike, it’s now almost all road bar the odd spin along the canals. I’ll always cycle, I sold my car and bought a cargo bike so it’s now an integral part of my life. I’m not doing lots of it at the moment, I commute to work 2 or 3 times per week and go out on the weekends occasionally, but it’ll always be there and I’m sure I’ll be back to it again soon.

Running – my new love. 3 years ago I was fat and unfit and despite being able to ride my bike 100 miles easily enough I couldn’t run to the end of the road. I did couch to 5k and it bloomed from there. I run 10 miles 3 or 4 days per week, I’m an event director at parkun and have run numerous marathons and other such events. I’m not particularly fast but it’s made me the fittest I’ve ever been and I hope to be doing it forever.

I forgot about skiing – both downhill and cross-country. And snowboarding. But all of these are pretty much moot now, in a land of little-to-no-snow.

Football – School 1st X1, county finalists, club 21-35 decent standard in Brum AFA
Rugby – School
Cricket – Club U19s skipper, Local club 2nds, Liverpool Uni 2nds. Just restarted playing with eldest in local club after 20 year break
Kayaking – 18-25 grade 3/4 stuff but never got over feeling I could drown myself quite effectively
Climbing – 17-23 never that great and broken arm (footy) put paid to it
Skiing – 25 to present love it, just lack finances to do it as often as I’d like
Road cycling – 15-present
MTB – 35 to present

Played football and rugby at school.

Have always cycled, but got into mtbing proper in my 20’s. Never competed though.

Taken up running a couple of years ago to train for tour of wessex road ride.

Have done 2 triathlons this year.

Started skiing, on dry slope at 13, and snowboarding at 21.

I’ve allways been active but like beer and food too much, I’m now 43, still fat but fitter than I’ve ever been.

Rugby as a 6yr old then upto teens, dropped it at 16/17 to ride bikes & work Sunday mornings. Worked as a lifeguard during school / uni so always swam & lifted weights. Returned to Rugby as a 21 yr old after uni / ski seasons, discovered Summer conference Rugby league whilst looking for a decent preseason programme, represented S/W England and then South of England at an amateur level, had a couple of trials at London Skolars / Broncos, ruined my ACL up in Halifax, came back from injury too quickly and promptly destroyed the other one playing Union. Moved to a new club, won the national final and then called it a day. Still had the engine, but the body was saying no and everything kept breaking. Played union for local sides until my boys were born then couldn’t dedicate 2/3 evenings a week plus Saturdays to train.
Always rode bikes, decided to have a bash at Triathlon to shift some weight and help my knees (I know, so middle aged…), did ok in some local sprint races (top 3 being a highlight) so kept it up and started to go long. Completed Ironman wales in 2017, aiming to do it again next year if I can make the training work. Like many, strictly speaking I’m the fittest I’ve ever been (the 25 year old me could never have run a marathon or so a 100k on the bike), I just don’t feel it as my knees ache, shoulders ache, fingers click and neck is stiff.
Still play the odd game of Union, body is way to broken down for League. Oh, and I’m quicker on my bike than ever, even though my tyres no longer leave the ground.

Started MTBing in ’92 and aside from Uni years it’s been a constant.

Comprehensive School Years:

Judo (outside of school Silver at Welsh Champs)

Basketball (for school)

Rugby (for school)

Athletics (throwing and sprinting, for school and at Cardiff Athletics club)

Swimming

Uni:

Year of Jiu Jitsu (Silver at Nationals)

Basketball for local team

Stopped the aove when I found American Football in my second year of Uni and played for Uni and BAFA Team, this basically took over my life as I completely fell in love with the game and the training for it.  Made the BCAFL Northern Conference All Star Team at Defensive End.

After American Football:

Back on the bike(s), continued weight training, played a season of Rugby for a local team, coached my son’s rugby team when he played.

Now at age 41, I just ride bikes at the weekend, lift weights 3 times a week and walk the dog for an hour a day, which feels about right, keeps the DadBod away and fits in with family life.

