Glossary of Sports Record Terms

47 terms used across our rankings and guides, defined in plain language.

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Altitude assistance: The reduction in air resistance at high elevation, which can help sprinters and jumpers. It is permitted under the rules; the long jump at the 1968 Mexico City Games is the best-known example.
Amateur era: The period before 1968 in tennis when the major tournaments were open only to amateur players, excluding the professionals who toured separately.
Anemometer: The instrument that measures wind speed beside a track or a jump runway. Its reading decides whether a sprint or jump can count as a record.
Annulment: The removal of a result from the official record, usually after a doping sanction or a finding that rules were broken. Medals and records may be reallocated as a result.
Assist: A pass that directly leads to a score by a teammate. The exact definition varies by sport and by league scorers' conventions.

Batting average: In baseball, hits divided by official at-bats. It is a rate statistic, unlike career hits, which is a total.

Calendar-year Grand Slam: Winning all four tennis majors in the same calendar year. Don Budge (1938), Maureen Connolly (1953), Rod Laver (1962 and 1969), Margaret Court (1970) and Steffi Graf (1988) have done it in singles.
Career Grand Slam: Winning each of the four tennis majors at least once over a career, not necessarily in the same year.
Career total: A cumulative statistic added up over an entire career, such as points, hits or goals. It rewards longevity as well as ability.
Constructors' championship: The Formula 1 title awarded to the team whose cars score the most points over a season. It has been awarded since 1958.
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS): The international body that hears appeals in sports disputes, including doping sanctions that can alter medal tables and records.

Doping control: The testing process in which an athlete provides a sample that is analysed for prohibited substances. A world record normally requires a doping test to be passed.

Electronic timing: Timing by a system triggered by the start signal and stopped by a photo-finish camera or touchpad, accurate to a hundredth of a second or better.

False start: Leaving the blocks before the starting signal can be reasonably reacted to. In international athletics, a reaction under 0.100 seconds after the gun is judged a false start.

Hand timing: Timing by stopwatch. Because of human reaction time, hand-timed marks are generally faster than the true time, so they are kept apart from electronic marks.
Heats: Preliminary rounds that determine which competitors advance to the semi-finals or final.

Indoor record: A mark set in an indoor venue. Indoor and outdoor marks are kept on separate lists in athletics.
Intercalated Games: The 1906 Athens Games, held between the regular Olympics. The IOC does not count them as official Olympic Games.

Last verified: On this site, the date an editor last checked every entry on a ranking against the official source.
League record: A statistical record recognised by a professional league, such as the NBA or MLB, based on its own official scoring.
Long course: Swimming in a 50-metre pool, the length used at the Olympic Games. Records in 25-metre short-course pools are kept separately.

Major: One of a sport's most prestigious annual championships: the four Grand Slams in tennis, the four men's majors in golf.
Marathon: A road race over 42.195 kilometres (26 miles 385 yards), the distance fixed at the 1908 London Olympic Games and standardised in 1921.
Metric value: The numeric form of a record used for sorting and charts, for example 9.58 for a time of 9.58 seconds.

Olympic record: The best mark ever achieved at an Olympic Games in an event. It is separate from, and can be different from, the world record.
Open Era: The period since 1968, when professionals were allowed to compete in tennis's major tournaments alongside amateurs.

Pacemaker: A runner who sets the pace for others in a distance race, usually leaving before the finish. Rules govern when pacers may be used for a record to count.
Personal best: An athlete's own fastest, longest or highest mark, abbreviated PB. It is not the same as a national or world record.
Progression: The sequence of successive world records in an event, listed by date. A progression shows how a record has improved over time.

Ratification: The formal approval of a mark as a record by the governing body after reviewing the documentation of the performance.
Reaction time: The time between the starting gun and an athlete's first movement against the blocks. It is included in the official time in sprint races.
Regular season: The scheduled league games before the playoffs. Many career statistics lists count regular-season games only.
Relay: A team event in which each athlete covers a leg. Medals are awarded to the whole team, including those who only ran in the heats where the rules allow.
Retrospective testing: Re-analysis of stored doping samples with newer methods, sometimes years after the competition, which can lead to results being changed.

Short course: Swimming in a 25-metre pool. Records are kept separately from those in 50-metre pools.
Sorting criterion: The rule that determines the order of a ranking, such as fastest time or highest career total.
Split: A time taken at an intermediate point of a race, for example at 50 metres in a 100-metre swim.
Super shoe: An informal name for carbon-plated running shoes with thick, resilient foam, introduced in the late 2010s and later subject to rule limits.

Tie: A situation in which two or more entries have identical figures. This site shows ties as such and does not invent a tiebreaker.
Triple jump: A field event consisting of a hop, a step and a jump, with the distance measured from the take-off board to the landing mark.

Wind-assisted: A sprint or jump performed with an average following wind above 2.0 metres per second. It may be the fastest ever run but cannot be ratified as a record.
World-leading: The best mark of the current year or season. It does not mean the mark is a world record.
World Aquatics: The international governing body for swimming, diving, water polo and other aquatic sports. Formerly FINA.
World Athletics: The international governing body for track and field and road running. Formerly the IAAF.
World best: The best performance in an event where no official world record is kept, or an unratified mark that is faster than the record.
World record: The best mark in an event that has been ratified by the sport's international governing body.

For longer explanations, see our guides.