13 – Middle distance runner with local athletics club. Was interested long enough to train with them (cross country runs around the scarier end of town in the dark), buy the club kit, attend first event, not do very well and immediately my interest wained. I think I’d have faired better competitively if the track was surrounded by bushes and the event was in the dark. Without the adrenaline I was a bit slower on the track than in training.

Later I discovered there are shops where you can buy trophies for less than the price of a team tracksuit and a years subs. Now I’m brilliant at everything.

In approximate age order:
5-11: Football, rounders. Made the ‘best of the local schools’ team as goalkeeper for regional tournaments.
11-16: Rugby, cricket, hockey (public school). Represented the county at U16 cricket – opening bat, leg spin bowler, played 1st’s (men’s team) for the local rugby club at scrum-half. Played 1st’s for local cricket club. Hit my teacher in the face with a hockey stick, broke his nose. Also represented the county at the national CCF cross country in Scotland.
16-40: Football mainly. Played for many local sides and even semi-pro for a season. Trials with biggest local team but didn’t get on with the coach. Several league wins, cups etc.
45-..: Table tennis. Getting back into it after many years out and really enjoying it. Start in the local league next week.
3-..: Bikes..only ever done one race and came 6th.

I played Southern Premiership Lacrosse for about 10 years on and off (21ish through 33ish) after playing for my uni team.

When it started taking me until Tuesday to recover from a game, I gave up. I wasn’t ever that good, but we kept the team going and they are doing quite well now.

Otherwise done loads of sports recreationally. Cycling is the only one that’s really stuck.

Could swim a mile by the age of 10.
Reasonable cross country runner at school but not much use at anything else. Hated football (still do), and wasn’t any good at Rugby until about a month before I left, by which time it was too late… but that month was good fun. Bagged 10 tries in one game and scored the winner in the Inter Form final. I assume that I had a growth spurt, because for a few glorious weeks people just couldn’t catch me.
Played tennis a lot as a teenager and was reasonable amongst my group of mates.
Rugby League at University and was average in a good team. Played a season at amateur level on leaving University, but it was a whole different level of violence and I didn’t fit in with the clique.
Could ride a bike a bit when I was younger, but have noticed a drop off in bravery recently.
Started Karate at 46 years old and will be grading for my 2nd Kyu in the next couple of months.

Nothing too spectacular, but my peers are all mountain bikers or martial artists and I can hold my own with most of them. When I look outside that group I think I’m in pretty good shape for my age.

I guess that your own perception of your achievements depends on the people that you compare yourself against. Some of my cycling mates are exceptionally fit and talented, and my Karate instructor is a European Champion.

Roughly:
Judo 5-15. Local area comps mostly. Some trophies n stuff.
BMX- dunno 6 or so till 12ish. We had a local bmx track of sorts.
Fishing – 10-18. Coarse match fishing mostly. Do a bit now and then still.
Caving 12-18 and a little bit a uni. Ended up with Form Cave and lead Scout groups.
Kayaking – a few years c 12/14ish but our local spot got a bit too polluted.
Climbing – 17 onwards but only a bit now. Mostly trad on-sight stuff up to mid E grades, some sport and bouldering. Competed on the Southern Indoor Bouldering circuit for a while. Won some stuff on occasion.
Mtb – 12 onwards. A big break from 18ish until late 20s then back into it again. Some xc races – mid pack mediocrity mostly but I enjoy the race anyway.

Oh and crewed for some mates for a few years racing Miracles at all the Opens.

Cycling from around 10 – Present (45)

Cricket – School Captain 11-16, county 13, local sunday league 11-16

Football – School team 11 -16

Athletics, High jump and javelin county trials 14?

Running – county cx 12?

Tennis – county 14

So, very sporty in my youth, just cycling as a growed up.

TKD wtf from 15ish to 36ish (kids)GB squad for a couple of years, several international tournaments. Managed a surprise win in the 2001 worlds.

MTB seriously since about 17 till now competed distinctly mid field for a coup,e of seasons gorricks and Brighton big dog. Think best result was a top ten at big dog

Road since I got sick of a couple of wet winters in a row, probably early 30s to now.

Several years of snowboarding hols until I settle down

My knees, hips, back and neck are a right mess.

Broken ankles, wrists, collarbones, fingers and toes all ache a lot 🙁

I played for every sports team at school bar
x country, captaining football and basketball right up to 18. South peak trials for football, Derbyshire tennis, under 16 runners up in county basketball. I also played mens hockey at 15. 1st team football at Leicester uni, could have done better but stella was always more important. First ever mountain bike race was hard rock when I was 40, came 13th. I’ve support rode at three of the welsh enduros this year and I’ve loved being part of the race but without the pressure.

School
| Athletics and normal sport at school, started target shooting at 13.
| Hockey and TKD at Uni
| Cycling after Uni and getting back into target shooting
| More cycling, long range target shooting, practical shooting
| Triathlon, Crossfit and Cycling, long range target shooting, practical shooting
| Cycling and skydiving.
Now

Was never really county or national level, but I was four points off a bronze medal in my last F Class competition and have hope I can get a national medal in skydiving soon.

Cross Country at school until I left.
Dinghy sailing from 16 (OKs, Toppers, Contender, Sailing Canoe, Toy and loads of borrowed boats) on still do a bit on dayboats.
Windsurfing from mid seventies until now. From the early eighties on I ran a windsurfing school as well as my graphics business. Combined the 2 when I worked for a windsurfing mag until my midlife crisis in 2004. Wasn’t bad at it. Could offer pretty accurate analysis of sail and board design and work with the test team so got paid to sail all over the world and write about it.
Kitesurfing came along and started to topple windsurfing and I loved it. Was pretty crap at it though, it came a bit late in my life when I had discovered I didn’t like pain, plus the safety aspect of the kit was a bit basic back then. It never gelled with me quite like windsurfing. Didn’t stop me writing about it though but I needed lots of technical input from others. Hardly kited in the last 10 years. Still get out on a windsurfer now and then down at Portland.
Somewhere in the 80s when MTB started to take off in the UK I was loaned an original Stumpjumper by the Spesh importer. Never really got into the sport back then.
About 2009 I bought a hybrid to commute on and with in a short period was totally engrossed in biking, Happy bimbling and simple tearing myself to pieces on long rides.
What is the opposite of fearless? That’s me that is…
None of what I did was that good. At a club level I was a winning dinghy sailor, but it was a small pond. Windsurfing, well I was quick and could go round corners.

I did PE at School and cycled on a BMX,’racer’, and cheap mtb.
Didn’t bother with exercise after school until my 30s when I started riding MTB. Mid 30s entered a couple of small 1 hour XC races. Near my 40s entered the 6 hour solo Brighton Big Dog. Early 40s entered a few Gorrick/Brass Monkeys where I was midpack. Entered another BBD and burnt out at 4hrs stopped then vomited on way home. Shortly after, the birth of two children put an end to my XC racing hobby. Dabbled in bodyweight fitness over past 5 years, with a goal of being able to handstand, l-sit, and 10 pull ups, but suffered with wrist & elbow problems in combination with cycling. Goal not achieved there. 2 Month before birth of 2nd son decided I wanted to learn trials riding which I’m still doing but am pretty lousy at, am also on waiting list for swimming lessons as I can’t swim.

Enthusiastic yet useless footballer, sporadic, sometimes tragic dalliances with rugby and cricket.

Average at golf, played loads with family and friends as a kid,

Good at canoeing, which I dislike, darts, swimming and shooting.
I love chess, it reminds me how stupid I am.

Weekly five a side footie with mates, for over 20 years, plus a lifetime of cycling and hill walking has put an end to anything remotely football related – new knees at some point.

At school the usual team sports, guess I was blessed with the naturally sporty gene, played 1st team for pretty much everything.

Squash – 11 to 13 just for fun at the local club. 13-14 County, 15-16 top 20 nationally, 16-19 top 5 UK, national squad, international tournaments, junior world team champions, semi finalist world junior open. Stopped playing at 19, started again a few years ago for fun, now I play for my club 1st team in the premier county league with no aspirations of being better, some 20 years later 🙂

Cycling from 26ish again, mostly off road, mostly DH and enduro. Won a few races, podium a reasonable amount. Lots of broken bones. Do it for fun, results suggest when I’m not eating sh*t I can out the odd result in.

Going to do a spot of CX this winter, just to mix things up. Fully expecting to get owned by most of the field.

Crossfit (is it even a sport?). Mostly to keep me away from the turbo trainer. I suck at it, but it’s a proper beasting & for some reason i find it quite good fun. 🙂

Late 80s: Won local junior football league losing one game where I was an unused sub.

90s: ‘Competed’ in a few mountain bike races, likes of NEMBA (Bosley) and National Champs in Malvern.

Tonnes of 5 aside and pitch n putt in the intervening years.

Last ten years: Running all sorts of distances from 5k to Ultras.

Hated sports at school

Took up climbing with Venture Scouts and enjoyed it, never hugely good but managed the odd E1 – always top-roped though. Qualified to take the cubs out and teach them about climbing on top-ropes. Packed in climbing after injuring an ankle playing volleyball

Got into volleyball when I went to uni and played badly for many years – local league in Manchester, NVL div 4 / Div 3N, London Div 1, back to manchester. I was never anything more than “ok” though. Packed in a couple of years ago when my team folded.

Join the Ultimate Frisbee team in my last year at Uni and enjoyed it

Played recreational badminton for a while to keep up fitness for volleyball.

Played Frisbee for a few years whe I lived in London. Co-founded Bad Habits as a team aimed at coaching beginners and played a full season of London Midweek league where we acheived our stated aim of scoring in every match and actually wining one match. Payed Ironman (no subs) for a couple of matches, that really hurt

Trained with a Korfball team for a season to get some extra fitness for Ultimate

Started skiing age 27 and loved it, didn’t go on a summer holiday for the next ten years. I’m a better skiier than most of the UK population, but that doesn’t mean I’m very good and there are an awful lot of people much better than me including most ten year old kids who live in or near ski resorts

Met Mrs NBT on a ski trip and she got me into riding MTB. From there I’ve started commuting by bike and now ride on and off road, and we have a tandem (we have two but we’re selling the MTB tandem). Tried racing MTB (24 hr mountain mayhem) but hated it. Tried cycle speedway with the STW social nights, enjoyed it but wasn’t any good

Tried climbing again a few times over the years, I’ve enjoyed it but goodness it hurts for the first few sessions

that’s about it “sport” wise. When we sell the tandem, we’re hoping to get a canoe to use on the local canal, maybe head up to ride the Spey next year. We took up Ballroom & Latin dancing when I packed in volleyball, keep me active and gives me a new challenge.

Swam competitively till I was 16
In 1983 got into windsurfing and was a mad passion until 2005
Got into mountain biking in 1987 when most of the Windsurfing magazines were promoting it as an alternative to windsurfing on windless days.
Bought my first one in 1987, a Marin Bear Valley, from Shockwave in Nottingham.
Got married, had two girls who fitted into the sports as if it was the norm.
Booked to go on a girlie week with Bike Verbier in 2003, think it was advertised on here, and that was me well and truly hooked, windsurfing took a back seat after that.
Never lost the buzz of the downhills and luckily the girls get the same buzz.
I dread to think as a family of four how much we have spent on it but worth every penny and got to meet some great people out on the beaches, waves and trails over the 30+ years.

Cycled since the age of 6.
Ice skating as a child
Horse riding,from childhood into my 20s
Skiing – still
Mtbiking – still
Swimming – still (but don’t enjoy it)
Latin and ballroom dancing – still
Tandem road riding – still

“I used to be sporting legend,then I took an arrow in the knee”